LosAngelesTimes
Michael Ordoña
What we have here is a failure to communicate.
Even when one adjusts expectations for an English-language adaptation of an animé adaptation of a manga, shot as a Michael Bay knockoff by a French video director, the often-unwatchably dim Blood: The Last Vampire doesn't convey much of anything. That's "dim" in many senses. The supposed plot involves a beautiful half-human, half-vampire government agent hunting demons in Japan with her American schoolgirl sidekick during the Vietnam War. If you're going "Huh?" already, just wait.
Vampires and demons hang out in sunlight and have no specified powers or limitations. There are long, imponderably shot, sped-up and edited martial-arts fights. The dialogue is of the ilk of "Everything according to plan?" The sidekick is superfluous and largely reduced to screaming and whimpering throughout. Director Chris Nahon (Kiss of the Dragon) jumbles together the usual batch of silly macho stereotypes (sunglasses at night, you know the type) and stock sequences with a visual palette ranging from barely visible black to impenetrable black. The exercise filches shamelessly from 300, Star Wars, The Matrix and countless kung-fu movies.
Blood's only surprise is that the filmmakers landed Gianna (also known as Gianna Jun, or Jeon Ji-hyun) for the lead. The South Korean megastar proves a more-than-capable action heroine, despite the creative detritus around which she has to navigate.