By Cheryl Eddy

PHOTO C2004 DIYAH PERA/NEW LINE PRODUCTIONS

Though he's packed a wide range of roles into his filmography (New Jack City, Jungle Fever, White Men Can't Jump, Passenger 57, Rising Sun, The Fan, One Night Stand, uh ... To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar), Snipes is clearly at home in action-figure mode – since the first Blade film came out in 1998, he hasn't really been up to much else. It's also hard to argue with being the coolest cat in the Blade universe; plucked from Marvel's Tomb of Dracula comic book series, Blade, a.k.a. "the Daywalker," is a half man, half vampire singularly dedicated to wiping everything with a pair of fangs off the planet. The earlier Blade films – both written by David S. Goyer, who wrote and also directed Trinity – paid more attention to the character's origin story, his internal conflicts, and other soul-searching matters. Now, having vanquished such adversaries as a Lost Boys-esque Stephen Dorff (first film) and a cannibalistic strain of C.G.-assisted vamps (second film), Blade's set to take on the big D himself – Dracula, unearthed from a deep slumber to aid in the world-domination plan of the local vampire population.

You'd think the dapper count would want to spend the hibernation portion of his eternal life in, I don't know, Transylvania. But the crew of baddies, led by an awesomely so-wrong-yet-so-right Parker Posey, digs him up amid shifting sands in the Middle East – first identified as the "Syrian desert" and later flat-out fingered as "Iraq." Shazam! After he reanimates, feeds (cue nubile young 'uns), and shape-shifts into "Drake" (Dominic Purcell), a thick-necked white dude with pectoral cleavage, he's instructed to get rid of ol' Blade once and for all.

Meanwhile, Blade and salty graybeard Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) – the Q to Blade's Bond, the Mr. Miyagi to Blade's Daniel-san – find it suddenly inconvenient to continue their underground supernatural crime-fighting lifestyle, thanks to the nightly news and a pesky Federal Bureau of Investigation agent (Sex and the City's James Remar). Assistance, and innumerable wisecracks and iPod product placement, comes in the form of "the Nightstalkers," a ragtag crew of vampire hunters who spring Blade from police custody ("You think you can roll with this?" the ungrateful solo star barks when he takes stock of their operation). The Nightstalkers include Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and Whistler's daughter, Abigail (Jessica Biel), who do the heavy lifting; a blind scientific genius-single mom (Natasha Lyonne); and the requisite goofy gadget guy (Patton Oswalt).

With so many character actors filling the supporting cast, there's hardly any time to stop and sample the Count Chocula. In addition to the above, look for Eric Bogosian as a talk show host, Christopher Guest ensemble regular John Michael Higgins as a sleazy psychologist, and WWE wrestler Triple H as a blood-sucking heavy who totes a vamped-up Pomeranian. It could be too silly. It is too silly. But don't tell Snipes – he's as stone-faced as ever, uttering precious few lines (though he does get a few brilliantly placed Dolemite-style exclamations: "I'll kill you myself, muthafucka!"). Car chases, fist fights, guys on fire, extended martial arts sequences – that's why Snipes is here. If you follow the showbiz rumor mill, you've no doubt heard that the control-freak star was supposedly displeased with having to share the spotlight with his younger costars – even refusing to do any press to promote Trinity, according to widely circulated Internet chatter.

Whether or not there's any truth in that, it's still pretty clear that Snipes is in his own zone here; when Reynolds's character asks the humorless Blade "Do you ever blink?," it feels like a legitimate question rather than a sideways compliment. Still, why argue when it works? Vampires are staked, Posey poses, the bodies of Biel and Reynolds display the eye-pleasing efforts of their personal trainers, and Snipes glowers. Trinity is hardly Oscar-bound, but for genre fans, a better holiday distraction would be hard to find. 'Blade: Trinity' opens Wed/8 at Bay Area theaters. See Movie Clock, in Film listings, for show times.