Bloodrayne (2005) is fun, bloody trash.

I can't in good conscience say this one was as bad as people say. I had a lot of fun, even with its dumb ideas and flaws, it's not a movie I would call terrible or awful because it features a lot of fun scenes and even some laughs. 

Bloodrayne was based on a videogame of the same name, I might get to it eventually for the blog but the movie is so different it doesn't even matter. It was directed by the guy who made lots of bad video game adaptations in the last two decades, Uwe Boll. He gave us some really fun trashy movies with female heroes, such as the Bloodrayne movies and Blubberella, all of them widely hated.

I will begin this cycle of Boll heroines with the first film in the Bloodrayne trilogy. It's about a female vampire named Rayne, who's mother was abused and murdered by Kagan, the vampire king. Being in the 18th century, she's held captive in a freakshow, but she escapes and meets with a group of vampire slayers, joining them in their quest of destroying said vampire.

Rayne is a stoic and mostly emotionless vampire/vampire slayer but she means good and doesn't attack innocent people, in fact, she often saves humans from vicious bloodsuckers. She gets her signature blades because they were part of the act of a girl she was friends with at the carnival, the girl got bitten by Rayne before escaping (and was eventually killed by her nemesis) but the main character grew attached to her weapon in order to remember her only friend during those dark times.

The vampire hunters are searching for Rayne because they are aware of her being a relative of the vampire king but she eventually wins their trust and they team up. The best scenes are the fight scenes, predictably, even if they are too clunky and edited way too fast to be properly followed. I loved the sequence of Rayne entering the monastery in order to find a talisman and encountering several badly rendered spinning blades and a ghastly-looking deformed monster with a huge hammer. 

The protagonist is serviceable and fun to watch but her relationship with the main male hero is very rushed and unconvincing, they even have sex before the last act, which is a very forced and exploitative scene that makes zero sense.

Michelle Rodriguez is there too, she plays Katarin, another member of the vampire killers. She initially seems like the typical badass girl of the group, known territory for Rodriguez but the plot has her being jealous and wary of Rayne, only to have her betray the vampire slayers and our heroine. Rayne and Katarin have a good training session with a rivalry subtext that makes it fun and their underwater battle it's another highlight. 

There are also some generic henchwomen and warrior ladies among the good guys and the vampires. Nothing too noticeable but for an action/fantasy movie of the time this features some neat female presence in its cast. So it's not without its merits.

Wonder Woman (1942): The original run (Part 5)

Here we meet one of the most popular villains when it comes to Wonder Woman, besides Cheetah, the misogynistic Dr. Psycho, a small enemy of all women.

We begin with Mars, the recurring villain, searching for a way to stop female equality on earth. He doesn't want women helping men at war, because it makes them stronger enemies. He asks Deception to hatch a scheme against them.

Deception soon finds the earthling named Doctor Psycho, a man of small stature and with a big head who was cheated on and hurt by his ex-lover, he was jailed and began to hate humanity, especially women. 

Wonder Woman goes to Dr. Psycho's new magic show. The villain does a lot of tricks, one of them involves bringing George Washington back from the grave, only to order men to leave women out of any responsibility because of their supposed incompetence and weakness. He predicts a devastating accident will occur soon because of a woman.

Diana is obviously mad about this, so she decides to investigate. However, the predicted accident actually happens, Trevor suspects that the evil doctor is behind this and goes to interrogate him but he is captured. Eventually, Wonder Woman also falls into the hands of the sinister Dr. Psycho, who tries to separate the soul from Wonder Woman's body.

The girls are tricked into looking incompetent in humiliating ways

Dr.Psycho trying to make Diana's body expel her soul.

Her friends go out to help her but they are then distracted by the villain. Wonder Woman frees herself and finds Dr. Psycho's wife, who is a medium (and was kidnapped), used by the villain for his nefarious plans.

Psycho is attacked by the girls and taken to prison.

Apparently, women intimidate the villain and weaken his mental powers.

Wonder Woman helping the medium

Dr. Psycho about to get beaten by the college girls.

Deception was jailed by Mars because he failed to execute his plan. He sends him to the Women’s Prison but he will soon learn that it was a huge mistake.   

Once in prison, Deception manipulates the women of mars to have a revolt, he helps them escape and creates a prison break with the females of mars.

The revolution is noticeable from earth and Diana is sent along with Paula to investigate, they ride a Sky Kanga ( a flying space kangaroo) in order to travel there. 

Once they get to Mars, the girls are captured by the army of Martian women. They chain Wonder Woman (whose great weakness is to be tied up by a man) and make her prisoner. Soon, the women rebel once more and attack Mars and his forces.

Wonder Woman and the women fight against the Martian army. Diana engages in hand-to-hand combat with Mars, and demonstrates her female power by knocking him out in one swift blow. The girls go back to their planet as the Martian women are free.

In the last Chapter, Dr. Psycho wants to escape his captivity, he wants to confess but he is gonna need his medium for it, so he makes the police officers look for his secretary in order to talk to her, they agreed because they think he will confess that way but he really just wants her in order to channel his powers and use his supernatural abilities. 

After that, Dr. Psycho is found dead while writing his confession. 

Wonder Woman investigates the villain's death. But some crazy guy who calls himself "Good Night" warns Trevor about his upcoming murder. He doesn't listen and thinks of him as some random lunatic, pero the guy actually comes back in order to kill him, the crazy man becomes ectoplasm and goes away. 

With this information, Wonder Woman goes to Psycho's grave in order to confirm his death. He attacks her while possessing another body and knocks her out. 

Etta and Trevor find the medium and free her from her mental prison, nullifying Psycho's powers, who is then catched by Wonder Woman. 

Likable issue, with lots of new lore, themes of sexism and a good new villain.