That the latest vampire flick to hit theatres depicts the oversexed nosferatu waging war with werewolves should come as no surprise. Charlaine Harris’ ribald southern-goth series commonly called “The Southern Vampire Series” depicts a number of supernatural guilds in complicated political conflict with one another. And since I’m not a teenaged girl, I haven’t read Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight books, so I can’t say with certainty that her vampires fight four-legged foes, but I wouldn’t doubt it.
We can actually trace this conflict back to Bram Stoker. It’s likely that in the years he spent researching his immortal novel Dracula, he realized the words vampire and werewolf derive from the same root (remember, not only does Dracula control wolves, he becomes one himself.) While these creatures share etymological origins, they share biological ones in “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans,” the third installment of the franchise and probably the best.
Though “Rise of the Lycans,” a prequel to 2003’s “Underworld,” sets out to explain the origins of the blood feud between the two camps, it pays slightly less attention to the mythology of this franchise than does the first film (the second attempts to delve into it, but it’s not worth watching). It started with a being named Corvinus, the world’s first immortal, who sired two sons: one bitten by bat, the other by wolf, thus spawning the two races. But there’s nothing “were” about these wolves as they have no human form. Actually, there’s not much lupine about them either. They look more like what you’d arrive at if you take a grizzly bear and give it longer arms, pointy ears, and a membership to Gold’s Gym. At some point, one of these things gives birth to a human baby; though, the expository voiceover never really explains how that happened. The vampire overlord, Victor (Bill Nighy) takes a liking to the fleshling and decides to breed more like him, which is how we end up with people who transform under a full moon.
The movie plays out an archetypal story as the young lycanthrope, Lucian (Michael Sheen), becomes something like the Prince of Egypt. Moses grew up in pharaoh’s house while his people worked as slaves. Same thing with Lucian, whom Victor looks upon as a favorite pet while the rest of the lycans serve as labor and day guardians for vampires. Considering that vampires even need a day guardian, you’d figure the lycans would-I don’t know-stage a rebellion during the day.
Maybe it matters not, considering the movie’s careless handling of time. Viewer’s will more than once find themselves asking “Is it daytime/nighttime already?” This is because the full moon happens to rise when Lucian most needs to transform, and the sun just happens to come out during his final battle with Victor. The celestial orbs are set props used slapdash for the plot’s convenience. And of course because we all know Victor needs to appear in Underworld 1, Lucian, rather than kill him, wounds him and throws him into a pool of dirty water. Yeah. He thinks vampires can drown.
They can be maimed, however. Every film or literary treatment of vampires and werewolves cranks out ad nauseum rules governing what they can and cannot do and what destroys them (sunlight, crucifixes, silver bullets), and they invariably alter the rules to be original. The “Underworld” franchise seems to revel in reminding us that immortal doesn’t mean indestructible. Vampires can be torn to shreds with tooth and claw and werewolves can be killed by sword and arrow.
This movie also pays less attention to the politics of undead than its forebearers. Under Victor, is a lower-ranking vampire named Tannis, whose self-interest is palpable enough and his conspiracy sloppy enough to make him a junior-vartisy Machiavelle. Nighy, meanwhile, has a blast yelling at everyone in sight. The caliber of actor and type of movie invite comparisons to Ben Kingsley appearing in the ferociously fecal BloodRayne. Yes, actors have to work, but Nighy enjoys fun roles. He doesn’t take himself too seriously. Critics should try it.
While too flawed and formulaic to elevate the fantasy action genre in the manner of Guillermo Del Toro’s “Hellboy” movies, “Rise of the Lycans” provides a needed junk-food alternative to the buffet of award-nominated films in theatres this time of year.
“Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” is rated R and currently playing at Hollywood Theatres and Cinemark Mall del Norte.