It
seems like everyone's grabbing a comic book line, hoping to turn it into
a franchise. Now TNT walks the superhero walk with its original telefilm
"Witchblade," an adventure about a New York detective who finds an ancient
artifact that turns her into a powerful warrior.
The
telefilm is true to its pedigree, and that's both good and bad news. The
visuals are cool and, occasionally, nicely subtle as our heroine, Sara
Pezzini (Yancy Butler of "Brooklyn South") flashes her new powers of super
speed and martial arts skill. But the characters as scripted are thin.
Even Sara, despite Butler's decent performance, is scripted to be emotionally
isolated and not allowed to connect with anyone after the early death of
her partner, Danny Woo (William Yun Lee of "What's Cooking?").
From
the start, Sara is a tough detective on a mission of vengeance. She's out
to bring down arch criminal Gallo (Conrad Dunn), whose mission in life
seems to be killing everyone Sara loves or cares for and then taunting
her.
Things
really start popping when Sara encounters the ancient Witchblade, a magical
bracelet that turns into a metallic glove and more. Only women can use
it, and now Sara has been chosen. She's in good company -- Joan of Arc
may have used the bracelet in battle once upon a time, the script suggests.
Like
Wonder Woman, Sara can bounce bullets off her Witchblade gauntlet. As in
"The Matrix," we see her dodge slow-mo gunfire. The problem is that no
instructions are included with the magical bracelet, so Sara has to depend
upon information from two enigmatic men, Kenneth Irons (Anthony Cistaro
of "Angel") and Ian Nottingham (Eric Etebari of "The Murder in China Basin").
Both men may have a secret agenda that includes controlling Sara and, through
her, the Witchblade.
Things
move a little too fast at TV series speeds. In fact, it's too fast even
for an introductory feature. The personal stuff doesn't get its due. Although
we learn that Sara had a heroic father, also a cop, we don't see them together
in flashback. She had a rapport with Danny, her partner, but he's dead.
Now she's partnered with ex-surfer-turned-cop Jake McCartey (David Chokachi
of "Baywatch"). He's anxious to work with her, but we can't figure out
why, given that she's constantly putting him down or ditching him.
It's
important to see why the central character is worthy of loyalty and affection.
One saving grace in this aspect is the way Sara is allowed to mourn for
Danny.
Watch
out for leaps in the story's internal logic that may have you shaking your
head. But hey, relax! It's only a telefilm. Soon, perhaps, it will become
a series or give birth to sequels.
