The Marvel comics character Blade -- a vampire hunter whose hybrid human/vampire heritage gives him a unique advantage against the undead while trapping him in a spiritual struggle against his own nature – was the subject of three feature films starring Wesley Snipes. It was subsequently resurrected reappeared in a one-season series on Spike TV, with rapper Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones in the lead, and this extended version of the series pilot include material deemed too graphic for broadcast television.
Blade and his assistant, smarty-pants techno whiz Shen (Nelson Lee), set up shop in Blade'a hometown, Detroit, where a particularly nasty vampire cult, the House of Chthon, has taken root. Meanwhile, army veteran Krista Starr (Jill Wagner) returns home after the death of her twin brother, Zack (David Kopp). Krista and her brother were always close, but he knew his parents preferred his hyper-competent sister and compensated by becoming the family troublemaker. When police detective Brian Boone (Bill Mondy) suggests that his death was gang- and/or drug-related, Krista's parents see no reason to think otherwise. Krista, on the other hand, believes there's more to the matter and launches her own amateur investigation, which leads her to Professor Melvin Cayle (Randy Quaid), whose knowledge of the "hominus nocturnae" has gotten him a reputation as a kook. Cayle tells her about the existence of "vampire ash," which gives human beings a taste of what it's like to be one of the undead; it's ferociously addictive and is sold on the street like a narcotic. It takes a near-fatal run in with a pair of vampires – Blade comes to her rescue -- to convince Krista that Cayle is right on the money, and he helpfully fills her in on Blade's back story. Krista eventually joins forces with Blade to take down the devilishly handsome Marcus Van Sciver (Neil Jackson), head of the vampire sect.
Written by David Goyer, who penned the theatrical films and also directed BLADE: TRINITY (2004), this reboot suffers from the commercial-break determined pacing common to made-for-TV features, which TV veteran Peter O'Fallon is powerless to entirely smooth over. The story is mostly set up and tease, which is par for the course with pilots, and much of the nighttime cinematography looks murky and excessively blue. But true to its carnie come on, the film its is strikingly bloody by basic cable standards -- especially the sequences involving Van Sciver's search for a super-vampire serum – and the cast leans heavily towards attractive hard bodies. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
