Review of film: “UNDERWORLD [3]: RISE OF THE LYCANS” + DVD SPECIAL FEATURES

2010, 02-01;  Review done 2-8-10:

Review of film:  “UNDERWORLD [3]:  RISE OF THE LYCANS”  + DVD SPECIAL FEATURES

Director:

Patrick Tatopoulos

Writer:

Danny McBride                   (screenplay) and

Dirk Blackman                     (screenplay) &

Howard McCain                  (screenplay)

Len Wiseman                      (story) &

Robert Orr                 (story) and

Danny McBride                   (story)

Kevin Grevioux                   (characters) and

Len Wiseman                      (characters) &

Danny McBride                   (characters)

Starring:

Michael Sheen

Bill Nighy

Rhona Mitra

Steven Mackintosh

Kevin Grevioux

David Aston

Geraldine Brophy

Leighton Cardno

Alex Carroll

Elizabeth Hawthorne

Jared Turner

Jason Hood

Mark Mitchinson

MPAA Rating:

R for bloody violence and some sexuality.

Quotes:

“You have stung me, Lycan.”

“You gave me chains.”

“This could stir up the others.”

“They obeyed you.”

“We can be slaves, or we can be LYCANS!”

“You can run & hide, or you can stay and fight.”

“I will not let her die alone!”

“She has consorted with animals…  and co-mingled bloodlines.!

 “It is finished.”  --  “No--  this is just the BEGINNING!…”

MY Rating:

7.5 of 10 stars (based on watching the DVD of the 92-minute film).

FREEDOM for the “Downtrodden” Immortals?!…

A new WEREWOLF movie (“THE WOLFMAN”) is about to be released on a “suspecting” world as of February 12^th (2010).  I thought this would be a good time to review the LAST movie about werewolves (namely, this one), released in 2009…

…  “RISE OF THE LYCANS” is the 3^rd in the “Underworld” series (based on characters from Len Wiseman & Kevin Grevioux & Danny McBride), & is actually a PREQUEL to the first two…  It’s designed to provide the ORIGINS for the feud between the Vampires (an aristocratic group called the “Death Dealers”) and the Lycans (who were their onetime slaves):

…  Viktor (BILL NIGHY) is the vicious King of the Vampire group…  As this film starts out, a human woman (who’s killed by Viktor) has given birth to a half-human / half-werewolf son named Lucien (eventually played by MICHAEL SHEEN)…

…  Although he was tempted to kill the son, Viktor lets him live, since he realized he had a rare STRENGTH & FORCE that other creatures didn’t have.  Lucien became the FIRST of the “Lycan” race, forced to feed on humans, & Viktor used his genes to create OTHER “½ & ½” Lycans he could control as slaves…

…  At one point, Viktor’s daughter Sonja (RHONA MITRA) fights a group of werewolves, although he doesn’t want her to risk her life (which at one point is saved by LUCIEN who’s intervened in the fighting)…  The other Vampire nobles want Viktor to create a “privileged” class of Lycans they can utilize as their personal slaves… 

…  Sonja is seen talking privately to Lucien, who she clearly is “TAKEN” with, & urges him to NOT use a key he’s made to try to escape being jailed by her father…  He fears his werewolf friends will be MASSACRED by Viktor’s troops, & changes himself INTO a huge werewolf to try to help his friends…  He’s shot by the guards, & she removes the metal from his body, saying his efforts saved HER life…

…  Viktor is angered by Sonja’s attitude towards Lucien, complains about his having removed his shackles, angrily speaks to Lucien after ordering various “rebel” bodies to be burned, & orders his right-hand assistant Tannis (STEVEN MACKINTOSH) to whip him for trying to escape (which he does with relish)…

…  Lucien is soon carried away to another jail area.  When Sonja tries to plead for better treatment for him, Viktor said Lucien was forbidden to remove the collar shackle that’d been placed on him, & she complains about the way he’d been treated…

…  In the jail cell, Lucien talks at some length to a huge black slave named Raze (KEVIN GREVIOUX), & Raze comments that he’d only heard of his “type” (of Lycan) in “stories”.  Raze expresses amazement at how the werewolves behaved around Lucien:  they were “pure” blooded types, & “They OBEYED you!”  “Yes, they did…”

...  Around this time, Sonja secretly visits Lucien…  As that’s happening, a man named Yanos tells Viktor that the workers in the silver mine have been “infected” & turned into werewolf-type “BEASTS” & a Baron was killed…  When Yanos complains to Viktor that he’s “bled” him dry with demands for tribute payments, Viktor gets angry at the complaint, warns him, “Better the ‘devil’ you KNOW--!”, & promptly kills him…

…  Lucien is upset with the subservient attitude of the slaves, tells them they shouldn’t cower in fear around Viktor’s guards, & reminds them how he himself has PROTECTED them in the past.  To encourage them, he says, “We’re not animals…  We can be slaves, or we can be LYCANS!”…

…  Viktor wants to attack someone else…  As he’s dealing with that, Sonja slips away to the jail area to try to help Lucien ESCAPE again…  Raze eventually tells Lucien he himself DOESN’T want to serve Viktor any more, & promises to join Lucien in a planned ESCAPE attempt… 

…  They soon work to MAKE that escape, freeing lots of other slaves in the process--  but only Lucien, Raze & a small number of others actually get away, with the guards killing or capturing the others with crossbows & spears and the like…

…  Lucien tries to promise some of his associates “immortality” if they’ll stay & fight Viktor’s group, & sends Raze to try to get help from some “OTHER states”…  Meanwhile, Lucien sets off to try to get help from the werewolves…

…  Viktor is increasingly upset with Sonja, asking her about Lucien, “Did you HELP him escape?”  “Of course not…”  He doesn’t believe her at all, starts to beat her (yelling “You have BETRAYED me!”), & tells his guards she’s not to leave the room…

…  When an associate tells Lucien he doesn’t trust Sonja, Lucien makes clear he doesn’t agree, saying she’d HELPED him escape from Viktor, & he wanted to RETURN to the Vampire lair for her…

…  When the Vampire nobles tell Viktor that Lucien & the slaves have stolen items from them, Viktor reassures them they needn’t worry, he has things under control, since he expects Lucien will RETURN to their lair to try to help Sonja…

…  “Strangely” enough, Lucien tells his people that he’s going to SAVE Sonja, & the slaves can either come with him or stay behind…  In short order, Lucien FINDS Sonja in the jail, gets her out of her cell area--  but Viktor’s guards follow them, & Viktor has his people send FIRE down into the tunnels to try to kill Lucien & Sonja… 

… Strongly fighting the guards, the “rebels” seem to get away--  but are “cornered” again…  Brandishing a sword, Sonja starts to FIGHT with her father Viktor, as Lucien is taken into custody by the guards…  She tells Viktor that she’s PREGNANT by Lucien…

…  Will Viktor respond “positively” to Sonja’s news? (--  Don’t bet on it!)…  There are a number of other FIGHTS between the various groups & “stars”…  Will Lucien or Viktor prove triumphant?…

…  Since this prequel was designed to provide a “LEAD-IN” to the first film in the series, you “know” that there’s a lot of “GROUND” to cover (& to be used AS “cover”) in the subsequent stories…

…  The film actually exhibits a surprising degree of QUALITY in its acting and finely “atmospheric” sets and “dark” storytelling (altho there’s a fair degree of blood & “guts” at times)…  As such “monster” movies go, this is a WELL-done example…

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SPECIAL FEATURES on the DVD

There are a number of Special Features to be found on the DVD.  One of them is “ORIGIN OF THE FEUD”:

…  Numerous people involved in creating the film speak on this 20-minute feature.  The original (first two) films talked about Lucien’s love of Sonja, & this one efficiently explains the START of the war between the Vampires & the others (werewolves, Lycans & slaves).  One person described the romance as sort of in the “Romeo and Juliet” tradition, & how love gets in the WAY of Lucien’s trying to escape…

…  This film deals with how FAR Viktor will go to try to STOP what his daughter Sonja will do…  Bill Nighy addressed the subject of how Viktor (his character) would naturally be DISTURBED by any “co-mingling” between the species, & the fact she consorts with their mortal enemy the werewolves is “the WORST” of all possible scenarios in his eyes…

…  “Management” types talk about how Lucien becomes the leader of the Lycans, who were slaves invented by Viktor to serve the Vampires.  Also, it’s felt that Lucien wants to cause the Lycans (he “sired”) to NOT be so animal-like.  They feel this film shows werewolves may have more in COMMON with Lucien than the Vampires…

…  It was pointed out that, in the first film, both Viktor & Lucien supposedly “DIED”, & that film tended to make you feel Lucien was really the “BAD” guy in the story--  & thus this film gives a whole new “view” of the real situation…

…  It’s pointed out how Michael Sheen --  originally a theater actor -- came to this film directly from the far-different “FROST / NIXON” film, & how he worked-out incredibly hard to “buff-up” for this role of Lucien.  By the end of the film, it’s clear that his character has both gained and lost many elements, leaving him in sort of a “melancholy” state towards the end…

…  The producer & director talk about Bill Nighy.  They feel he’s great at showing that “Vampires are COOL”, & that he has real “rank” among the Vampires.  In their opinion, he’s deliciously effective in how he shows “a Vampire sipping blood in a SOPHISTICATED manner” (with a scene shown from the film exemplifying that fact)…  They feel this film shows Viktor “admires” and adores his daughter Sonja…

…  As to Sonja, compared to what you might expect from the first two films in the series, she’s “a DEPARTURE stylistically” in that “She’s NOT ‘cold’--” as you might expect…  The director comments on how character Raze was also brought “back” for this film, & Kevin was the perfect person to play the character (since Kevin himself had literally created him to be in-effect Lucien’s right-hand man)… 

…  They speak of the Tannis character who is Viktor’s assistant along with being his “eyes and ears”, altho he’s “terrified” of him overall…  They feel that this movie is “unlike anything else”, & Michael Sheen comments that he feels this 3^rd film shows the “scope” of “a quest for FREEDOM” by Lucien and his group…

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The Special Feature “RECREATING THE DARK AGES” tells about how they created the SETS for the film:

…  Director Patrick very much liked Art Director Brendan Heffeman as a person as soon as he met him, & Brendan spoke of how he enjoyed worked with a “really VISUAL” director like him… 

…  It was decided that they didn’t want a “Gothic” look to the film, preferring something older & more Romanesque…  They wanted things to look a bit like a “mausoleum”, with a bit of a Byzantine – Turkish feel to it all.  So, they used a general “look” from around the 11^th Century, with a lot of chiseled detail you might find around the Georgian (Republic) area south of Russia…

…  Overall, it was felt that the basic setting should be a general “UNDERGROUND” area, like a castle hewn out of rock, with what appeared to be “thousands” of corridors & lots of WIND whistling around…  They set things up so the Lycans lived in a “forest” area (with lots of moss around) outside of the castle…

…  Decisions were made to try to show the general “DECADENCE” of the lifestyle of the Vampires, with lots of “skulls” around gates, statues that look “tortured”, very low ceilings, and a lot of WETNESS all around…  The slaves & Lycans keep trying to escape thru corridors, & the designers use lots of green colors, with bits of reds & blues…

…  They created 2 different basic “looks” for the WEREWOLF costumes, & then created 500 or so of them [via CGI] for various scenes.  What’s especially “different” to them in this movie is the special way they “move” in their scenes, with CGI being used a lot in the “battle” scenes against Viktor’s people…

…  Overall, the Director found it was a real “treat”, the way all the design & other people [-- the Production designer was Dan Hennah -- ] always worked hard to give him their very BEST efforts thruout the filming…

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Another Special Feature is “FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN”:

…  Producer Wiseman and others speak of how the “biggest challenge” with this 3^rd film was getting the SCRIPT written, since it was shortly before the Writer’s union was scheduled to go on STRIKE.  Len (who’d directed the first 2 films) had recently finished directing “DIE HARD 4”, & preferred someone ELSE take the Director’s reins while he acted as Producer for it…

…  Thus, it was decided that Frenchman Patrick Tatopoulos be given the assignment, since he’d been so effective in planning the design of the various CREATURES & other elements in the first two films in the series…  In this 3^rd film, it was decided to help the audience see the world thru the eyes of the WEREWOLVES rather than the Vampires as in the previous ones:  “We get to see THEIR side of it…”

…  As to filming, they’d considered going to Romania as a setting.  But, it was to be filmed in winter, they had limited money to spend, & it was felt it’d be far better to film in NEW ZEALAND where it would be summer and cheaper to shoot… 

…  This film uses “80% more CGI” effects than in the previous two films…  Overall, it’s felt that this needed to be the “underpinning” for all their FUTURE stories…

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The DVD has a very informative and interesting “COMMENTARY” track, wherein producer Wiseman, Director Tatopoulos, & various other filmmakers join together to give their thoughts:

…  They were all pleased with how well the numerous FIGHT scenes were done…  One thing they’d do differently is, next time, they won’t build a set right next to railroad tracks, since that caused them loads of noise disturbances…

…  One of their main stars became available for this film only because the film he was working on was shut down due to a lack of money, & they were very happy to have his services…  Altho you see loads of crossbows in the film, there was really just one “working” model…

…  Some of the comments are “repeats” of what can be heard in other of the Features, such as how Michael Sheen “buffed-up” & did lots of physical training for this role…  As to the “sex” scene between Lucien & Sonja, it was felt it’d be best to delay filming it until the actors had time to get to “know” each other a bit…  The idea to have them making love around rocks was “a FRENCH thing” (per the French director)…

…  They all would’ve liked to give Steven Mackintosh a “larger” role, since he was so effective in what he did as Tannis…  They spoke of how it was decided that, with “40 pages” worth of outdoor shooting required, it’d be far better to do that in the New Zealand summertime than the Romanian winter as originally planned… 

…  At least two different companies worked on their CGI effects, and there was around 400 CGI shots used in the film…  They felt very lucky to have been able to get Bill Nighy for the film (& later commented on how the contact lenses he & others had to use, kept falling out)…  And they shot the film on Genesis camera equipment…

…  They were pleased that things they shot turned out even better than expected, & seeing “dailies” of that encouraged their backers to provide them with more MONEY for completing the film… 

…  They’d shot the original “back story” of the first film in just 1 day, & that tight shooting schedule caused them to use a blonde-haired woman as Sonja rather than switch to a dark-haired lady that they would’ve preferred… 

…  They liked the “death” scene” in this new film so much, the producers would like to someday transfer a COPY of that into the FIRST film in the series, to give the audience a better explanation of the overall story…  They spoke of how the series uses truly original characters that were first created [as a sort of “graphic novel”] by Ken & Kevin…

…  Due to the then-upcoming Writer’s strike, they had to turn a “draft” copy into a “shooting” script in just 30 days (which was hard to do)…  There’s talk of possible FUTURE sequels they’d like to do [since, “We really CARE about the series.”]… 

…  Originally, the producers were “leery” about Patrick’s idea to shoot a lot of scenes in the RAIN--  but, when they saw examples of how “great” they looked, they LOVED the idea & were very happy they were done that way…

…  Comments were made about how English actors are clearly more “comfortable” with doing sword-fighting scenes…  It was revealed that Kevin did a running scene even tho he was suffering from a pulled muscle…  They felt the scenes of werewolves scaling the walls & entering the castle came out “great”, tho some of the creatures act very “violently”… 

…  The filmmakers were especially pleased with how well this prequel (3^rd) film turned out as an “entry” to what happens in the first film in the series, especially regarding Sonja’s “purpose”…  

…  All-in- all, they’ve now spent “8 years” in working on the series (shooting in Budapest, Vancouver and New Zealand), with producer Ken having met director Patrick way back in 1993 when Patrick worked on “STARGATE”…

…  And, they thanked Ross Emery for his fine work in SHOOTING this new film…

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