Lucian (Michael Sheen), a werewolf-mutant almost adopted by the vampire king Viktor (Bill Nighy) for his useful ability to control his animal instincts, falls in love with the king’s daughter, Sonja (Rhona Mitra). He defends her from his wild brethren with such enthusiasm that he quickly falls out of favor and ends up in a damp dungeon. His heartfelt motivations, combined with a long-simmering desire to liberate his people from the rule of bloodsuckers, ignite a war of werewolf national liberation against vampires. Michael Sheen and Kate Beckinsale would deal with the consequences of this war in the first and second installments of “Underworld.” It’s a “Spartacus-werewolf” as Shakespeare might have written it, but rewritten by Bram Stoker.
Unraveling the Origins
The complex backstory of vampires and werewolves, who control the higher (high-tech) and lower (common people) energies in the modern world, respectively, was repeatedly presented in the first series and its sequel. However, it was delivered with such a rapid-fire pace that it was quite difficult to immediately grasp who all these Viktors, Lucians, and Corvinuses were to each other, and what they actually failed to share in the “dark ages.” In the prequel, everything more or less falls into place and aligns with historical data, in this case, the Middle Ages. The bloodsuckers, responsible for feudalism, protect people from werewolves for a tithe of silver. The werewolves guard the vampires’ sleep from the surrounding citizens. The vampires, crowning the food pyramid, suck the juices from both. In general, the simple task of filling in the empty squares and tying up loose ends was confidently shifted from the soul of the project, Len Wiseman, to a certain Patrick Tatopoulos, who was responsible for special effects in “Underworld.” In turn, the soul of the project, who steered the first two parts, was content with the role of producer: in “Underworld,” everything was already so well-oiled that there was no point in directly managing the process – all that remained was to press the buttons.
Worth Watching?
Is it worth going to the prequel of “Underworld” for those who missed the first and second series? It’s a valid question, but since few people missed them at the time, it’s more rhetorical. Yes, no matter how hard they racked their brains, they couldn’t come up with a role for the latex-clad Beckinsale in the prequel – a pity, of course, but her Selene was not yet born at that time. And who, when writing “Underworld” in 2003, was sure that the project would make it to the third part? On the other hand, one also wants to draw a couple of liters of blood from Mitra, the British model flaunting in chain mail, if you look at the girl from the right angle. The acting performances in the prequel turned out to be excellent: Bill Nighy’s vampire king turned out to be almost Shakespearean, and Michael Sheen’s werewolf is also good, who, as it recently turned out, can not only tear enemies apart, but also have intelligent conversations with President Nixon.
Concise and Engaging
But the most remarkable thing is that the entire prequel fit into a humane eighty minutes: it seems to be quite a gentlemanly removal of time from the population, so that the population puts a point in this dark matter.