.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

A prequel in the so-so popular Underworld series, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans tells the back story of how the werewolves and vampires all got along back in the Dark Ages.

Still commander and chief of the vampire sect, Bill Nighy returns for the third time as Viktor - the vampire aristocrat who was ultimately responsible for the feud between the vampires and the enslaves Lycans. Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon) plays Lucian, the werewolf who is in love and cahoots with Viktor's daughter Sonja (Rhona Mitra). When Viktor finds out that Sonja have been prancing around together, he sets out to destroy them both.

Basically, it's your average boy loves girl - girl has fangs, - boy has fur, - father has fangs and temper - dogs, fangs and fathers fight to the death. A love story saturated in CGI blood.

The original two Underworlds starring Kate Beckinsale were moderate hits that grew in popularity when they hit DVD shelves. They were dark and intelligent movies. Well, intelligent for these types of films anyways. Either way, they were far better than this piece of Lycan poop.

The most obvious of fingers to point would be at director Patrick Tatopoulos who took over the helming duties from Len Wiseman (Underworld I & II). Patrick came from more of a special effects and makeup department and taking over the franchise as his first real big directing assignment. Yet for someone with this type of resume, it is the effects and the art direction that really let the film down. Tatopoulos likes to give us sweeping shots of the camera going down hallways or with exterior shots of castles and landscape, but his use of this format was tiresome and boring. Add to it that most of the scenes were shot so dark that you can hardly tell what the hell was going on and you have a recipe for a forgettable film that was unnecessary to make in the first place - were there really bags of letters being sent to the studio clamoring for an Underworld origins story?

But for those of you who were always wondering about how the Lycan's secured their freedom, here is a rental that you can be sure will always be available when it hits DVD shelves in 3 weeks.