ard

Rise of the Lycans surprisingly good

By Chloé Bach, Arts Editor

Underworld series was released on

the big screen; in 2006 its sequel,
Underworld, Evolution was released,
and admittedly, I saw neither at the time
because, well, they looked straight-up
shitty. There are so many campy vampire
flicks out there that I didn’t even bother.

That said, when I finally got around
to watching them this past year I was
pleasantly surprised. Sure, they’re no
Academy Award material but they’re
super entertaining and chock full of
attractive actors. What more could you
ask for?

And the latest prequel does not
disappoint. In fact, it exceeds its
predecessors.

On January 24", Underworld: Rise
of the Lycans hit theatres and grossed
almost $21 million, second only to that
stupid Mall Cop movie starring that
annoying fat guy (seriously people, what
the fuck is wrong with you? Paul Blart?
Number one?) The film stars the very

[I 2003, the first movie of the

accomplished Bill Nighy as Viktor and
Michael Sheen (who also plays David
Frost in Frost/Nixon) as Lucien as well as
the less-well-known Rhona Mitra (who
would be exceptionally better looking if
there was a way to extract the collagen
from her lips) as Viktor’s daughter, Sonja.
The film takes us back about 1,000
years before the initial Underworld
to tackle how this rivalry between the
vampires and the half-human werewolves
known as Lycans was spawned. The story

chronicles Lucien’s life, as the first Lycan,

from a crying baby, to a scrappy teen with
superior combat skills, to a hunky were-
man who spends the majority of the film
without a shirt.

The gist of the story is that Viktor,
one of the vampire coven’s founding
fathers, breeds Lucien (makes him bite
other humans) to create an army of
Lycans who will protect his castle from
the pure werewolves. Essentially, Viktor
treats the Lycans like slaves and forces
them to wear inward facing spiked collars
to prevent them from transforming into
their wolf forms. However, the film

 

 

 

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takes an exciting turn when Lucien starts
nailing Viktor’s daughter, Sonja, and
breaking some of the coven’s most basic
rules.

The graphics and fight scenes
that ensue are surprisingly well done
and at the very least, pretty damn
entertaining. As Lucien leads his fellow
Lycans in a rebellion, you'll see several
transformations between their hu man and
wolf forms that are substantially more
impressive than most other out-of-date
and even current movies featuring these
fantasy monsters. Even Twilight. Yes, I
said it. As dreamy as Ed Cullen is, the
special effects in that movie blew.

So, while you may not hear the
words Rise of the Lycans so much uttered
at the Oscars this year it’s an amusing,
action-packed film with a romantic twist
that will appeal to men as well as the s
fairer sex. This movie is a great way to by
spend a rainy Tuesday night, and so I
recommend you do just that.

Rhona Mitra as Sonja

 

 
   
       

Ty ee

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