- Directed by: Patrick Tatopoulos
- Written by: Danny McBride, Dirk Blackman, Howard McCain
- Stars: Rhona Mitra, Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dUgVLvYSe4
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is a prequel to the first two movies, showing the origin of the lycans and the start of their war with the vampires. Some of the cast returns because their characters are hundreds of years old. It’s full of loads of action with the horror aspects on the back burner – in fact there’s only one scene that has any humans in it. The mix of CGI and practical effects gets the job done, and the story is interesting, filling in gaps in our knowledge about the Underworld universe. It entertained us both.
Spoilery Synopsis
It’s twenty years since the creation of both vampires and werewolves, and the war had already begun. The werewolves were simply vicious monsters. Lucian was born, the first lycan who could turn into a human form; Viktor wanted to kill him, but spared him for some reason. He bred more lycans and started using them as servants and slaves. Credits roll.
We watch a scene where Sonja runs from three wolves and Lucian shoots them. Viktor is impressed, but he sees that Lucian likes Sonja, his daughter, and that displeases him.
Colomon complains to Viktor that the werewolves are killing the local humans, and they need the humans for many reasons.
Meanwhile, Lucian sneaks into Sonja’s room, and they have some sexy-time. They’ve been doing this for a while, and he expresses his plan to escape slavery and help his people, but he wants her to go with him. The vampire Tannis sees them together, but he doesn’t say anything to Viktor… yet.
The human nobles approach the castle for a scheduled visit. Sonja and the others ride out to escort them in and prevent any werewolf attacks.
Lucian senses that there are too many and rides out to help, which is forbidden. He saves Sonja, but then releases himself from the slace collar and reveals himself to the other wolves, who all pay attention and back off. Viktor is not amused and orders that Lucien be punished.
In prison, Lucian explains the difference between the mindless werewolves and the partly-human lycans to Raze, another prisoner. The other prisoners, all humans, are impressed with his attitude.
More human nobles show up, this time, with large chests of money. He says their mines have been overrun with monsters and blames Viktor.
Sonja comes to Lucien and tells him that her father plans to kill him in the morning, so he needs to escape tonight. Tannis, promised a seat on the council, slips Lucien a key.
Raze and the other humans are led to Viktor, who forces them all to be bitten by a lycans. Viktor wants to use them as soldiers, but most choose to go with Lucien instead. There’s a massive jailbreak of all the slaves.
Lucien sends Raze to gather human volunteers while he goes to the main werewolf den.
Viktor confronts Sonja about hooking up with Lucian, which she denies. So Viktor takes a quick nip of blood from her neck, and it gives him visions of exactly what she’s been up to. He is not pleased.
Lucien wants to break back into the castle to rescue Sonja. He gets in easily, but they have to fight their way out. During the fight, Sonja reveals to Viktor that she’s pregnant with Lucien’s child, and that makes Viktor even less pleased than before, if that’s at all possible. They soon find themselves back in cells.
Sonja goes on trial for treason and interspecies crimes. The council votes for death, but it’s up to Viktor, who agrees. Lucien is whipped repeatedly as Sonja watches and then Sonja is exposed to sunlight and dissolves.
Viktor comes in to assess the situation, and Lucien wolfs out and escapes again. In his wolf form, he’s pretty much unstoppable, but they fill him full of arrows.
Raze and the others assault the castle, and there are hundreds of them. They break in and kill just about all the other vampires and release the rest of the slaves as well. Of course, it all boils down to Viktor versus Lucien in a sword fight. Viktor ends up with a sword through the head.
Lucien goes outside to Raze and the rest of his people, saying “This is just the beginning.”
We then cut to Viktor on a ship with Tannis being put into sleep for another hundred years. We get a quick recap of Selene’s story that we’ve seen before.
Brian’s Commentary
How does Michael Sheen, Lucian, look younger here than he did in the first film, eight years previous? Bill Nighy must have spent weeks getting his face un-scowly after all the grouchiness. We were twenty minutes in before Kevin realized that Rhona Mitra wasn’t actually Kate Beckinsale.
It’s the prequel we didn’t need of a story that we actually already saw in flashbacks in previous films, only stretched out to feature length. Still, it’s an excuse to bring back cool characters that died in the earlier films, so there’s that going for it.
Kevin’s Commentary
This might be Bill Nighy’s surliest role.
That’s totally not Kate Beckinsale, though I had to keep convincing myself of that throughout because Rhona Mitra resembles her so much here. In fact, it’s said that Rhona was originally up as a possibility for the Selene role in Underworld, which led to her getting the role in this. It was a plus that they resemble each other so much, satisfying a plot point.
Brian asked a good question – How are there any humans left in this land at this time? Between lots of vampires needing blood and the lycans eating human meat, there would be a huge local body count.
It’s not a happy movie, though we knew how it was going to end ahead of time after seeing the previous two movies. But it is very well made and entertaining. I liked it a lot.
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