Vampires and Werewolves continue to duke it out for a third time in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.
This is a prequel that attempts to explain the beginnings of the feud between the undead and the furry. Because, you know, that would be such riveting information.
The movie begins with ubervampire Viktor (Bill Nighy in too much blush-on) deciding not to kill the semi-human infant offspring of some heinous werewolf. The child looks human, and that's a first for the vicious beasts Viktor keeps as slaves.
The werewolf baby he spares grows up to be Lucian (Michael Sheen), first of the Lycans. He lives in the vampire castle as a sort of favoured servant and dog's body. A special slave collar prevents him from morphing into a werewolf.
It turns out Lucian and the vampire boss' daughter, Sonja (Rhona Mitra), have fallen in love, and that's the biggest no-no in the land. Lucian's love protects Sonja, however, because despite his own origins, he is adept at killing the slavering werewolves who live just outside the castle walls. More than once, he saves Sonja from their snapping jaws and their goofy CG looks and behaviour.
On one occasion, Sonja is overwhelmed by werewolves, and Lucian can only save her by taking off his slave collar and morphing into a werewolf himself. For that, he is thrown into prison by Viktor.
In prison, Lucian convinces the other household slaves to embrace their Lycan side and let him lead them.
Then he and Sonja vow to run away together. After that, the vampires and the werewolves have to pound the crap out of each other. There's a lot of swordplay, with slashing and opened arteries and such, and in other fight scenes thick arrows from massive bows go right through people's heads. That makes a rather unpleasant gooshing sound.
If you could actually see anything, it would likely be quite ghastly -- but you can't see a thing because, of course, vampires cannot be exposed to the light. So there isn't any. This gloom, used in conjunction with frenetic editing, ensures that you can't see what's going on in the intense action scenes, either. (That's probably a good thing, because the werewolves don't look very scary. They roar their terrible roars, and gnash their terrible teeth and roll their terrible eyes and show their terrible claws. Snore.)
In fact, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is so dark at all times and so generally dull to boot that the biggest fight of all is the viewer's struggle to stay awake.
Despite the material, both Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy seem to be having a ball with their roles. Nighy gets to spit out ludicrous dialogue and show oversized canine teeth; Sheen gets to morph into a big, hairy werewolf and bite people in half. Looks like fun, really.
Not so much for the audience, though.
(This film is rated 18-A)
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