Having endured fangless vampire entrees like the bland Underworld or the inept Van Helsing, vampire fans should find solace once more as their favorite slayer Blade returns for his third slice of ass-kicking attitude and blood-soaked mayhem. David S. Goyer, writer of all three chapters, takes the helm for his directorial debut in hopes of reconstituting the success of the series and showing why audiences can't get enough of the Marvel-based character.

Blade: Trinity chronicles the attempts of Wesley Snipes' eponymous vampire-human hybrid to rid the world of Dracula and his like. But far from being the barnstorming finale we might have expected, Blade: Trinity comes with a testosterone overload only to end up outstaying its welcome. The vampire underworld is in turmoil. Control of humanity has suddenly shifted back to the fangs and claws of the vampires. Blade (Wesley Snipes), the sword-wielding daywalker and only hope for grabbing the advantage away from the bloodsuckers, is framed in a series of vicious murders. Now forced to join the Nightstalkers, a legion of vampire hunters led by Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel), Blade slashes his way to the top of the vampire bloodline, Dracula (Dominic Purcell) himself.

It begins with the vamps digging up the long-dormant Dracula, who is apparently a Slovakian runway model enamored of bare-chested couture. His revival is part of their ‘final solution’ to turn all mankind into a vast comatose blood bank a la humanity's imprisonment in one of the franchise’s many nods to The Matrix, but apparently he's also the only one with the fighting skills to take on Blade, who destroys vampires with monotonous ease, leaving them to spontaneous combustion. Don't ask why Dracula, or Drake as he's called now, runs away the first time they face off. In fact, don't even expect the movie to live by its own internal logic at all. At one point we're told that a sample of Drake's blood is needed to create a serum that will destroy all the vampires, but while the serum is successfully synthesized, we never actually get to see the protagonists get their hands on the guy's DNA.

Goyer is too busy with stunts, explosions, fight sequences, musical montages, repetitive bad-ass slo-mo hero shots and blatant product placements (Biel hunts to the sound of grinding club-rock on her iPod) to be bothered to pay attention to anything so arcane as a plot. He maintains the dark, murky atmosphere of the first two installments with sets that are bathed in an appropriately gothic ambiance. Even the daylight scenes have a stark style to them. As a writer, it's clear that Goyer favors the anti-hero, as Blade is a dark and menacing character that possesses hero status despite his own nastiness and internal conflicts. Much as is the case with classic sci-fi from the 50s and 60s, the foundation of ensuring that movies like Blade meet success is solid storytelling and everybody involved going for broke. Unfortunately, the lack of an interesting story is Blade: Trinity's weakest link. That doesn’t mean to say that it doesn’t have any bright ideas. In fact, I believe that bringing Dracula’s classic narrative context to the fold of post-modern, comic-based road-movie vampires potentially holds the premise for a great old-meets-new vampire romp that may break grounds as yet untouched in this subgenre.

Alas, Goyer seems the only person involved in this movie with the willingness to give it his all. And he may be an adequate screenwriter who knows how to stage his action sequences, but that about sums up the scope of his capabilities. There’s an abundance of special effects, choppy editing, mostly uninteresting side plots, and wooden acting, but there is absolutely nothing resembling an original, absorbing tale. What's more, its central villains, including Dracula himself (Dominic Purcell), lack any real menace, appearing more camp and comic than threatening and scary, and undermining the overall tone as a result. It comes as a complete contrast to Blade II's Reapers, who managed to disgust as well as chill, and which of course benefited from Guillermo Del Toro's distinctive style. It's difficult to fathom why Dracula has been so poorly represented in recent movies, with Purcell failing to register any sort of impression as the supposedly mightiest vampire of them all. His face-off with Blade isn't the all-out climax we might have expected and ends the movie on a slightly underwhelming note, especially since Goyer simply can’t resist the temptation of leaving the franchise open for another return.

Snipes, too, turns in a particularly bland performance, seemingly content to pass on any franchise possibilities to his two young protégés (who would probably do well on their own). But in all fairness, Blade: Trinity is not devoid of redeemable qualities. The wit and comedic delivery of Ryan Reynolds as Hannibal King is just what the doctor ordered in the otherwise complete absence of memorable characters. Many of his quips and zingers are actually quite funny, albeit completely over the top, and seem to come at all the right moments. And of course the physical beauty of Jessica Biel is always pleasant on the eyes. One particular scene shows a bit of promise, but ends up as a missed opportunity rather than a memorable movie moment. As Dracula prowls the streets searching for Blade, he comes across a local Goth merch retail establishment in which the clerks eat Count Chocula cereal and more closely resemble a vampire than does Drake. Many potential reversed-identity jokes go uncracked, leaving the viewer wondering what was left on the cutting room floor. This particular sequence delivers the breakdown metaphor for this movie in its entirety, its potential, its qualities, its issues and its problems.

That said, there is plenty of fun to be had for the Friday night popcorn brigade. The premise centers around the re-emergence of Dracula and the inevitable threat he poses to mankind, yet plot plays hardly any fiddle at all to the set pieces, which come thick and fast. Hence, when we're not witnessing Snipes kicking vampires to crisp, it's Abigail or King getting in on the action, twirling all sorts of nifty weapons to boot -- not to mention wisecracks. And for the most part, it's all impressively staged with several fight sequences getting real pulse-quickening, but there is also a tendency to overcook the special effects while the pumped-up soundtrack lends each set piece the feel of an MTV video. The action remains the best aspect of the movie however, as it comes at the expense of any substance and almost leaves audiences feeling as empty and drained as a vampire’s victim.

Goyer’s direction of Blade: Trinity goes horrendously overboard in an almost fanboy-ish kind of way, consistently disregarding scene continuity. Add this to the issues with the story and the movie actually looks like a disconnected series of action sequences, interlaced with atmospheric cutaways. And quite frankly, I don’t think it really tries to be anything more than that. For those who don't mind their Goth-vampire-Capoeira action movies looking all the same (leather, eye-liner, stiletto heels, poor lighting), sounding the same (rap and rave music), and having the same sequel-baiting finales, Blade: Trinity may pass muster. But this motion picture proves, more than anything, that the subgenre is craving fresh ideas, executed with skillful directorial guidance.