Underworld: Rise of the Lycans - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
Rise of the Lycans decided to pull a Tokyo Drift on us and do a prequel instead of a continuation of Selene’s story line, and was arguably almost as good as the originals. Usually by the third in a franchise this paper thin things go off the rails, but director Patrick Tatopoulos (who was the producer for the first two) actually crafts an entertaining period piece story about HOW Lucian came to power and why Sonja was murdered, kick starting off the gigantic Vampire vs. Werewolf lore that Len Wiseman created. It has a few flaws, but overall It’s one of the more unique and interesting tales of the franchise.

The story takes us back to even before the 1200s when Selene wasn’t even a baby yet, with Viktor (Bill Nighy) as a vampire lord ruling over human nobles and Lycans alike. Lucian (Michael Sheen) is nothing but a slave in his court, as are all the Lycans who have the ability to change from human to wolf at will. While the vampires rule at night with superior power, intellect and will, they slumber during the day while the “beast” Lycans born of William roam the countryside as mindless monsters.

Infamously from the first movie, Viktor’s daughter Sonja (Rhona Mitra) falls in love with Lucian against her father’s wishes. It’s known far and wide that a vampire will have nothing to do with a dirty dog like a Lycan, but Sonja has a mind of her own. And Lucian is no simple slave either. He watches his brethren get treated like cattle and before long he and Sonja devise a plan to escape together and free the Lycans from under the Vampire’s cruel yoke.

The story for Rise of the Lycans is simple as they come, but it’s integral to the backstory of the first two films. It’s basically a Romeo and Juliet tragedy wrapped up in Vampire and Lycanthrope trappings, but also a crazy monster period piece movie as well. Tatopolous keeps a tight and no nonsense tale here, using Bill Nighy’s hammy nature to the extreme as the monstrous Viktor, and actually putting weight behind Lucien’s resolve in the first film.

My one complaint is that the film is way too short. Personally I felt a little more could have been done with the character development of Lucien and Sonja, and the inevitable tragic ending been delayed a bit. I did appreciate that they spend nearly half of the 92 minute runtime with the free Lycans devising a plan to take over the castle instead of just having that come in during the last 10 minutes, though. All in all Rise of the Lycans was a nice change of pace for the series, and marks the last of the movies that were actually GOOD, before they went off a cliff.




Rated R for bloody violence and some sexuality




4K Video: Video:

Like the rest of the films, this is a substantial upgrade over the old Blu-ray. This was always a super grainy film on Blu-ray, and the 4K UHD is definitely replicating that look without problem. It’s sharper, cleaner, and and the grain looks very natural from what I can tell. However, this is jokingly what I refer to as “50 shades of Teal” as it is SOOOOO heavily teal that you can’t help but giggle. The other two movies definitely have dark blue and teal gothic tones, but this one is so obviously pushing the green edge of teal that it never lets you forget it. The HDR application lets us see all of that incredible shadow detail, with a nice grain structure, and rather impressively improved textural details. I never noticed all of the design work on the armor until I watched this release. It just looks That much nicer. There’s the typical crush in some of the darker shots, but no major banding and there is a TON more shadow detail then we had before. The original disc was considered a 4.5/5 rated transfer back in 2009, but with over a decade of improvements in transfers, I’d give it a generous 4/5 while the 4K UHD I rate a solid 4.5/5







Audio:

The Atmos track does exactly what the Atmos mix did for Evolutions. It fine tunes an already excellent mix into something as bit MORE excellent. The rip roaring non stop action is a bit less this time around as Rise of the Lycans is a more dramatic movie than its predecessors. But that’s not to say that it isn’t powerful and disgustingly bass heavy when it needs to be. The battle scenes are absolutely furious and intense, with the overhead roars of Lycans or the rattle of chains during a battle sequence making their directions known. The panning effects while the Lycans attack during the final sequence is jaw dropping, as you feel like you’ve been dropped into the middle of a battle with monsters screaming and roaring along with the clash of steel coming from every direction. Bass is deep and insanely powerful, but also fades into the background during the romantic interludes between Lucian and Sonja, as well as the discussions with the council. All around excellent mix.






Extras:

4K UHD
• Trailer
• Rise of the Lycans: Inside the Castle Walls

Blu-ray
• Behind the Castle Walls: Picture-in-Picture Experience
• Filmmaker Commentary
• 3 Featurettes
• Music Video: "Deathclub (Wes Borland / Renholder Remix)" by William Control feat. Matt Skiba
• And More

Final Score:
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Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is probably the most unique of the series, and the only one to take a step back from the Selene storyline out of the 5. It’s not perfect, but the movie definitely expanded the backstory of the universe quite a bit and put Michael Sheen’s Lucien in a much more positive light than when we saw him last. The 4K UHD is a HEFTY improvement over the Blu-ray in both audio and video, and like the previous two films has a few minor extras that are unique to this set as well. Definitely a recommended title in this boxset.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Bill Nighy, Rhona Mitra, Michael Sheen, Steven Mackintosh, Kevin Grevioux, David Aston
Directed by: Patrick Tatopoulos
Written by: Danny McBride, Dirk Blackman, Howard McCain
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1), English, German, Italian, Japanese DTS-HD MA 5.1, Czech, French, Hindi, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Thai, Turkish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish
Studio: Sony
Rated: R
Runtime: 92 minutes
Blu-Ray Release October 26th, 2021

Recommendation: Fun Watch