About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

Bare-bones, cliché-ridden vampire tale.



Pros

• OK acting
• Some decent action

Cons

• Little gore
• Stiff dialogue
• Vampire clichés o' plenty
• Can't conceal budget limitations

Description

• Starring Tony Todd, A.J. Draven, Allison Lange, Jason Connery, America Olivo, Owiso Odera, Rini Bell, Cameron Zeidler
• Directed by Tom Shell
• Rated R
• DVD Release Date: November 11, 2008

Guide Review - 'Blood Wars' DVD Review

Will is an awkward college student who kills frat bully Darren one night in defense of his girlfriend Jayne. Unbeknownst to Will, though, Darren is the son of a vampire hunter. His father is a member of a group of "sentries" who walk around in monks' robes carrying big staffs, and they want revenge for Darren's death.

However, Will has bigger problems. At the very moment he's killing Darren, a vampiress named Amelia is targeting the frat boy because she needs to kill a sentry (or the son of a sentry) in order to take over as the leader of her vampire coven, since the current leader is becoming old and weary (Someone needs to tell them that vampires don't age.). When Will gets to Darren first, she bites Will to turn him into a vampire so that he can become the new coven leader.

Will thus has to contend with becoming a vampire and avoiding the avenging sentries, while trying to not eat his girlfriend. Can he do it? Does anyone care?

Blood Wars is the type of movie you go into with lowered expectations...and still end up disappointed.

Every vampire cliché is beaten to death, from Will's transformation (fast healing, sensitive to sunlight, food tastes bad, heightened physicality) to the evil vampire Claudius plotting to conquer the living to the brooding, black-clad coven who wear capes -- CAPES -- for goodness' sake. The vamps even talk in a highfalutin, contraction-less manner that makes it all sound like community center Shakespeare: "It is to his disadvantage to discredit the very title that he strives to attain!"

The action is sparse and nearly bloodless, and by the time Will busts out some martial arts moves near the end, it's too late to save the film from terminal boredom. Even Tony Todd, who always gives his all, can't keep Blood Wars from flatlining.

The DVD:

Special features include behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Movie: D
DVD: D+