kingandy | Wrapped inside an enigma

Been to see BLADE TRINITY. It is an excellent movie heavily diluted with some of the worst tripe known to man.

I mean, seriously. Not to blow the same old record but I thought, Alien Resurrection aside, Joss Whedon had raised the bar for writers of action drama. It doesn't have to be laugh-a-minute but it should at least be natural. Some of this dialogue was stilted and bizarre and basically made no sense outside the context of an action movie. And yet, somehow, in the middle of all this was Hannibal King, who appears to be basically the Marvel Universe equivalent of Xander Harris (only a lot more competent and about six times sexier). His dialogue was both snappy and realistic, his delivery and timing almost exactly the same as Nicholas Brendon's. He also managed to foil several action movie clichés singlehanded (such as climaxing his dramatic speech at exactly the moment his rescuers didn't crash through the walls to rescue him), and saved the crappy exposition scenes from being taken too seriously by being so facetious that you weren't sure what was actual plot and what was him taking the piss. Oh, and cock-juggling thundercunt has to be the line of the movie. I would happily watch that character in a weekly serial. (The gratuitous shirt-off scene may have had some bearing on this.)

That said, Mr Snipes managed a couple of comedy moments too, without shattering his po-faced GRR SMASH demeanor - specifically upon realising their torture victim's cellphone was ringing ("Oh, that's you?") and the outrage upon realising another guy was more scared of the vampires than of him. This, however, is entirely counterbalanced by the five-minute grief scene where he stands at the back shouting "USE IT!" over and over.

Plot holes abound: When did Science Lady record that message from the grave, exactly? And why did Drake disguise himself as Whistler, a man he'd never met, while he murdered the blind lady? (Answer: To make the audience think "Oh, he's back from the dead again." There didn't seem to be an IC reason.) And I'm none too clear on why King's "Toys" upon rescue turned out to be a single gun which he then didn't bother using or loading (there may have been a deleted shot or scene where the bullets fell out, or I may have zoned out for a fight scene; as I say I'm not sure). And, of course, most of the science guff was utter nonsense.

But. The vampire dogs were fun, King was excellent, the fight scenes were mostlyabove par. It would be an excellent movie to watch with friends and heckle. Luckily I didn't pay to see it, so it was an acceptable evening's entertainment.

In other news: SOS this weekend, I had fun, much props to

maddam for arranging a mid-tavern mini to recover Isaac's sword (stolen by a random demon incursion). It is his only magic item so I was eager to recover it.

I believe my Christmas shopping may be more or less complete. Now I must find some way to deliver them all...