Bloodrayne Review

[Mr.HoRrOr]

Plot:In eighteenth century Romania, Rayne, a dhampir (half-human, half-vampire), prone to fits of blind blood rage but saddled with a compunction for humans, strives to avenge her mother's rape by her father, Kagan, King of Vampires. Two vampire hunters, Sebastian and Vladimir, from the Brimstone Society persuade her to join their cause.









Cast:
Kristanna Loken
Michelle Rodriguez
Ben Kingsley
Michael Madsen
Matthew Davis
Billy Zane
Will Sanderson
Udo Kier
Meat Loaf
Michael Paré









My Thoughts:Better than "Alone In The Dark", but Uwe still can't seem to get this filmmaking thing right.










Review:"Bloodrayne" is based on the highly successful and popular video game series where a dhampir (a human/vampire hybrid) named Rayne battles evil forces such as vampires,nazis,etc. In this film adaptation of the game, Kristanna Loken plays the heroine Rayne,who is on a quest for vengeance directed at her father Kagan,the king of all vampires. He is responsible for the rape and murder of her mother. It was a great idea to bring this character to the big screen. Unfortunately, it was not a good idea to have Uwe Boll directing. "Bloodrayne" doesn't succeed where "House of the Dead" Uwe's Freshman effort did,in being over the top and silly,yet just bloody and entertaining enough to rank as a guilty pleasure with me. Nor does it fail where Uwes Sophmore effort "Alone in the Dark" did, by being a great idea wrapped in one huge mess of a story combined with bad acting."Bloodrayne" sort of falls in between, but still isn't good enough to be taken seriously as a video game adaptation film. For one thing,the cast is underused. We have Michael Madsen,Michelle Rodriguez,and Ben Kingsley. Yet Michelle gets very little screen time and really tries too hard with her horrible english accent, Madsen looks extremely unhappy in most of his on-screen moments,and Kingsley is sort of a Mr. Burns clone. He lacks alot of screen time,and in most of those moments he is on screen, he's always replying to someone with "Excellent". Kristanna Loken as Rayne is mildly believable. She doesn't start out in this movie as the heroine,but rather the prisoner of a circus owner. Were supposed to believe shes the helpless victim whos been unfairly shackled. I mean thats what Uwe wants us to believe right? That shes this half vampire half human who has a painful past where she witnessed her own moms murder at the hands of her dad Kagan,and she will eventually become the heroine to cheer for in the film. Well if Uwe wanted us to believe that, it sort of kills all hope for the viewer to believe when the heroine savagely wastes her only friend who gave her a gift just a few moments before she was disposed of. Another problem with this movie is the plot. There really isn't one! Once Rayne escapes her captors,she hooks up with this Brimstone society which is headed By Michael Madsens character Vladimir. But we never learn anything about this society,they just seem like a bunch of rag taggers who hang out in a castle. I would think a secret society of rebels called "The Brimstone Society" would have tons of cool secret stuff all over the place,similar to the secret part of the Mansion in "X-men". Unfortunately here that isn't the case. The villains aren't really any better. Will Sanderson plays Kagans right hand man Domastir. This guy keeps the same facial expression the entire film! Even when hes swordfighting. The film just seems to have no sort of direction. Rayne strolls about looking for these special talismans and other objects so she can defeat Kagan,but we never get the impression that she is actually aware she needs to get these objects,or complete these tasks. It's like she just seeks them out because it's in the script. The objects themselves aren't even focused upon. We don't get any background on them,except that they hold "great power"..."Yawn". If there was one saving grace a movie like this could have,it's the swordfights...right? Wrong! Even those while they have their moments,are poorly executed. You can tell it's bad when during the fight the bad guy stops in the heat of battle to take a sword to the eye,chest,or abdomen. "Bloodrayne" despite all of it's problems isn't as bad as "Alone in the Dark",which was Uwe's last film based on a horror video game. Despite it's severe flaws, Kristanna puts on a respectful performance, and has a few cool scenes where she snaps someones neck in 1 fail swoop without breaking stride, or rips someones throat out. That didn't immensely help the film due to it being so weak in every other area,but it atleast made it easier to sit through from my point of view.







Pros:Lots of blood (atleast Uwe knows large amounts of blood is necessary in a vampire film), Kristanna Loken tries her best to carry the film despite it's many weaknesses.





Cons:Everything from the supporting cast,to the script. Meat Loaf as a midevil pimp is one of the saddest things I've ever seen in my lifetime.Billy Zane was in this movie as sort of a nemesis to Kagan but with the lack of backstory and screentime for his character, you'd think he just stopped by the set to say hi and Uwe just decided to use him for a few scenes to fill time.






Overall:Wait for DVD,Wait for pay-per view,wait for on demand,hell wait for HBO. "Bloodrayne"...unless you have the biggest crush on Kristanna Loken,a fetish for vampires,or a fetish for blood...isn't worth your money,honestly.