BEFORE: Wrapping up another franchise tonight, and a vampire mini-chain.
THE PLOT: Blade, now a wanted man by the FBI, must join forces with the Nightstalkers to face his most challenging enemy yet: Dracula.
AFTER: In addition to adding Dracula (often called "Drake" in this film for some reason) into the mix, this film also adds more heroes from Marvel Comics, the Nightstalkers (Hannibal King and Abigail Whistler).
As the original vampire, Dracula's got some unique abilities, like enhanced shape-changing, immunity to sunlight, and one of those gross bi-sected jaws seen on the Reaper vamps in the previous film. A group of vampires awakens him to study his abilities, in order to create new vampires with his powers.
There are some neat twists here, as we learn over time which humans might actually be working for the vampires, but unfortunately, what really draws the film out is the constant reliance on martial arts - I just don't understand why the heroes choose to engage the vampires in hand-to-hand combat, when they have silver bullets, silver arrows, silver knives, silver-dust bombs, etc. Why allow a vampire to even get close, when a projectile weapon seems to be so much more accurate, and a heck of a lot safer?
It just seems like a way to draw the action out and keep the battle from ending - but I've never really been a martial arts fan, maybe some people would find some beauty in it.
Starring Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ryan Reynolds (last seen in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"), Jessica Biel (last seen in "The Illusionist"), Parker Posey (last seen in "Superman Returns"), Dominic Purcell (last seen in "Mission: Impossible 2"), Natasha Lyonne (last seen in "Kate & Leopold"), and wrestler Triple H, with cameos from John Michael Higgins (last seen in "Yes Man"), Eric Bogosian (last seen in "Talk Radio"), and Patton Oswalt (last seen in "Observe and Report") as the "gadget guy".
RATING: 5 out of 10 skylights
SPOOK-O-METER: 7 out of 10. Dracula gets kicked up a notch for modern times.
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