Blood the Last Vampire (Live Action)

Blood the Last Vampire (Live Action Movie) (2009)
Action, Supernatural / Movie / Dub, both Japanese and English audio, no subtitles.
I do not havethis movie on dvd.

Parental Warning: There is a lot of violence. Blood effects are similar to 300 and while there is a lot of blood there is virtually no gore. Strong adult language is occasionally used. The version of this movie that I saw was unrated but it felt like a strong PG13 or weak R.

Plot Synopsis: This movie is based partially on the short animated movie of same name and partially based on the anime series Blood+ which is an adaptation of the animated movie.

Saya is essentially a world travelling vampire hunter in the 1960's. The movie does not call the monsters vampires (they go with “blood suckers”) but they are demonic creatures that sustain themselves by eating humans. These creatures can assume human form which makes tracking them down very difficult. Fortunately Saya works for a shadowy organization that has far reaching power and the resources of the CIA backing them as well as other less known sources which allow them to gather significant intelligence about these creatures and their assumed identities. There is a suspected infestation of these creatures on an American military base in Japan and Saya goes undercover as a transfer student in order to identify and kill the creatures plaguing the base.

Story and Pacing: 3
If you are familiar with the animated movie, the first forty-five minutes of this film will seem very familiar. Many of the scenes are ripped straight from the source material and acted out with real human actors, though some of the characters have been altered. The pace of the movie feels a little fast during the first third or so of the movie as if they're rushing the character/story building scenes so they can get to the next sword fight more quyickly. Actually I was quite surprised at how quickly they wrap up the initial mystery and move on to some bigger, more elaborate conspiracy.

Ultimately it was disappointing to see them rush through what was the premise for the original 50 minute or so anime movie so that they could throw in a few random plot points and details learned from the Blood+ anime which ultimately just confuses the watcher and makes the movie feel like two or three mini movies that just so happen to have the same characters. I have rated the story low, however if I watch a version of this movie with subtitles (60% or so of the movie was in English and 40% or so in Japanese) I may give the story a better mark.

Characters: 7
Saya is portrayed well enough that I felt the actress was doing the best she could with what she had. Many of the other characters are somewhat memorable though their names are not and they did a good job of making individuals look and feel unique even when it was just crowds of extras during a fight scene. Two black “blood suckers” with afros in particular bring a smile to my face.

Acting: 5
The acting is very inconsistent. In some scenes you see an actor pull of their lines in a convincing way and in others they're practically reading from the script. Some of the more dramatic scenes in the movie are destroyed by the inability to make the emotion of the moment seem genuine. These problems are almost universally caused by the people casted to play Americans in the movie however it's entirely possible that they were asked to act in such a way so that the Japanese audience would be able to understand the conveyed emotion through exaggeration. For the most part I didn't get the impression that the people were terrible actors because half the time they did just fine... but don't go into this movie planning on suspending your disbelief.

Animation: 4
The “blood suckers” in their demonic form looked like people in rubber suits. They have some semblance to the creatures from the animated movie and Blood+ but the as soon as one of the monsters moves any hope of a convincing monster disappears... though the cgi used when they transform from human to monster was kind of neat.

There is a ton of fighting in this movie and fortunately only a little bit of it is against monsters in their true form. There are copious amounts of fake but good looking blood (similar to “300”) and most of the fight scenes are interesting and well choreographed... though they rely too much on slow motion as a way of conveying Saya's power... though every once in a while you get to see something neat like her punching through someone's chest to remind us all that she is in fact far stronger than the fodder she faces in a 1vs50 fight.

Production Value: 7
Despite my complaints, the movie feels reasonably well put together. Everything is just on the good side of average.

Final Grade: 5.2

Personal Bias: 10
I love the original animated movie, I love Blood+, I wanted love this movie. I don't, but I can't bring myself to hate it either. I'm glad I took the time to watch it, I'll probably watch it again eventually. If you liked the original source materials you may be able to appreciate this movie, especially the first 45 minutes which mirrors the original very closely... of course after that they go all over the place including lengthy flashbacks that provide information about Saya that may have been previously unknown.

If this were a generic vampire slayer movie I would have rated it much lower.

What I Loved Most:  Aside from the first 45 minutes of the movie, I loved the afro vampires.

What I Hated Most:  They had a perfectly good story in the original movie that they could have taken and expanded upon but they took it upon themselves to incorporate it into a terrible, larger story.

There is also a scene in the movie in which Saya is being introduced to her class and some of the students in the class act in an ultra racist  way, even using racial slurs in front of the teacher. This just seemed like it was a bit much but... then Saya does decapitate them a few minutes later which nearly caused me to forget about the scene altogether.

Closing Comments:  If you watch this movie with low expectations you may find some things you like in it.

If you liked this you might also like Blood: The Last Vampire (animated movie) and Blood+ (50 episode series).

Feel free to comment if you disagree with anything I have said, posted something you feel is incorrect, or if you have anything to add.