Blade: House of Chthon (2006)

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The feature-length pilot episode to the short-lived "Blade: The Series" television show desperately misses big screen franchise star Wesley Snipes, and leaves the viewer hanging as the end credits roll.

Our half-vampire hero Blade (Kirk 'Sticky' Jones) and his human sidekick Shen (Nelson Lee) are battling vampires in Detroit. More specifically, they are battling business tycoon Marcus (Neil Jackson), who is revitalizing the ailing city by bringing back old buildings to their original state. Army vet Krista (Jill Wagner) returns home and learns her twin brother has been murdered. Through some detective work of her own, she traces his killing to Marcus, and encounters Blade, who reluctantly uses her to get inside Marcus' inner sanctum. Things go awry when Krista is made, and Blade stops at nothing to get her back on the side of the good vampire.

Although co-written by David S. Goyer, this pilot suffers from its television trappings. Jones is no Snipes, who was very good in the Blade role- and I write that liking all three Blade films released before this. Jones is given a supporting role in his own series, as we watch him from a distance. He has the look down, but all of his lines play like sound bites from the films. Wagner is slightly better as the vindictive Krista, and suave Jackson portrays the suave Marcus suavely. Bill Mondy comes off best as a crooked cop helping Marcus, and I should mention a surprising and always welcome cameo by Randy Quaid. O'Fallon's action sequences are a mess of bad camera set-ups and too-quick editing. I liked what he did with the scarier parts of the film, however. When Krista is "turned," she has a fantastic dream sequence, followed by an eerie scene in a morgue- both scenes are creepy and effective. For future reference, the word "Chthon" is not pronounced "cha-thon" but "kuh-thon," kind of like the sound of a frying pan being dropped on a linoleum floor. Because this is the pilot episode, the viewer is left hanging about where the story was going to end up. The series only lasted twelve episodes, but after reading some synopses, it didn't sound very interesting.

As for the pilot episode itself, "Blade: House of Chthon" is a mediocre affair. Also known as "Blade: The Series" (2006) {Pilot (#1.1)}."

Stats:
(2006) 88 min. (* * *) out of five stars
-Directed by Peter O'Fallon
-Written by David S. Goyer & Geoff Johns, Developed by David S. Goyer
-Cast: Kirk 'Sticky Fingaz' Jones, Nelson Lee, Neil Jackson, Jill Wagner, Randy Quaid, Bill Mondy, Jessica Gower, David Palffy, David Kopp, P. Lynn Johnson, Don Thompson, Chuck Liddell, G. Michael Gray, Quinn Lord
(TV-14)