As some fantasy series progress, they get nerdier and more insular.
Granted, Underworld was never cool, but now it’s reduced to
Masterpiece Theatre vampires looking anguished and repressed
werewolves giving Braveheart speeches. Though the prequel
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is goofy, I don’t think there’s
an intended joke in the whole thing. Breaching inter-species romance,
vampire Sonja (Rhona Mitra) joins lycan Lucian (Michael Sheen) for
cinema’s most melodramatic conservative sex scene. The sterile blue
look of the Underworld series is responsible for the awful trend
of colour-drained action movies. At least Mitra’s tougher features make
her a more credible action hero than series regular Kate Beckinsale.
But the Romeo and Juliet parallel and the slavery metaphor in
Sonja’s effort to rescue lycans from vampires is ham-handed in a movie
so plain no one will care about its mythos.
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2009.