By Ned Jordan
To put it nicely, BloodRayne did not do too well during its brief stint in
theaters. Negative reviews, the reputation of videogame-inspired movies, and a
mediocre response from those few move-goers who actually saw the film pretty
much sunk this ship before it had a chance to leave port. Now BloodRayne is
attempting to find an audience via the DVD route and is attempting to bribe
potential purchasers by throwing in a copy of the BloodRayne 2 PC game. Does
this make the DVD worthy of purchase? To answer this question, lets start by
determining if the movie is really as bad as its box office performance
indicates
BloodRayne is based on the videogame of the same name, and tells the story of
a half-human, half-vampire woman named Rayne. Raynes unique heritage has
endowed her with all of the super-human abilities of a vampire while making her
immune to the usual vampire weaknesses such as holy water and a strong aversion
to sunlight. Luckily for us mere mortals, Rayne fights on the side of good as a
vampire-slayer extraordinaire.
This aspect of the game remains intact in the film, but for some reason its
setting has been completely changed. The original BloodRayne game was set during
World War II and had Rayne fighting Nazis intent on tapping into supernatural
powers. It seems to me that this setting would have tremendous potential for a
campy movie with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek or an escapist summer
action flick ala Indiana Jones. However, the film is instead set in medieval
times and given an uninspired storyline thats been done to death by far too
many (and far better) B-movies that have come before it.
In the film, Rayne is a prisoner of a traveling circus freak show who finally
manages to make her very bloody escape from the camp. Her singular purpose in
life is to kill her vampire father, Kagan, who also happens to be the local
vampire lord looking to make a power play on the local human population. She
soon hooks up with the local freelance anti-vampire army known as the Brimstone
Society who take her in and give her martial arts training. She then sets off
with the societys trio of top vampire hunters to put an end to Kagans plans.
While this plot is simple enough it is completely mishandled by the movies
director and editors. There are plot holes left gaping open, scenes that dont
seem to have any connection to the story, and subplots that go nowhere. Some of
the fight scenes drag on and on, and it seems that their main purpose is to pack
in as many dismemberings, disembowelments, and cleavings as possible, all of
which come across as cheesy more than anything else. In short, its a simple
story completely butchered by a team that doesnt seem to grasp the very basics
of storytelling.
The actors themselves seem to realize that they are in the midst of a mess of
a movie and as a result they hardly put any effort into their parts. Kristanna
Loken does a good enough job with the title character, but it all goes downhill
from there. Michael Madsen could not be more dispassionate or disinterested as
the leader of the Brimstone Society. Michelle Rodriguez brings her street cred
to her role as a vampire hunter which couldnt be more out of place in a
medieval setting. Matthew Davis is probably the most milquetoast of leading men
to play the hero in quite some time, and Raynes attraction to his character is
completely befuddling. Billy Zane is completely wasted as the father of
Rodriquezs character, a newly minted vampire who is mostly seen sitting behind
a desk directing some sort of wishy-washy vampire subplot that is forgotten
two-thirds of the way through the movie. And then theres Ben Kingsley. Why he
would sign on to play the vampire lord Kagan is a mystery, but he was probably
pretty bitter about it based on his performance. He plays Kagan as a bored
vampire who is taking over the world merely because it is a little less boring
than his other options.
BloodRayne is worth picking up if youve always wanted to play BloodRayne 2
on your PC. Otherwise it can only really be recommended as a rental for film
students looking for a case study on poor editing or bad storytelling.
Final Rating:
Here endeth the reign of the BloodRayne series.
