#29 - Dracula 3: Legacy

MOVIE:  Dracula 3: The Legacy (2005)

RECAP:  Before I get into the plot of Dracula 3, I have to recap Dracula 2000 and Dracula 2.  In Dracula 2000, we learn that Dracula had been captured several hundred years ago by Van Helsing and kept in a steel coffin under lock and key.  Van Helsing remained alive by transfusing small amounts of Dracula's blood into his system in the hopes that some way could eventually be found to slay Dracula.  Apparently, he's immune to silver and stakes through the heart just piss him off.  Unfortunately, a group of thieves rob the steel coffin from Van helsing's vault, mistaking it for something valuable, and Dracula's coffin is opened while the group is flying over New Orleans.  Dracula proceeds to slay everyone involved, the plane crashes in New Orleans, and Dracula is freed to find Van Helsing's daughter, who has dracula's blood flowing through her veins as a result of Van helsing's infusions.  Through her link with Dracula, Van helsing's daughter discovers who he really is... Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ, which is why Dracula (and by extension, all vampires) hates crosses, silver (the 30 pieces of silver), and all things christian.  Unfortunately as the saying goes, he cannot die until god forgives him, so instead they manage to hang him from a neon cross in full daylight, lighting him on fire.  In Dracula 2, a bunch of medical students discover his corpse in a morgue, burned beyond recognition, and realize his body for what it is, that of a vampire.  They manage to resurrect him with blood and keep him prisoner in an attempt to divine what secrets his blood holds so that their professor, his body twisted and ravaged by disease, might be cured.  Unfortunately, Dracula escapes, while a Vampire hunter from the vatican stalks him.  Dracula infects a young medical student named Elizabeth and takes her with him, and another student joins the vampire hunter in his quest to find her and slay Dracula.

PLOT:  This movie begins with the vampire hunter being recalled by the vatican, but the hunter (a half-vampire priest) breaks with the church rather than give up his quest.  Tracking Dracula back to  europe, the pair of hunters must navigate a war zone to find and kill their final target, and rescue Elizabeth.

OVERALL ENJOYMENT:  The series as a whole was pretty good, but I think this movie kind of dropped the ball compared to the first 2.  Still, it wasn't bad, there were vampires, nudity, lots of blood and gore, and plenty of beheadings to end the series.

GOOD POINTS:  A couple of the same actors from Dracula 2.  Not the same actor who played Dracula, but Rutger Hauer this time, who was not necessarily an improvement (he made Dracula look way too much like Lothos from Buffy the vampire slayer, lol), but a better actor, at least.  And, nudity!  So, points for that.

BAD POINTS:  Dracula, who was so prevalent in the first two movies, is only in two scenes in this one.  Basically this could be called "Two vampire hunters slay some vampires and dracula makes a guest appearance." except that title is way too long and gives away the whole plot.  lol

SPOILERS:  Okay, so... nobody tried beheading before?  Duh!  Why is this not an obvious choice for killing a vampire?  Shit, they even knew to do that in Captain Chronos, Vampire Hunter!  Bah.  Just bugs me, the inconsistencies.  Also, in the second movie, Vampires were supposedly OCD counters of seeds and compulsive knot-untie-ers.  Which was used once in that movie and NEVER REFERRED TO AGAIN.  Nice.  lol  Way to be inconsistent.

IMPRESSIONS:  Ties everything up, so to speak.  Might see a Dracula 4 eventually, but I doubt it, since Roy Scheider (the sheriff from jaws), who played the vatican priest sending the vampire hunter off on his mission, is now deceased.  Also, well, don't want to give anything away, but it'd be hard to call the movie Dracula 4 without Dracula making an appearance.  lol  Still, might be worth a watch if you like martial arts vampire hunters doing battle with Lothos, I mean, err, Dracula.  I have seen part of this movie before, but it was still rewatchable.

OTHER NEWS:  Hurricane/Tropical Storm Sandy is making her way northwest.  Locally, we are currently getting the outermost winds from the northwest part of the storm, but we are so far away from the center (it's now just a big storm, having lost hurricane status after making landfall earlier today) that the trees are barely moving around here.  It'll turn back northeast before it even gets near us.  We might lose electricity over the next couple days due to minor flooding or downed tree limbs, but I doubt we'll have any real problems around here.  Not so the other places where it hit harder, and I hope everyone out there is being as safe as possible under the circumstances.  Last I heard there were a couple hundred people trapped by flood waters (somewhere... new york city maybe?) who had chosen to remain in their homes, and the rescue services had to retreat for their own safety, but I don't think those trapped people were in any immediate danger.  I guess we'll find out how they fared after the flood waters recede.  Good luck riding out the rest of the storm, everybody!  I think by tomorrow we'll have seen the worst of it, and by Halloween it'll all be over except for the rain.

See you guys tomorrow night if I still have electricity!