Underworld: Rise of the Lycans Review

Underworld: The Rise of the Fungus is not the movie I thought I was going to see. So be warned, it is not an underground March of the Penguins journey of a lichen. Underworld: The Rise of the Lycans, is actually how the title is spelt, but it is still pronounced like lichen.
I’ve never seen Underworld uno or dos, so I was relieved to find out that Lycans is the precursor to the other pair of movies. Lycans takes place back in the medieval ages and explains how the creatures known as Lycans came to be enemies of the Vampire race. The storyline of the movie is very straightforward, with the most obdurate of twists occurring half-expectedly. It must have been that much more of a bore for the fans who have already seen the other two Underworld flicks, knowing that certain characters can’t die can really kill the suspense, kind of like how there was never tension with Anakin in the prequel trilogy, because everyone knew he was going to have to grow up.
I felt like I had been beaten to black and blue at the end of the movie by the visuals, since the only two colors I saw for the entire movie, were black and blue. I got used to it by the end, and it did add a sort of creepy, musty, feel to the movie. The fight sequences in the movie were dreadful; it was either too dark, or too bright to see. At one point there was a duel between the antagonists and the protagonists, and I could hardly figure out what was going on because of the short editing cuts and the lightning flashes. It was as if the producers didn’t want the audience to see a complete stunt, so they masked it with a blinding flash of light, or just cut it short. The flashes of light got to be so annoying that I looked away from the screen for a short time, something a producer never wants to make someone in the audience do.
There was a love story, but it was as cardboard as they come, I was glad when it ended. Lycans also seemed to have a few large plot holes that really bothered me. Some of them might have been explained, but that just goes to show how closely I was paying attention, or it could show how poorly written the movie was.
I didn’t figure I’d get much out of this movie, there was not any great lines, I really couldn’t care for any of the characters, the story was weak, the acting was sub par, and the action sequences were annoying at best. 4/10.