I guess there was nowhere else to go with the series after the first two films pretty much accomplished all that it could. "Underworld" has been a very mediocre film franchise but with a surprisingly interesting mythos involving lycans and vampires and to prevent us from watching a repeat story similar to the first two, we instead get a prequel, the story of the feud between the lycans and the vampires that we only got a taste of in the first "Underworld." While there are no Kate Beckinsales in tight leather, we at least get the lovely Rhona Mitra in tight clothing and fashion chic armor. It's a replacement ain't so bad when you put in perspective.

Did we really need to be explained all of this yet again? Why did we have to stretch out a small story in to something repetitive and redundant? And is it me or does the mythology seem unnecessarily complicated? "Rise of the Lycans" never really knows what kind of movie it wants to be so it reuses much of what we saw in the first two movies. We get vampires and lycans hating one another, the dramatic power of Bill Nighy, and the Romeo and Juliet storyline yet again.

All I could do most of the time is watch hoping to get more than repetition; every single element is reiterated to distract us from the lack of excitement and the quite dull characters we watch on screen. I never cared for anyone from the antagonists, to the feuding, to the taboo romance story between lycan Lucian and the vampire Sonja; "Rise of the Lycans" really didn't need to happen since we pretty much got the point in the first and second movies. If that isn't enough the director goes through great lengths in the climax to assure us that all of it is connected after all. Thanks for pounding it in to our skulls one last time.