Commentary with the director/producers/writers/cast members, various production featurettes, BD-Live content, previews, trailers, music videos, hair of the dog that bit you (just kidding on that one).

I suppose this is George Lucas’ fault. After the success of the “Star Wars” prequels (why did you people go to the theaters to see that dreck?), it inspired Hollywood to go on a binge and ingest the empty calories of story pitches about how every film that had a sequel deserved a prequel. The second film in the “Underworld” trilogy kind of closed off the story as a lot of characters died and/or achieved their destiny. What better way to cash in with a prequel where they can all be inexpensively resurrected for in pursuit of another dollar? ***

As much as I love over cooked cheesy horror movies, I can’t recommend the third film in the “Underworld” series. The first two were perfect guilty pleasure movies—they were well made flicks with imaginative touches including creating two whole cultures that were at war with each other-the vampire world and the werewolf world. They were perfect examples of modern B-movies. This boxed set features the first two films. The first is a guilty pleasure and an enjoyable romp and although not quite as imaginative, the second one has a larger scale making it essential for fans of the first film. ***

The first film in the series “Underworld” documents the war between vampires and werewolves. Selene (Kate Beckinsale) is a vampire terminator of sorts. When Kraven (Shane Brolly) who acts as ruler of the vampires while Viktor (Bill Nighy) hibernates sents out Selene to retrieve a human (Scott Speedman) being stalked by the werewolves, she uncovers a larger mystery that must be solved—why did the Lucian (Michael Sheen) a former slave of the vampire Viktor bite Michael and what does Kraven and Lucian want with a mere human? ***

As with the prequel this film takes the dramatic premise of just about any tale of star crossed lovers (“Romeo and Juliet” being the most notable template), throws in vampires, werewolves, action and gore to create an imaginative mishmash of other genre films (the film borrows its entire look from “The Matrix” movies). “Underworld” may be derivative but it’s what the writer and director do with the pieces that make this film fun to watch. It’s far from a great movie but does manage to be greatly entertaining. ***

There are only 36 dramatic situations (bad news the Greeks figured them all out long before Hollywood) and “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” borrows heavily from the doomed, star crossed lovers torn between two warring families (sound familiar? It’s “Romeo & Juliet” through the looking glass so-to-speak). “Lycans” manages to be as bare as a worn out throw rug…made of werewolf hide. ***

“Underworld: Evolution” continues the story of Selene and Michael. The two fell in love in the first movie and continue to be on the run as the vampire Marcus. Marcus like all bad guys in these type of films has delusions of grandeur and wants to free his brother William (who just happens to be a werewolf) from imprisonment so they can conquer the world together. As bright as Selene is you would think that at some point she’d stop shooting at the werewolves and vampires that she shoots at because the regular bullets only slow them down. Then again if she did that we wouldn’t have a movie full of violence and gore and without that there would be no movie. ***

“Underworld: Evolution” continues the moody look established by director Len Wiseman (who also co-wrote the film and returns again as director. He’s only a co-writer/producer on the prequel though). “Evolution” continues the guilty pleasure quotient with plenty of action sequences, moody cinematography and some nice CGI work. The sequel looks as if it has a smaller budget but the good news for Wiseman is that he was able to work out much of the CGI kinks in the first film so it doesn’t really diminish the visual effects in any noticeable way. ***

“Lycans” still looks moody and atmospheric but that’s used here to cover up the shortcomings of the film including a smaller budget than before. “Lycans” can’t compare to the first two feature films in the series which were cheese but they were entertaining cheese. This is just kind of gooey and lumpy with a bad after taste. Without co-writer/director Wiseman at the helm, you can smell the first blood from this beast of a movie and it smells like a cheap cash in. Still, “Lycans” does have its moments. Unfortunately, Kate Beckinsale doesn’t appear in this movie (it is set before her character of Selene was born)but she is ably replaced by Rhoma Mitra (who looks like Beckinsale a bit)as a new character. We do get characters returning that were killed in the second and first film in the series (which is the advantage of a prequel—you don’t have to dream up a fancy way to bring them back from the undead so to speak). ***

Set in an ancient world where vampires and werewolves are at constant war with each other, “When Lucian (Michael Sheen) the next step in evolution for a werewolf is born the vampire world is threatened as never before. Lucian can changefrom human to werewolf at will something new to his breed. He’s also kept as a slave by Viktor (Bill Nighy)the leader of the vampires. When Viktor’s daughter Sonja (Rhoma Mitra ) falls for Lucian trouble brews because, well, vampires and werewolves just don’t have sex or if they do it has to be SAFE sex. ---

Image & Sound:

The Blu-ray transfer looks pretty good overall although it isn’t quite as good looking for a variety of reasons as the first film. Blacks are solid throughout for the most part. Detail is nice although a couple of soft shots creep into the presentation (which is a surprise given that the film was shot digitally). ***

Audio sounds quite good with dialogue front and center. The mix comes alive with a nice Dolby TrueHD soundtrack that adds to the atmosphere of the film during action sequences. If anything “Lycans” sounds better than it looks. ---

The first two films feature the same special features that were available on both DVD and Blu-ray in HD. I’m not going to recap those here. Those that are interested can read my reviews of the DVD or Blu-ray editions parked in the older reviews section. The special features for “Underworld” and “Underworld: Evolution” are identical here to the solo releases. ***

As far as “Lycans” goes we get a solid set of special features. Fans will have a bloody good time with most of these. While Director Patrick Tatopoulos lacks the stylish approach of his predecessor, it should also be noted that he had much less to work with in terms of budget and solid material. Tatopoulos was the production designer for the two previous movies and is quite familiar with the “Underworld” mythos so it’s no great stretch for him to step into the shoes of Len Wiseman. Unfortunately, Tatopoulos lacks the visual flair of Wiseman and in a film like this visual flair is everything. Action sequences tend to be a bit more confused looking here than in the previous two films. ***

He and producer/writer Len Wiseman , producer Richard Wright and visual effects artist James McQuide all provide a very entertaining, honest and amusing commentary track detailing both the shortcomings of the production and their creative solutions. ***

“Behind the Castle Walls” is a picture-in-picture feature that essentially acts as a running live commentary with various cast and production members. This is probably the best way to watch all the special features since it appears that the interviews and behind-the-scenes footage is (naturally) drawn from the featurettes for the film. ***

We get a four featurettes on the production of the film all in HD that covers everything from the initial scripting of this prequel to trying to recreate the “Underworld” universe in a film starved for a much larger budget. ***

There’s a useless music video and the trailer as well as previews are included. All are in HD. ***

There is also some BD-Live content which, at this point, allows you to chat with friends while watching the movie. Actually, that’s a better investment of time than watching this film. ---

Final Words:

The only advantage to buying the trilogy is that you get all three films at a decent price. If you haven’t picked up the first two, this has been priced at most retailers so it’s a better deal. The prequel is pretty useless. Sometimes hinting at the past is better than showing it in detail particularly if the film is as uninspired as “Lycans”. ***

Prequels are tricky because we often know a bit of what happened before as laid out in the films made BEFORE the prequel. It takes a certain sense of style, intelligence and imagination to pull it off all of which is lacking in the script for “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”. If you like the first two films than picking this up as a boxed set is a no brainer since it appears that it’s cheaper to do so right now with most online and brick & mortar retailers.