My first impression of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans was that the movie, in its entirety, was nothing more than a big nerd wank. Unless you adored the first two movies there’s really no point in seeing this installment of the franchise.

Since Rise of the Lycans was a prequel to the first movie this film is forced, by nature, to engage the viewer based on things other than its gripping plot. Unless, of course, the viewer is willing to allow their nerdiness get in the way of their geekiness.

What I mean is, if watching werewolves and vampires kick the crap out one another is more important to you than the reason they’re kicking the crap out of one another, you will love Lycans. Sadly this movie does little to instill awe in non-nerds. The movie makes no sense out of context, so be sure you watch the first two movies before heading out to see this one.

Spoilers for the first two movies ahead…

You already know the plot of Rise of the Lycans and the filmmakers added little in the way of squish to pump up the movie with anything new and revealing. The Lycans are slaves, Sonya is killed while carrying Lucien’s abomination baby and the Lycans kill most of the vampires in Victors coven. All details which were revealed in the previous two films.

So… whats the point? The point is watching Lycans kick vampire ass again. My husband and I have an on going debate over which is better, werewolves or vampires. Even I secede when it comes to the Underworld werewolves Lycans. They’ve been bad ass since the beginning and in Rise of the Lycans, they’re also pissed off.

The visual styling of the movie is pretty… though its mostly CGI, which is disappointing since real sets are so much more interesting than computer generated ones. Also a note on the sets, I have no idea how this castle/fortress is laid out and that really bothers me. We never once, in the entire movie, get a sense of where things are inside. We know there’s a field on the other side of the wall, there’s a bedroom overlooking the court and… that’s about it. A minor detail I suppose, but it takes some of the reality away for me. (I know, its a vampire movie, but that’s no excuse!)

The character relations also lack just a bit. You knew some things were certain; the coven leader, Victor, has a daughter, Sonya, who is in love with Lucien, a Lycan slave. Beyond that there is absolutely no character relationship development. The audience accepts these things as fact because the first two movies explained them all away. That’s fine, but the writers didn’t bother to add anything else to hold the audiences attention. Like, does Sonya have any close friends? Does Victor have a wife? What happened to her? Does Lucien have any allies? Why or why not? Who is Tannis? Why does Lucien trust Raze? And where the hell is Craven? I could probably answer all of these things based purely on assumption in the absence of explanation, but then I’d just be doing the writers’ job.

There are other basic mythology flaws that break Underworld canon, some really bad acting and awful costuming and CGI for the Lycans… Though honestly, we really just saw it to watch vampires and werewolves beat each other up.