Blood: The Last Vampire Review

Posted by Joseph Lee on 07.11.2009

If Blade were a sixteen year old Japanese girl...



Starring:

*Gianna Jun as Saya
*Allison Miller as Alice Mckee
*Masiela Lusha as Sharon
*JJ Feild as Luke
*Koyuki as Onigen
*Liam Cunningham as Michael

Story: A vampire named Saya, who is part of covert government agency that hunts and destroys demons in a post-WWII Japan, is inserted in a military school to discover which one of her classmates is a demon is disguise.

Trivia: Liam Cunningham has appeared in movies based on three classic monsters: the mummy (in The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor), the werewolf (in Dog Soldiers) and now the vampire.

Blood: The Last Vampire is an adaptation of the anime of the same name. The original anime film won multiple awards, earned lots of critical praise and became the highest selling title in Manga Entertainment's history. It also went on to spawn a television series called Blood +, which is set in an alternate universe and takes very few elements of the film with it. Now, nine years later, there is a live action remake being released to US audiences. The question is: is it any good?

The story, for those who have not watched the anime is simple: Saya (Jun) is a vampire who hunts down vampire-like demons. Think Blade, only if he were an Asian (Jun is Korean, Saya is Japanese) girl that looks to be about sixteen (I've also seen it described as Kill Bill meets Buffy, if that helps). When she comes to a military camp in her latest assignment, she meets Alice (Miller), who witnesses her slay two demons and then later has to be protected against a horde of them when she goes snooping. The two eventually must go on the run from The Council, the mysterious organization that Saya had been working for.

The plot isn't really relevant, because this movie is all about the action sequences. There is a big choreographed sequence early in the film that features Saya fighting a horde of demons while trying to protect Alice at the same time. It's incredibly well done and is probably the highlight of the film. There are other sequences, but that's the one that stands out to me. As far as the action goes, my only complaint is that the finale should have been longer, as it seems to have been cut short. But everything until that point was solid.

Gianna Jun plays Saya, and outside of the fight scenes is the best part of the film. She doesn't cut down her effort in light of the material, and in a movie like this it would be very tempting to do so. She gives it her all, and plays Saya as serious as she can. Luckily the script accommodates her and while not everything she says is good, at least she doesn't get the brunt of the bad dialogues. It doesn't much matter, as her delivery on is solid enough to turn bad lines into okay ones. I was really impressed with her in this movie.

There are several problems with this film, however. First, Jun is the only actress (or actor) that holds her own weight. Everyone else either adds nothing or subtracts from the film with a bad performance. The two that come to mind would be Koyuki (as Onigen) and Jun's co-star Alison Miller. First let's get to Miller. Every time she gets a dramatic scene she either cries, screams or is forced to deliver a bad line of dialogue ("no, this is our war now!"). I'm blaming the script for the last one, but she is way too emotional and it's almost laughable how many times she screams in a given moment.

Koyuki is only brielfy in the film, but her small role as the film's lead villain is what absolutely kills the final half for me. She acts like she's in a children's show, and her acting is down to that level. I honestly expected her to begin an evil laugh as she revealed the big twist and her plan for Saya. Of course, the actors are only as bad as their script and the script here was pretty awful. The important aspects (like The Council's role in this entire film) aren't fleshed out. Even Saya's backstory, which does earn a considerable amount of time, really only is there for another fight sequence and nothing else. I've already mention some of the really bad dialogue present.

My final problem with this film are the bad CGI special effects. The makeup, when it's actually makeup, is decent. The rest is not. Everything from the blood spray to the giant winged demons look incredibly fake and bring the entire movie down as a result. How this movie was allowed to be released theatrically with such poor CGI, I'll never know. The action sequences, which were good, could have been better with practical effects instead of the computer generated ones present.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed this movie for what it was. The fight scenes were good, Gianna Jun was great and it runs at a brisk 90 minutes so it's not too long. But this isn't that good of a movie, and the flaws overwhelm the positive aspects of it. This ends up making Blood: The Last Vampire a movie with a ton of potential but a lacking execution. But I still wouldn't be opposed to seeing Gianna Jun don the sailor's outfit and kill more demon-vampires.

The 411: Blood: The Last Vampire features some impressive action sequences and an understated performance from Gianna Jun as Saya. Unfortunately, the rest of the acting ranges from mediocre to poor and the majority of the special effects feels as though they would be more at home on the Sci-Fi channel. However, even with it's flaws, you should find some entertainment value overall. Just don't expect anything of substance, because you won't get it.

Final Score:  5.5   [ Not So Good ]