Blade: Trinity

After being tricked into the spotlight by a rogue group of Vampires; Blade is soon captured by the FBI. Before he can be taken to a secure location, he is rescued by The Nightstalkers, a group of Vampire Hunters, who want his help after they discover that Dracula (taking the pseudonym Drake) has been awoken!

Released in 2004, and directed by David S. Goyer; Blade: Trinity is a superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Blade, and is the third and final film in the Blade Trilogy. The film stars Wesley Snipes as Blade, with Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds, Dominic Purcell, Parker Posey, Patton Oswalt, Natasha Lyonne, Mark Berry, John Michael Higgins, Ginger Page, Triple H, and Kris Kristofferson in supporting roles. This is also the last live action Blade film produced to date (but I am still holding out that the long overdue Mahershala Ali film will come to fruition), and was followed by a live-action TV series starring Sticky Fingaz as Blade!

In my personal oppinion, I think the first Blade film is the best one. I know a lot of people would say Blade II was better, but personally I prefer the original Blade. But I do get a little conflicted by which is my second favourite, largely due to not really getting into Blade II, and instead largely preferring this one. I’m not saying Trinity is perfect though, as it is flawed, in almost every direction.

The first act for instance is a complete non-starter. It doesn’t really set up anything, or at least anything to do with the overall plot. It introduces the idea of Blade having to fight the humans he protects, and not just Vampires, but that completely fizzles out, and there’s no further work in that area. The starting villains are also rather pathetic, as they don’t come across as either sinister, or even a faint ghoulish; they come across like a group of well funded fools, who could be summed up by those famous four words from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “Mostly Harmless”, and “Don’t Panic”.

The film’s casting is a bit off with most of them. Parker Posey is introduced as the lead villain (or lead-in villain anyway), but she looks like she’s trying too hard to look mean, but looks average. Juliet Landau as Drusilla in Buffy taught us that you don’t need to try so hard to be creepy, you can just sort of be vague and let the creepiness do the job. And then there’s Ryan Reynolds, who is just awkward. His jokes just hang in the air, like a cue that the audience are supposed to laugh, but you just can’t. If he did the role post Deadpool, the delivery might be a whole lot better, but in this, he looks like he’s walked onto the wrong film set by mistake.

Oh and Triple H is in this film too, looking less dangerous than he does in the ring. Who knew there was a way to make Professional Wrestling look more realistic than a big budget Hollywood movie?!

So far, you may thinking that this film is going to be a hard one for anyone to argue towards it being any good, given these easy to spot flaws. But that’s why I started off with the bad, so now I can talk about the good, and it’s all really good. It should of course be noted that the film did have some ‘production difficulties‘, largely due to the actions of it’s lead star; but despite this, they still managed to squeeze some real high points in!

First off the action scenes are so much fun to watch. The fight scenes have been expertly choreographed, with plenty weapons based combat, and hand to hand moments too. Plus the final battle between Blade and Dracula is easily the best sword fight ever placed into a Superhero movie (although I accept that there aren’t many that come to mind, but if there were, they’d have a hard time even matching this). Also the soundtrack is an odd mix of pieces, which still somehow stick into your head after the credits have rolled!

Whilst he ‘may have been’ a tearaway on the film set; Wesley Snipes is still able to provide quality to his most iconic role. His cool, cold, and calm demeanor in any situation is to be envied. Take his rescue scene from the Police station for instance. Once he gets his kit back, he just nonchalantly walks out of the room, calm as a cucumber; even if the building is currently under attack. His use of graphic words is also well done, as he places them into the scene with ease where they would have the most effect, rather than just added for the sake of adding them.

Dominic Purcell meanwhile creates a new take on the role of Dracula (or Drake if you prefer), which works so well with Blade. Blade may be a Vampire Hunter, by Dracula comes to respect him, and has little respect for the actual vampires. He works as a far better villain too, as much like Blade, he is calm and collected, and not trying too hard to look menacing. Purcell just eases himself into the role, and much like Blade, he is a fish out of water, in a world that doesn’t know he exists, and this brings a level of pain to him emotionally.

When you look back on this film, one question immediately springs to mind: “Why wasn’t Jessica Biel a huge action star?” Biel is the absolute highlight of this film. Her fight scenes are simply Awesome, and her character is just cool and collected, but still acting like a voice of reason in certain situations. Other than perhaps Blade himself, she is the character everyone wants to be. Tough, skilled, smart, and badass. Biel and Snipes work so well together, you could argue that the film might have been improved considerably, if it was just those two (in a simillar fashion to Snipes and N’Bushe Wright in the first film). And yet the only time we see her is solely in this film. Jessica Biel was obviously talented, but much like Leelee Sobieski, she was frequently overlooked for major film parts, especially in action movies, where she could have made a real mark on the industry!

Blade: Trinity is obviously very divisive (well at least for me). On the one hand it’s a negatively received superhero film with issues, which could be the reason for a lack of movies bearing the character since. But at the same time, it does squeeze in enough goodies to make it at least watchable and enjoyable, if a million miles from perfection. But I don’t think it should be totally shunned, as whilst it did get quite a bit wrong, it also got a lot right, particularaly in the realms of fight coordination, music, acting, and above all else…Jessica Biel!