I haven't seen the short (48 minutes) anime movie released in 2000 that BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE is a live-action remake of, so I can't make comparisons or comment on any differences between them.
I really liked BLOOD, but I should point out that it is very unoriginal - there's nothing here that hasn't been seen in other horror/action thrillers. However, this movie thankfully lacks all the supposedly 'cool' stylish posing of the BLADE and UNDERWORLD films (which grew increasingly tiresome as both those series progressed). There's also an unexpected and wonderfully subtle scene in which ancient half-vampire heroine Saya enters a classroom on her first day at the school, and it's clear from the look in her eyes as she glances over her classmates that she has absolutely nothing in common with these children.
The movie is set in 1970 (the events in the original anime apparently take place in 1946) but apart from the lack of mobile phones, it might as well be the present. I'm guessing that BLOOD is a UK co-production based on the number of British actors in the cast: apart from Salmon, there's also Larry Lamb (who normally gets cast as Cockney villains) and Liam Cunningham, all playing Americans.
The film's many action scenes are competent and well handled, without being anything truly special. The most impressive is a early skirmish in which a badly-outnumbered Saya battles against several dozen demon opponents in an alleyway during a rainstorm. However, a lengthy period swordfighting flashback not only occurs too late in the narrative to be effective, but actually slows the film down when it should be building up to it's finale. And it's unfortunate that the climatic action sequence borrows heavily from setpieces seen in the recent genre movies UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION and WANTED.
But despite these shortcomings, as stated earlier I enjoyed BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE and would recommend it, provided that you're prepared for it's lack of originality.
Intriguingly, the movie's basic premise - an immortal, demon-hunting female warrior, who still looks like a teenager despite being several centuries old, enrolling into a private school and posing as a student - is near identical to the second season of the British television series HEX, which was screened in 2005. Also, not only did Colin Salmon play one of the teachers in HEX, but that show and BLOOD both have scenes in which the villains attempt to kill the main character's sidekick during a private ken-do lesson, only to be foiled by the heroine's unexpected intervention. 8/10
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