"Blade: Trinity" may be the third in the big-screen movie series that has Wesley Snipes playing a half-vampire slayer, but the third time is not the charm.

In fact, this messy action-horror film is by far the most unpleasant, most unwatchable movie in what's already been a pretty sketchy trilogy.

Fittingly, this comic book-inspired effort was directed by comic book writer David Goyer, who makes several choices — mistakes, really — that even a novice director should have avoided.

As with the other films in the series, "Blade: Trinity" is pretty much self-contained, as Blade tries to stop a vampire cabal that's planning to take over the world. To that end, they've unearthed the unholy "father" of all vampires, Dracula himself (Dominic Purcell, from TV's "North Shore").

So it's up to our shoot-first-ask-questions-later hero to keep them from harnessing Dracula's DNA to . . . well, whatever it is they're hoping to do with him; it's never made clear. Unfortunately, Blade is already on the run from the FBI and police, who believe he murdered one of the cabal's human henchmen.

Fortunately, he's got help — which he needs when he's nabbed by the cops — in the form of Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel), the daughter of his former mentor. And she's recruited the wisecracking Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds), another recovering former vampire.

Writer-director Goyer (who also wrote the other two films) isn't much of a filmmaker or storyteller. His idea of character development is to have the characters spout one-liners or obscenities; at times, Reynolds appears to be on hand simply to jack up the film's curse-word tally.

And while a couple of the action scenes are exciting, there's a curious lack of energy — in the film at large and both Snipes' and Biel's performances. The only person who really seems to be having any fun is Parker Posey, who plays the cabal's leader.

"Blade: Trinity" is rated R for nonstop horror/action violence (vampiric attacks, fist fighting, gunfire, arrow fire and some explosive mayhem), graphic gore, frequent use of strong profanity, crude sexual slang terms and other sexually suggestive talk, and some drug content (hypodermic use). Running time: 114 minutes.

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