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Bookmark this pageUnderworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
Director: Patrick Tatopoulos
Movie review
From Time Out London
A pointless stand-alone prequel to Len Wiseman’s vampire/werewolf movies, ham-fistedly helmed by sfx creator turned first-time director Patrick Tatopoulos, who should hang on to his day job. The digital video images are blurry, the fight scenes messy, the editing jerky, and the derivative plot absurdly overwrought (‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Spartacus’?).A millennium before his death at the end of ‘Underworld’, Michael Sheen’s love-struck Lycan, Lucian falls for Sonja (slab-faced ‘Doomsday’ star Rhona Mitra), the rebellious daughter of vampire leader Viktor (Bill Nighy). If their illicit cross-species love affair is discovered, Sonja is toast, so the half-human Lucian embraces his suppressed blood-lust, unleashes his inner beast, and leads a Lycan slave revolt.
Set-bound and sluggish, this relies far too heavily on spasmodic bursts of bloodletting and variable CGI effects. If it is worth seeing at all, it is for the sterling contributions of its three leading British thesps: Nighy’s ham-on-wry imperiousness, Sheen’s straggle-haired ferocity, and Stephen Macintosh’s quietly effective turn as the sneakily ambitious archivist Tannis.
Author: Nigel Floyd
Time Out London Issue 2005, 22-28 Jan. 2009
User reviews of this film
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- Drake said...
- Posted on Jan 23 2009 17:24 Len Wiseman should have directed this film. The film felt rushed, Lucian was without his Viktor brand on his arm, Patrick Tatapolous should have stuck with designing the creature effects. He's no director
- Report as inappropriate
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- Rza32 said...
- Posted on Jan 23 2009 17:04 Doesn't Lucian die at the end of the 1st Underworld, not in Evolution as stated in the review?
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Patrick Tatopoulos
Cast: Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy, Rhona Mitra, Steven Mackintosh, Kevin Grevioux, David Ashton full cast
Duration: 93 mins
US Release: Jan 23 2009
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