Review of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) by Eyeresist — 25 Jan 2009

The critics seems to be mindlessly repeating the received wisdom, as they usually do. Pity the fool who ranks the lamentable Underworld Evolution over this film! I went in to this film expecting trash, but was pleasantly surprised at every turn.

Performances are uniformly solid (I thought the much-praised Sheen was actually one of the less interesting performances here). Bill Nighy seems much more committed to his part than previously, perhaps because he had a lot more to do here.

The faux-classical dialogue was surprisingly solid, and from the mouth of Nighy sounded almost like Shakespeare (or at least Marlowe)! The story had an grimly hermetic feel, to match the claustrophobic sets, which accounts for the feeling of dark inevitability more than any accusations of "predictability" (of course a prequel will be "predictable").

Apart from fans of fantasy, horror and action, this film will appeal to anyone looking for a story elemental in structure and pitch black in tone. (There is only one cringe-worthy moment, which you will spot at the end of the sex scene).