BLADE: TRINITY (2004)

Written & Directed By: David S. Goyer 
Based on Characters Created By: Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan 
Cinematography By: Gabriel Beristain 
Editor: Conrad Smart & Howard E. Smith 


Cast: Wesley Snipes, Ryan Reynolds, Jessica Biel, Parker Posey, Dominic Purcell, Kris Kristofferson, Patton Oswalt, Natasha Lyonne, Francoise Yip, James Remar, John Michael Higgins, Callum Keith Rennie, Paul Levesque, Eric Bogosian 


Blade finds himself alone surrounded by enemies, fighting an up hill battle with the vampire nation and now humans. He joins forces with a group of vampire hunters who call themselves the Nightstalkers. The vampire nation awakens the king of vampires Dracula from his slumber with intentions of using his primitive blood to become day-walkers. On the other side is Blade and his team manifesting a virus that could wipe out the vampire race once and for all. In the end the two sides will collide and only one will come out victorious, a battle between the ultimate vampire who never knew defeat, facing off against the greatest vampire slayer.

The difficulty it seems behind the scenes made this project suffer to a degree. Because even though it was meant to build to a spin-off movie. It already feels like a spin-off movie. Due to Wesley snipes and the director not getting along it seems more the supporting characters do the heavy lifting. Not to mention the villains get more attention then is needed. As blade is barely in the film rather he seems more a constant reference for the characters.

Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel more take center stage also Parker Posey as one of the villains does to, she is vastly more interesting then the other two even though the Film seems to have Reynolds perfecting his onscreen persona of the cynical wisecracking hero. So much so that his humor takes center stage instead of any danger or thrills.

It also doesn’t helps that the greatest villain to blade is THE Dracula and he comes off more as a wrestler who has been giving an acting role. He has no charisma nor anything interesting about him. He seems More like a roided our body builder.

The film has a plethora of action sequences that are more cool than practical. Especially with biel listening to music that goes with the fight sequences while fighting. As she is more blocking essential senses that will be needed in defense of self and others.

The film feels lien what it is a compromise that tries to go into mythology but then seems more interested in action.

It doesn’t help that screenwriter David S. Goyer. Who at that point had written all of the films doesn’t have the visual eye that previous directors of the films Stephen Norrington and Guillermo del toro brought to the films. Stephen Norrington almost came back to direct, but he was upset by the final script and decided to decline.

The continuity of the film makes no sense considering the character of whistler had his whole family die and now all of a sudden his daughter played by Biel comes out of nowhere it feels cheap. Which was one of the many reasons Wesley Snipes and Kris Kristofferson disliked making the movie and the script, but were contractually obligated. As with all these new characters and sidekicks, It made no sense for the characters who are more loner types who have been betrayed whenever supposedly trusting others, Not to mention they could both see that they were being replaced by these new younger characters. So it seems more like this film is an introduction for a spin-off movie. Wesley Snipes behavior only seems to have made this seem more likely.

The film has an eclectic cast and introduces fun characters only to kill them off. That seems meant to be a surprise to shock and anger the audience. Throwing is off guard like the first MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movie where they destroy what is known and expected leading us to be off guard.

This film was a major disappointment as at the time it was one of the few superhero films out there and definitely one of the first African American inspired ones. Especially from an established graphic novel/comic book character. Not one just made up for the screen.

With the drama behind the scenes the movie already seemed doomed. I am not defending anyone just noting how much this film is more of a missed opportunity. Especially as this franchise seemed to have much more juice in it. As it continuously keeps refreshing it’s mythology


Grade: D+