DVD Review: Blade TV Series

Rick Bentley - Fresno Bee

TV's 'Blade' on DVD

Blade, the Marvel Comics hero who is half-man/half- vampire, went from being a film franchise for Wesley Snipes to a series for Spike TV. If you did not catch the 13 episodes of the action series, the first season DVD hits stores Tuesday.

Rapper-turned-actor Kirk "Sticky" Jones stars. His approach to playing the brooding character that had become so well known through three feature films was to make the character more communicative.

"You know, he's kind of closed. But he's half-human as well. So he's kind of open," Jones says during an interview to promote the launch of the series. "From 'Blade 1,' '2' and '3,' what Wesley did was he kind of graduated it. I guess we're picking up where that left off."

Jones, who previously starred in the cable television series "Over There," adds that the heavy dose of action that was a trademark of the movies is another aspect of "Blade" continued in the television series.

The series has Blade, based in Detroit, involved in an investigation of a nest of vampires. Blade realizes he must form an uneasy alliance with Krista Starr (Jill Wagner), a military veteran who has become part of the world of vampires as part of her investigation of a murder.

"Krista Starr is a very strong, fiery, very intelligent female. She just has come back from a war, and she's kind of broken," Wagner says. "She comes back, basically, to the one love of her life, her twin brother.

"She comes back to find out that he's been murdered. So she goes to try to avenge his death."

Wagner says that while her character appears to be a good person, there is always the chance she could become very bad.

The release of the season on DVD gives viewers the chance to see that progression more quickly.

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