Thanks to red-hot properties such as "Spider-Man" and "X-Men," Marvel has made itself a player at the box office.

But with every smash, there are a few duds, and recently, Marvel's been in a bit of a rut.

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Everyone -- fanboys, critics, heck, even Wesley Snipes -- hated BLADE: TRINITY (R/ unrated, ***), but color The Video Guy a weirdo because I enjoyed the finale to the trilogy of everyone's favorite vampire-killing superhero.

If you weren't aware, Snipes is suing New Line Cinemas, blaming writer-director David S. Goyer for the box-office failure of the film in addition to what Snipes felt was a perceived lessening of his Blade character.

While this might be true to an extent, this still is Snipes' film, and the role of Blade fits him like a glove.

This time around, Blade is set up to take a murder rap by a group of vampires who have unearthed the big man himself, Count Dracula. (A supremely buff Dominic Purcell plays this role -- did they have health clubs back then?)

Coming to Blade's assistance are a ragtag group of fellow hunters, the Nightstalkers, led by Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel) and Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds). They are working on a virus that will effectively eliminate all vampires, maybe even Blade.

Snipes' problem with the film deals with the tone, which is decidedly jokier than the previous two films, thanks to Reynolds' constant juvenile patter.

At times, it looks like Snipes wants to choke Reynolds, and when Hannibal asks Abigail, "He hates me, doesn't he?" you feel like the answer is yes in real life as well.

But this "Blade" doesn't veer that much from its predecessors. It's still a fun, fast-paced, loud flick about a guy who kills vampires. It really doesn't need to get any deeper than that.

And while Snipes felt this film was set up to spin off the Nightstalkers, the lackluster box office likely foiled those plans as well as any chance we'll see Blade again.

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Lest you forget how I felt about "Daredevil," I awarded it the rare (and well-deserved) zero-star rating, so needless to say, I was not excited about a spinoff from that movie.

But it's hard to hate ELEKTRA (PG-13, * 1/2 stars) because it's just there -- a bland, by-the-numbers film that doesn't do anything egregiously wrong, but also doesn't bring anything new to the table.

Jennifer Garner steps back into her "Daredevil" role as Elektra, the leather-clad warrior who was brought back from the dead thanks to some mystical mumbo-jumbo.

Now she serves as an assassin-for-hire, taking out her frustration and guilt on the criminal underworld. But when her next assignment requires a hit on a father (Gorin Visnjic) and daughter (Kirsten Proust), Elektra balks and helps the family escape from the new hitmen, a nefarious criminal organization called The Hand.

The Hand features a strongman, a guy whose tattoos come to life, and Typhoid Mary, who can kill people just by blowing on them. So why didn't they just use her and get the job done?

Instead, we have to see Elektra battle the very talkative Kirigi (Will Yun Lee) in a series of fights lifted straight from Action Film 101. Meanwhile, it turns out that the girl is the next big thing in the battle between good and evil, and it's up to Elektra to protect her.

Garner does a decent job; it's just that her character is so underwritten it's hard to really understand her motives. For example, it's alluded that Elektra has an obsessive-compulsive disorder, but it doesn't really factor into anything. Huh?

It was a nice try, but the definitive female superhero movie still is waiting to be made.

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Flush with money and drunk with power, Marvel has gotten over its head recently in movie deals. Example No. 1: MAN-THING (R, 1/2 star, due on DVD June 14), which ranks up there with '90s abominations "Captain America" and "The Fantastic Four" in its awfulness. This was supposed to be released in theatres, but apparently, someone came to his or her senses about this turkey.

First, has anyone ever even heard of Man-Thing? Second, has anyone ever heard of any actor in this movie? Why you would make a movie about a third-tier character with B-rate actors is beyond me, but here it is.

For all 15 of you Man-Thing fans out there: This is an adaptation in name only, and the sympathetic character of the comics is replaced by an indiscriminate monster that kills at will.

Our hero, "Yankee" sheriff Kyle (Matthew Le Nevez) arrives at his new job to find bodies have been piling up at an alarming rate for a backwater burg. With the help of a comely "Southern" teacher and a mysterious "Indian," they slowly -- very slowly -- discover that something is out in the swamp.

Why, you might wonder, are our characters' designations in quotes? Well, because this film was shot in Australia with primarily Australian actors, so their attempts at using the appropriate accents are downright laughable, when they manage to hold them for a full scene.

This movie is a disaster on all fronts. If you're going to have a movie called "Man-Thing," we should at least get to see it before the film's final five minutes. Marvel has a lot of explaining to do for this one.

Elliott Smith is a sportswriter for The Olympian by night and The Video Guy even later at night. Readers can send comments or suggestions to ejsmith1@olympia.gannett.com.

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