"BloodRayne" Movie Review by Dreamzkape

[Dreamzkape]

BloodRayne Video Trailer

      I finally got to see BloodRayne on Region 4 DVD. I ordered it from Australia, which is pretty cool, as the cover is reversible. Here is my review. I have nothing else to do, and I simply bored out of my skull... Have been over the past months. I know Uwe Boll is not everyone’s favorite director. People believe that he is simply out there to destroy all these famous computer games, the franchise, even the lead character that many have come to love since the release of the title itself. An example is BloodRayne.

      Quite frankly, if this is so true, and people know about the poor performance and quality of his movies, the fans should truly ask themselves why the companies, or perhaps ask the companies, why they would easily sell Uwe Boll the rights to bring their most favorite game to the silver screen, regardless of knowing of his reputation as a poor director and deliberate sabotage to the gaming world.

      For me, I am open-minded and prefer to make up my own mind things. I’ve slowly come to realize that my own philosophy is somewhat similar to that of my hero, Bruce Lee. I will be honest with you. I’m not a fan of Uwe Boll, but nor am I a hater. However, I do question his ability to direct, but perhaps it is not only his direction. When one makes a movie, many are responsible, not only one.

      I enjoyed the BloodRayne movie, even though I admit that it was easily poor in some areas. I liked it. I felt that it was a very promising concept that sadly lacked serious writing and creativity. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the BloodRayne movie.

      I think that it mostly suffered with poor writing, dialogue, and an extremely hasty pace. Before I could tell where the Rayne character was (who was portrayed very well by Kristanna Loken, which is not an opinion based on my liking of the actress), I am thrown into the middle of the middle without much exploration and explanation of the beginning of the film. There is such thing as a fast-paced story, but these things must be considered so not to leave the watcher or reader in confusion with regards to the background of a particular scene or event somewhere in the film.

      Some of the dialogue for main or supporting characters of the movie was tolerable, but would fail in certain scenes for others. The American accents perhaps harmed the film somewhat, also. The action was tolerable yet slow and perhaps needed better editing, although in some areas, was appealing to the eye were it not for some sluggish movements. Having watched films from Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Tony Jaa, The Matrix, it is quite easy to tell a good fight sequence from a terrible one. Speed is quite essential for the scenes portrayed in the BloodRayne movie, or if not speed, then grace and smooth, comfortable movement that doesn’t look boring to the eye.

      The acting was terrible and also good, though this seemed to balance unevenly throughout the film, which would leave a bad impression that perhaps it was half-hearted or something. However, Michelle Rodriguez and Michael Madsen, Matthew Davis, and Kristanna Loken did very well. Madsen and Davis suffered from poor dialogue on many occasions, though, but nonetheless, while both served potentially well to Rayne as supporting characters, the award would go to Michelle Rodriguez as Katarin.

      Also, Will Sanderson played rather well as Kagan’s (while Ben Kingsley is a great actor, the role of Kagan just was not for him) right-hand servant, Domastir. So, for me, Will Sanderson and Michelle Rodriguez are the supporting stars of the BloodRayne movie.

      Kristanna Loken… Kristanna was my ideal choice the moment I heard about the idea of a movie based one of favorite computer games, and my top favorite character, BloodRayne. I stand by my opinion, and that is not because I’m a fan. I do think that her acting as Rayne had more potential and that some scenes could’ve been executed better, but she brought the character to life rather well. The fact that she liked the character comes as an added bonus, as Kristanna was able to dig into the human aspect of Rayne, which is something we should see before she becomes this stone-cold, deadly hot lady for Brimstone.

      I must admit, despite my own personal delight over Kristanna’s first nude scene, that the sex scene perhaps just didn’t serve much needed purpose in the movie. Even if that sex scene was there to physically or even emotionally connect Rayne and Sebastian, it happened much too quickly because there simply was no early connection between them. Except for the brief scene before Rayne’s nightmare, which revealed Sebastian’s own dark past, there was no development for such a situation. Nonetheless, it was probably good to see the character Rayne shed some fabric… Given the oozing sex appeal of the character herself, it just seemed more than inevitable, I believe.

      Regarding the sets and scenery, the choice of Romania was probably quite stereotype of the vampire genre when one considered where the vampire character is originally depicted from. However, it was beautiful to my eye. The lands, hills, mountains served the movie very well, as did Uwe’s direction of such land. It kind of reminds you of how beautiful fields and hills once were before they were clothed with tower blocks, big cities, and destruction. Such places in the world still exist, thank God.

      It was not Uwe’s reputation with which the BloodRayne truly suffered from, but really the story. Too much was altered from the original. Even though it serves as a prequel, or as a different timeline, the story should have been different, not concerning Beliar whatsoever. I was quite concerned with how the scene when our beloved dhampir discovers the eye would be portrayed… It would look extremely cheesy and silly to see it on the silver screen how it was on the game. I do think that the, only three, relics could have been portrayed differently than in three matching boxes. It was interesting of how Rayne became stronger once the eye had integrated into her skull, though. Honestly, I don’t quite like the idea of Rayne being really vulnerable to water. I mean, how would she clean herself? A smelly, sexy heroine certainly isn’t attractive, not appealing to the nose. But that’s unimportant.

      So on my last note, I enjoyed Uwe Boll’s BloodRayne movie, though I would frown on a sequel. Of course I could find any movie to squash this one, but I liked it for WHAT it could have been. There were few elements in the film that I liked very much, such as tapping into Rayne’s human and vulnerable side. As a writer, it is important to see another side of a character like the graceful Rayne. I seriously doubt that she was cold and death-defying her entire life. It just doesn’t work that way. Plus, it develops the character more. Exploring is really a key factor for a main character, as is development throughout her journeys. Should Rayne simply stay the same throughout her entire career, she would become boring.

      BloodRayne is not the best movie ever, but it certainly isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen. Even big budget films suffer just as badly as this one. They make money or are worth billions, but in the end just perform badly at the cinemas simply because they are plain crap. War of the Worlds springs to mind, I’d choose BloodRayne over that movie any day. I saw a teaser trailer for that once… and then I watched the movie itself. Whilst it showed an interesting concept of just one character’s point of view of the invasion, it wasn’t executed very well in my eyes. Tom Cruise versus the aliens, it seemed. Even Star Wars Episode I and II were bad in my eyes, though Revenge of the Sith saved that prequel trilogy. The classic will always be the best. I enjoyed it very much.

      I’m entitled to my opinion of the BloodRayne movie, as are other people to theirs. However, when people compare Uwe, a director who wants to make a good movie, to companies that just wanna degrade films just to make money, who is the bad guy? Alien versus Predator was toned down for kids… While I did like that movie, it lacked the elements that made the original franchises. Not the gore, but the whole horror, gritty atmosphere when Fox turned the aliens and predators into children appealers. Much like Terminator 3, that was aimed for children and families. Nothing wrong with this kind of thing, but it destroys the franchise of its glory and original darkness.

      From what I’ve read, Uwe is a man with a heart of gold who just wants to make a good movie, but fails too painfully, it seems he does it deliberately. I don’t know him. I’m not making assumptions. However, when a company sells it world-famous franchise to a person with a bad reputation for making movies, knowing a lot of that reputation, who is truly to blame other than the one responsible for directing it?

      Anyway, Kristanna Loken didn’t take my breath away, though she’s done it many times, but I enjoyed and treasured watching her, my dream choice; bring my favorite fictional character to life. And yes, certainly yes, I really enjoyed Kristanna’s first nude scene, but that doesn’t make me a perv, my friend. Kristanna definitely has a very enthralling body. Overall, she’s simply beautiful (without all that glamour make-up). I also admire her for giving back to the public what they give to her (appreciation and many thanks etc.). Well, I hope you enjoyed reading my babble. I enjoyed writing it. Take care, and have a good month. Hope to speak to some of my pen-pals soon.

All the best,

Dreamzkape

[Johnny Curly]

great review I have to say , I fully agree with Romania as being stereotype and that Kristanna Loken's first "nude" scene is pretty hot

[Allan Gabriel]

Very nice work, Dreamzkape - I moved it to Movie Reviews section