Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

Only the most rabid Underworld fan will be lycan this third part of what is threatening to become an on-going franchise.

On paper the belated follow-up to 2006's Underworld: Evolution looks fine. 

Vampires scrapping werewolves?  Check.  Medieval castles and cruel weaponary?  Double check.  Three per cent body fat warrior babe Rhona Mitra filling in for Kate Beckinsale who's gone all serious with Nothing But The Truth?  Check again.  

But, a script credited to five writers is lumbered with concrete boots of interminable exposition, explaining how the first two movies' vampire/werewolf war came in to being. 

Anyone tempted by the 18 certificate be warned: this is a gorier than usual episode of Xena and nothing more.   

Tired of seeing his fellow lycans (human/werewolf half-breeds) abused at the hands of his vampire masters, the heroic Lucian stages an insurrection, busting them out of the vampires' castle keep into nearby woods.  

But, when the vampire king discovers his daughter Sonja has been making the beast with the big bad wolf, he uses her as bait to lure Lucian back for a climactic battle within the fortress' walls. 

Presumably a three -picture clause in his contract got the currently white-hot Sheen to return to this shaggy dog franchise.  

But, admirably giving his all as Lucian, he draws on his two previous performances as Tony Blair to portray an idealistic leader who embraces war for what he sees as the greater good.

Nighy serves up another thick slice of bloody ham as the vampire king, over-enunciating his dialogue like English is a second language, but injecting much needed life into the dreary story.

Wasted though is Mitra, who barely gets a look-in when the action kicks off, whose dialogue is (wisely) kept to a minimum, and who is criminally not garbed in the fetish wear that immeasurably improved Beckinsale's performances in the first two movies.

Special effects supremo turned director Patrick Tatopoulos stages a couple of decent battle scenes - a lycan jailbreak through narrow corridors with massive spears fired into the fleeing prisoners, the climactic storming of the battlements - but is hamstrung by an imagination larger than his budget.  

Ultimately, this resembles early 80s fantasy flicks such as Hawk the Slayer and Beastmaster, in which an initial flurry of action gave way to an hour's swaggering from actors who should know better before a free-for-all action pile-in. 

An epilogue promises at least one more movie.  Guys, really, fangs but no fangs...

Rob Daniel