My Review of Blade: Trinity (2004)

 

Written And Directed by David S. Goyer

Dracula: "Blade, ready to die?"

Blade: "I was born ready motherfucker!"

Dracula: "Motherfucker... I like that."

Okay, finishing off this trilogy, I noticed we had a certain co-lead who at the time did not get along with the leading man of the piece. Saying that, twenty years later would be a different situation but here, yup, two of the three main leads weren't on the best of terms with each other.

For the first two movies, Blade (Wesley Snipes) had his mentor, Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) to work but here, the latter's role was somewhat diminished and instead we got his daughter, Abigail (Jessica Biel) and former vampire, Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) to aid the titular vampire instead.

As an actor, Ryan Reynolds does have a a certain schtick and even in the early 2000s, it's very much apparent. His version of Hannibal King basically felt like a proto Deadpool throughout the entire film and oftentimes he was the weakest of the trio. Physically too, given that his character got captured and beaten up quite a bit.

Then there's Abigail herself. I don't think this trilogy was good with women and Abigail herself did feel like a generic action girl but she's a competent one who worked well with both Blade and Hannibal throughout the movie itself. Other women included scientist Sommerfield (Natasha Lynne) and young girl Zoe (Ginger "Haili" Page), both of whom were decent enough.

There was also Hannibal's vicious ex-girlfriend, Danica Talos (Parker Posey). Along with her brother, Asher (Callum Keith Rennie), Jarko Grimeood (Triple H) and a few others, they had a goal. The goal was to rescue Drake aka Dracula (Dominic Purcell) while also framing Blade for a murder to distract. They were successful with the former but not so much the latter.

As a group of vampires, they were mostly entertaining, even going as far as making vampire dog hybrids but as a villain, Drake was bland as fuck. Dominic Purcell eluded little menace and seemed to be sleepwalking through the entire role. It's such a lifeless performance that did kill a lot of the momentum for the movie.

- Other roles in the movie included James Remar as FBI Agent Ray Cumberland, Christopher Heyerdahl as Caulder, Patton Oswalt as Hedges, John Michael Higgins as Dr. Edgar Vance and Eric Bogosian as Bentley Tittle.

- Sommerfield was reading about the Nome King to Zoe before that particular scene went down.

- Hannibal narrated and the end of the movie, hinting about Blade's fate after being infected. There's an alternative ending to that scene.

- Chronology: A few years since the previous movie with scenes in the Syrian Desert as well as the USA for most of the movie.

Blade: Trinity made for a dull ending to a largely mixed trilogy. There's some decent moments but between an extremely dull incarnation of Dracula and okayish sidekicks, I just didn't care for this one at all. 

Rating: 5 out of 10 

My Review of Blade II (2002)

 

Written by David S. Goyer

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Blade: "There's an old saying: Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer."

A few months ago, I watched the first Blade movie and I had intended to watch the sequels but I got caught up with other stuff. This month I went back to rewatch MCU movies I hadn't reviewed and I realised I needed to catch up with three sequels.

This one in particular had Blade (Wesley Snipes) searching for his former human turned vampire mentor Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) and reuniting with him in Prague. It's a bit of a tense reunion but soon enough both Blade and Whistler have bigger problems to deal with. Oh and there's Scud (Norman Reedus) too.

Anyways the main plot of this sequel involved a pandemic that severely affected both humans and vampires alike. This forced Blade, Whistler and Scud into teaming up with the Bloodpack gang. The Bloodpack included Asad (Danny John-Jules), Nyssa (Leonor Valera), Reinhardt (Ron Perlman), Chupa (Matt Schulze), Snowman (Donnie Yen), Priest (Tony Curran), Verlaine (Marit Velle Kile), and her lover, Lighthammer (Daz Crawford).

They're a motley crew and the team up with them and Blade, Whistler and Scud had its moments. In between bickering, a deeply heated rivalry between Blade and Reinhardt and Bloodpack members getting picked off, one by one, there was also the main threat himself.

Nyssa and her brother, Jared Nomak (Luke Goss), it was their father Eli Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann) who was the main villain. He had the great scheme to create a superior race of vampires and he was the one responsible for the Reapers problem. Not to mention that Scud was also revealed to be a traitor, though that didn't end well for him.

The rest of the movie itself dived into the final battle between Blade and Damaskinos and the latter's offspring. It's fine enough with Damaskinos getting his just desserts and Blade getting something of a power boost. There's a nice final moment for Nyssa, who was presented as a sympathetic character.

- Blade managed to get revenge on Rush (Santiago Segura) by the end of the movie.

- Goyer had planned to use Morbius but Marvel kept a hold on the character.

- Standout music: Cypress Hill and Roni Size's Child of the Wild West and Lennox "Buppy" Brown's Mind What You Say.

- Chronology: Two years have passed since the events of the first movie.

Blade II was an okay sequel. I feel like there's not a lot else to really say. The action sequences are fine, Damaskinos was a decent enough baddie, Blade and Whistler got some cool scene and Scud's betrayal didn't jar that much. I didn't love it but it didn't annoy me either as a sequel.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Blade (1998)

 

Written by David S. Goyer

Directed by Stephen Norrington

Blade (to Karen): "You better wake up. The world you live in is just a sugar-coated topping! There is another world beneath it: the real world. And if you wanna survive it, you better learn to PULL THE TRIGGER!"

I've been talking about Blade recently on Twitter. First with the character's appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine and also because of the MCU's slow movement with a certain movie. It was enough to make me go back and watch this movie, which I haven't watched in a very long time.

As we know the title character Blade aka Eric Brooks (Wesley Snipes) is a Dhampir. In the opening flashback, we see his mother, Vanessa (Sanaa Lathan) being attacked by a vampire and then going into premature labour. Then it appeared that she was dead and thirty years passed.

In those thirty years, Blade had made a name for himself as a ruthless vampire hunter, trained by Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) and going through vampires in a rave club with a certain panache. Blade's action also drew attention of the main villain of the piece.

The villain of the piece being Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff). He's an ambitious upstart vampire with designs on conquering the human race and he's got a group of supporters that provide enough of a hindrance to Blade. In particular there's Quinn (Donal Logue), who does seem to lose his hands a lot but at least provided entertainment as a foil to Blade.

Then there's the quasi-love interest of sorts with hematologist, Dr Karen Jenson (N'Bushe Wright). She's a good romantic lead for Blade - smart and quick witted, able to hold her own when things escalate with Frost's grand scheme. She's also the one who gets him to drink blood at a crucial moment when he's nearly dead.

Deacon's scheme was ambitious with the Temple of Eternal Night being the big catalyst for his plot. The reveal of Vanessa having survived and her connection to Deacon certainly put Blade in a tough position. As villains both Deacon and Vanessa are excellent antagonists to watch and I greatly enjoyed watching Blade bringing their plans to a standstill. Deacon's demise alone was delightfully explosive.

- An epilogue scene had Blade dealing with a vampire in Moscow. Made a change from the very sunny location of Los Angeles.

- A deleted scene had director Stephen Norrington play Michael Mobius. 

- Standout music: Solitaire's Eclipse and David Hykes Rainbow Voice.

- Chronology: 1967 in flashbacks and 1997 for the majority of the movie, set in Los Angeles.

Blade as a movie does possess a fun, almost schlocky vibe to it with Wesley Snipes looking effortlessly cool as the lead character. The fight and kill sequences are good, the villain are a campy menace delight and there's a decent love story in there too. 

Rating: 7 out of 10