Underworld: Rise of the Lycans was not something I had high on my radar, but there was one image that peaked my interest: Bill Nighy, one of the most curious and expressive and funny and spot-on dramatic character actors from Britain, sits on a throne with ice-blue contact lenses surrounded by darkness and looking as creepy as a vampire king can be. It's a terrific poster... and now having seen the movie, I wish it was just that. After two previous Underworld movies chronicling the battles and occasional love interests between Lycans (werewolves) and vampires (no other name used), the story goes backward to trace the rise of the Lycans (yes, the title says it all, don't it?) and how they escaped from vampire enslavement. Some may say it's as good, if not better, than the previous ones. I saw the first, barely remember it, skipped the second one, and now for the third it will likely fold back to the first one's recollection. This is boring as hell.
How to make such a blunt statement? I was on board with the idea, and even wanted to stick with the storyline involving ::gasp:: a doomed relationship between a Lycan (Sheen) whose life was spared by the vampire king Viktor (Nighy) with the king's daughter Sonja (Mitra, Beckinsale's quasi-replacement). But it doesn't help matters that the script has dialog that is spoken with a kind of one-dimensional hammed-up quality that not even Nighy, an actor of skill even under pounds of CGI and makeup in Pirates of the Caribbean, can get out of, nor Sheen with his widening eyes and Christ-like demeanor in ::again gasp:: leading his fellow lycans and full-on werewolves to rise up against their tormentors and blue-blooded vampire lords.
The director is a first-timer, which explains a good deal: Tatopoulis is a special effects man first and storyteller second, and even on the first count this isn't always very strong for the werewolves, with an exception here or there, look like crap with oil-slicked bodies and gnarling that goes by fast in the midst of quick cuts in action sequences. He does nothing to bring to the table anything in way of real originality as he's using the same flawed visual scheme in the previous films (white/blue tint of the color, lighting meant to not be dark but when light still looks washed-out) and just pumps up the volume of the gore to appease hardcore fans looking for something a little "extra" in their werewolf kills. In the meantime Nighy and Sheen are left in the actor wilderness, only one or two bits (i.e. Mitra and Sheen's sex-scene on the edge of the cliff) bring some unintentional chuckles, and by the time of writing these words mere hours after seeing the film I can't remember very much about it.
Perhaps I wasn't totally the fan to see this, which is less-than-2D characters going through the motions in a prototypical love-n-rebellion saga. But I wanted to be, and wished it didn't turn out so... lame.
How to make such a blunt statement? I was on board with the idea, and even wanted to stick with the storyline involving ::gasp:: a doomed relationship between a Lycan (Sheen) whose life was spared by the vampire king Viktor (Nighy) with the king's daughter Sonja (Mitra, Beckinsale's quasi-replacement). But it doesn't help matters that the script has dialog that is spoken with a kind of one-dimensional hammed-up quality that not even Nighy, an actor of skill even under pounds of CGI and makeup in Pirates of the Caribbean, can get out of, nor Sheen with his widening eyes and Christ-like demeanor in ::again gasp:: leading his fellow lycans and full-on werewolves to rise up against their tormentors and blue-blooded vampire lords.
The director is a first-timer, which explains a good deal: Tatopoulis is a special effects man first and storyteller second, and even on the first count this isn't always very strong for the werewolves, with an exception here or there, look like crap with oil-slicked bodies and gnarling that goes by fast in the midst of quick cuts in action sequences. He does nothing to bring to the table anything in way of real originality as he's using the same flawed visual scheme in the previous films (white/blue tint of the color, lighting meant to not be dark but when light still looks washed-out) and just pumps up the volume of the gore to appease hardcore fans looking for something a little "extra" in their werewolf kills. In the meantime Nighy and Sheen are left in the actor wilderness, only one or two bits (i.e. Mitra and Sheen's sex-scene on the edge of the cliff) bring some unintentional chuckles, and by the time of writing these words mere hours after seeing the film I can't remember very much about it.
Perhaps I wasn't totally the fan to see this, which is less-than-2D characters going through the motions in a prototypical love-n-rebellion saga. But I wanted to be, and wished it didn't turn out so... lame.