Bloodless: Day #284 - Vampire Effect (2003)
Viewed October 11, 2006
Vampire Effect is, in many ways, a typical Hong Kong actioner with little originality or truly interesting aspects to make it stand out from a sea of lookalike films.
The story tells of a vampire hunter named Reeve (Ekin Cheng) who has not had much luck with assistants (they keep getting killed). His new one, Gypsy (Gillian Chung) seems to be a step above, but clashes with Reeve’s sister, Helen (Charlene Choi). Helen, on the other hand, has problems of her own, as she is falling for a vampire, Kazaf (Edison Chen), who goes as far as to try a “sunblock” to be outside with her. Meanwhile, the malevolent Duke Dekotes (Mickey Hardt), a European vampire leader, is trying to kill all the “vampire princes” in order to harness the power of an ancient book and be able to walk in the sun and, therefore, control the world.
I guess it does have one thing going for it: the two attractive lead actresses (in actuality a pop singing duo called The Twins). But their acting isn’t that good and their individual characters aren’t really interesting enough to keep me involved in the story.
The rest of the cast isn’t much better (and not as good looking). Cheng’s Reeve has virtually no charisma and Gypsy’s fascination with him is unfathomable. Chen’s Kazaf is somewhat better. At least he is amusing as he tries to come to terms with falling for a human. Worst of all, though, are the many European actors, including Hardt. Maybe the director just couldn’t tell, but there isn’t a decent performance in the bunch.
And then there’s Jackie Chan; prominantly displayed on the cover, but purely secondary to the main film. I can only guess that he was doing this as a favor for someone, since his part is so small and absolutely unnecessary. Chan plays an ambulance driver, whose wedding Helen and Kasaf crash on the day he tries out the “sunblock”. That scene, which descends quickly into comic farce, should have been enough and would have been an amusing little cameo for Jackie. But they run into him again later for a full-blown action sequence which goes on too long and is too short on spectacle.
But the biggest problem with Vampire Effect is that the plot makes little sense. I like a convoluted vampire story as much as the next guy, but the oddball twists and turns that the filmmakers make in this movie just leave the whole thing as a big, difficult-to-follow mess. I could never follow how the hierarchy of the Vampire world worked, how this Asian “prince” could be the brother of the Anglo ones seen earlier or how exactly walking in the sun was supposed to make Dekotes so much more powerful.
With not terribly interesting characters, a nonsensical plot and poor acting throughout, there is little about Vampre Effect to recommend. In all honesty, if you want a vampire hunting film, you’re better off watching one of the “Blade” entries (even the disappointing Blade Trinity) rather than watching this.