You have to wonder if the reticence of Wesley Snipes to do press for Blade: Trinity is a bad omen, a marketing technique, or just a temperamental actor's diva trip.

Whatever the reason, Snipes's silence is somehow appropriate for a film in which he plays a solemn half-vampire/half-mortal who walks tall, speaks softly, and carries a big sword. Like Clint Eastwood's gunslinger in Unforgiven, Blade seems to have grown weary of his thankless role of protecting humans from the clutches of vampires, and he is clearly pissed off with mortals, particularly the FBI, who see him as the bad guy.

In his long leather coat and wraparound shades, Snipes is the ultimate urban hipster antihero: a cross between Shaft and hip-hop mogul Sean "Puffy" Combs, let's call him Puffy the Vampire Slayer.

Although that may seem like cheap wordplay, it's a fairly accurate description of the comic tone in this action-horror series' third chapter, which, like Buffy, is possessed of a fairly high sarcasm-to-terror ratio. It's a refreshing new wrinkle, and one that saves Trinity from becoming yet another run-of-the-mill fright fest. Much of the credit for this evolution is due to writerdirector David S. Goyer, who must have tired of the excessive gravity of the first two Blade films, which he also wrote but did not direct.

Goyer gets extra humour mileage from actor Ryan Reynolds, who brings a facetious cockiness to his role of rehabilitated vampire Hannibal King. Reynolds plays the wisecracking comic foil to Snipes's steely Blade, nudging the film into that broader category that includes films as diverse as The Matrix and Fight Club.

In fact, Snipes plays it so low-key--a series of nonverbal gestures and monosyllabic grunts--that Reynolds gets all the best lines, particularly in the dialogue between King and the evil vampire-terrorist Danica Talos, played by Parker Posey.

Besides Talos and King, Trinity introduces a new character, Abigail Whistler, played with minimal enthusiasm by Jessica Biel. A largely cosmetic character, Abigail is the mysterious lost daughter of Blade's mentor, Abraham Whistler, once again played with grizzled intensity by Kris Kristofferson. Filling out the cast admirably, comic Patton Oswalt and indie-film staples Natasha Lyonne and John Michael Higgins are almost overqualified for their minor supporting roles.

Beautifully shot in Vancouver (but set in Anycity, U.S.A.), Blade: Trinity moves along at a lively pace and is enhanced by RZA's haunting score. Having done music for Quentin Tarantino and Jim Jarmusch, the ex--Wu Tang Clan member seems to have successfully made the transition to soundtrack composer.

Blade's petulant star has called this the final film in the trilogy. That could change if Blade: Trinity is a huge moneymaker. But with Reynolds and Biel making such a smart couple of vampire hunters, who needs Snipes?