Review: Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans

The Info Bit
Genre: Action/Fantasy
Starring: Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy, Rhona Mitra
Director: Patrick Tatopoulos
Run Time: 1hr 30mins
Rating: 18
Year: 2009
Production Company: Lakeshore Entertainment


The Underworld films are a strange series of films, consistently condemned by much of the media but loved by many moviegoers (in fact I don’t think I know anyone who really hates the Underworld films). This, if you will, ‘cult’ status has now successfully spawned two sequels and it’s the third one I’ll be writing about now.

The film follows the story of a young boy called Lucian (played by Michael Sheen) who just happens to be a lycan (aka werewolf) who can control when he changes. Quite why he can do this is never properly explained for my liking but it doesn’t really detract from the films story so it’s a minor complaint. After seeing him grow up a bit we get into the story proper where you find he and all the lycans are slaves to the vampires ruled by Viktor (Bill Nighy’s character). Basically it’s a simple plot, werewolves not happy being slaves, they revolt, romantic subplot of werewolf loving vampire and the war starts.

As with many films like this CGI is pretty frequent, some good and some truly awful but it doesn’t make it any less watchable and there is enough action to keep the viewer going. If I’m honest they story, although interesting to a point, really doesn’t matter with a film like this and I just kept getting more interested in the fight sequences (which are well choreographed) than any of the story points.

The extras on the DVD are well, normal, you have the directors commentary (Although I will put this question out now…who actually cares with a film like this about the directors commentary???), two making of sections (which are from Script to Screen and Re-Creating the Dark Ages) and last but not least a music video.

There really isn’t a lot more to say about this film, if you like your fantasy vampire action flicks then you’ll enjoy it, if you like action in general you’ll probably like it and if you like films with a great moral message and lots of complex issues dealt with in the story then I have this advice….STAY AWAY FROM THIS FILM.

Stars out of Five: 3