Superman isn’t the only comic book hero making a big return this week.
“Blade,” the half-man, half-vampire, all-butt-kicker popularized by Wesley Snipes in the big-screen trilogy, comes to television as Spike TV’s first attempt at original programming.
“Blade: The Series” premieres with a two-hour special at 10 p.m. Wednesday on Spike TV.
“I think fans are understandably a little nervous about ‘Blade’ being transported into television,” executive producer David Goyer said in press materials.
The good news is that if you haven’t seen the movies, don’t fret. You can jump aboard the vampire bandwagon without having seen the three films, although the series picks up after the trilogy.
Blade, whose mother was bitten by a vampire just before he was born, is still trying to save the world from the demons who stalk the night. This time, he’s allying with Krista Starr, a human who gets sucked into the vampire world while investigating the death of her brother.
Blade and Starr together will try to bring down the House of Chthon and its leader Marcus Van Sciver.
If all this sounds like a bunch of comic-book gobbledygook, here’s the translation: Blade and Starr are the good guys; Marcus and Co. are the bad guys. Count on lots of punching, shooting, blood and guts.
If you’re into this sort of thing, it’s an admirable effort.
Rapper-turned-actor Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones takes over the lead from Snipes, taking a better-than-expected handoff. The man speaks few words, so style is more important than substance, and Jones shows a good enough foundation to grow into the character over the course of a 13-episode season.
His sidekicks are the key to, pardon the pun, humanizing the story.
“In an episodic world, we can’t pull off the extreme fights that we did in the movie every week,” Goyer said. “But we can delve much deeper into the characters, delve more into the vampire world.”
Jill Wagner plays Starr and makes the most of a chance to shine in a co-lead role. Her character is a weapons specialist who knows her way around guns but is just desperate enough to be believable in search for clues about her dead brother.
Nelson Lee plays Shen, Blade’s wise-cracking assistant who helps create some good, old-fashioned, funny TV sidekick moments.
Shen’s job is to create weapons that Blade can use to take out vampires. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.
Neil Jackson, who plays lead vampire Van Sciver, plays the part with the look, style and tone that makes you believe he’s a vampire even when he isn’t baring his fangs.
The solid cast and on-the-mark writing by Goyer, who worked on the “Blade” films and others, including “Batman Begins,” make for a show that will be able to overcome the limitations of television vs. the big screen.
Victor Balta’s column runs Mondays and Thursdays on the A&E page. Reach him at 425-339-3455 or vbalta@ heraldnet.com.
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