Released: 1998, 2002, 2004
Directors: Stephen Norrington, Guillermo del Toro, David S. Goyer
Run Time: 120, 117, 122 minutes
Rated R
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Genre: Action/Horror
Cast:
Wesley Snipes: Blade
Kris Kristofferson: Whistler
Stephen Dorff: Deacon Frost
Luke Goss: Nomak
Dominic Purcell: Drake
N’Bushe Wright: Karen
Leonore Varella: Nyssa
Jessica Biel: Abigail
Donal Logue: Quinn
Ron Perlman: Reinhardt
Ryan Reynolds: Hannibal King
Last week, I made a post about issues over at Marvel Studios/Disney. I mentioned that there was a lot of internal issues surrounding the studio and their decisions. The quality of Marvel’s movies over the past couple of years have been very mixed, to put it politely. But one of the most anticipated projects, Blade, has had numerous issues including the departure of TWO directors and FIVE writers. Apparently, the upcoming film’s star, Mahershala Ali was about ready to leave the project when studio executive Kevin Feige stepped in and brought in a brand new writer, Michael Greene to pen the new film. I would not have blamed the two-time Oscar-winner for leaving because of some seriously shit scripts that were tossed his way. One of them would’ve been the FOURTH lead in a movie about Blade. So, hopefully Mr. Feige’s getting things sorted out over there, because I want to see Ali’s interpretation of Blade. He’s a fantastic actor, and he deserves a shot. But for now, we’ve got Wesley Snipes’ movies to watch. All three of them, and that’s what I’m looking at today. There will be spoilers so be warned.
Wesley Snipes plays Blade, a half-human half-vampire that can survive in sunlight, hence the name Daywalker. He was born a Daywalker because his mother was bitten by a vampire while he was in utero. So, he was born with all of their strengths and none of their weaknesses, except for the thirst for blood, which he quenches using a form of serum. The first film sees a couple entering a rave party that literally becomes a blood bath. Enter Blade as he lays waste to the vampires in spectacular fashion, which ends with him immolating Quinn, the second-in-command of one Deacon Frost. In the film, it was Deacon that bit Blade’s mother. He has a mentor, Whistler, who spared him when he was a kid and trained him to fight vampires. It seems that Deacon is trying to awaken an all-powerful Blood God named La Magra and needs Blade to do it.
The second film sees Blade traveling to Prague in search of Whistler, who ended up shooting himself after being bitten, but didn’t actually die. So, with a new partner, Scud, Blade finds Whistler in a vat of blood. Their hideout is attacked by two assassins trained to kill Blade when they offer him a truce by vampire nation’s ruling lord. It turns out there’s a new threat on the streets called the Reapers, a new vampire off-shoot, so they recruit Blade to lead a team to hunt down and destroy the threat that’s being led by Nomak. The final film has Blade facing off against the vampire nation when they bring in the ultimate vampire: Dracula. Teaming up with Whistler’s daughter, Abigail and her partner Hannibal King, Blade goes to war against the vampires.
It’s remarkable how well the Blade movies hold up after 20+ years. Well, the first two movies anyway. Trinity has…problems. But the first movie gave us our first black superhero. It was also the first comic-book movie since Tim Burton’s Batman that audiences took seriously. Yeah, Bryan Singer’s X-Men was important in supercharging the genre into what it is today, but Blade was the first truly successful Marvel movie. And it was rated R. It took audiences by storm. It also solidified Wesley Snipes as a bonafide action star. He’s simply magnetic to watch, and it helps that he’s a legitimate martial artist in his own right, holding multiple black belts in several different disciplines. The movie has OTHER interesting characters like Whistler, played by Kris Kristofferson. N’bushe Wright plays Karen, a bite victim that Blade saves and becomes a crucial part of his crew. She’s fantastic because she’s not a damsel in distress. She can handle herself. As far as the villains go, Stephen Dorff just nails it as Deacon Frost. He’s charismatic, charming, and an absolutely vile blood-sucker. Quinn is basically the comic relief, played to perfection by Donal Logue. It’s a fantastic film that holds up incredibly well.
Blade II takes a more horror-oriented approach thanks to the brilliant mind of Guillermo del Toro. This movie takes everything that was good narratively about the first film and ups the ante considerably. Introducing a new breed of vampire in the Reapers gives the film that horror flavor that the original film kind of lacked. But this film also opens up the world of the vampires even more with the introduction Damoskinos, the vampire overlord. We get to see the hierarchy of the vampire nation. Bringing in a new team for Blade to lead, the “Blood Pack” brings a whole new level of tension. It’s led by Reinhardt, played by Ron Perlman. The film also gives us Donnie Yen as Snowman, a silent sword-wielding warrior. Nyssa, one of the two assassins that fought blade in their warehouse, ends up becoming something of a potential love-interest for Blade, even though she was born a vampire. But that angle is wisely not fully explored. Now, while the overlord and the Blood Pack are villains, it’s Nomak that steals the show here. Played by British pop-star Luke Goss, Nomak is not only as capable a fighter as Blade, but because he’s a Reaper, he’s even more of a threat. Yet, as the movie progresses, we see Nomak as more of a victim than an outright bad guy, which makes him more tragic.
And that brings us to Blade Trinity, the final film in Wesley Snipes’ trilogy. After the events of the second movie, Blade and Whistler end up back in the States doing what they do best, only this time they’re set up by the vampires when Blade kills a human that he mistook as a vampire. Right from the start, we’ve got problems. See, in the original film, Blade told Karen that he knew how to spot vampires from the way they moved and the way they smelled. How could he not tell the difference here, considering his senses are leagues beyond what humans have? Not only that, they kill off Kris Kristofferson’s character…again, only to bring in the character’s daughter, who was born out of wedlock. The connections to the original film are flimsy at best right from the start. Bringing in Dracula as a villain was actually a really smart move, as it feels like a natural progression in terms of enemies that Blade has to face. The film basically lays out that Dracula’s origins are shrouded in mystery, dating back over 6,000 years, and being the first of the vampire race. Not bad, I could go with that, if the film did anything worthwhile with him. Instead, he’s relegated to being just another henchman. You don’t fucking do that with Dracula. Dracula is THE vampire, and the film takes its focus off that confrontation with Blade by giving us side-characters that we don’t care about. Jessica Biel does what she can with material she was given as Abigail, but Ryan Reynolds was simply obnoxious as Hannibal King. WWE star Triple HHH is not a screen actor. He’s awful, and Parker Posey’s character is a shrill little banshee that might as well be wearing a mustache. The only actor to carry his weight as a villain is Dominic Purcell, as Drake/Dracula.
The action in the first two movies are second to none. The opening blood rave sequence that introduces us to Blade is iconic. It shows us how bad-ass he is and how much of a threat he poses to other vampires. He can clear a room single-handedly. The pacing of the film is also pretty fast, with some decent set-pieces that lead us to Blade’s final confrontation with Deacon Frost, which is one of the greatest finales in modern action cinema. By bringing in Donnie Yen in the second film, you have that added flair of the Hong Kong cinema to a certain extent. Yen not only plays Snowman, but he’s also one of the martial arts choreographers aside from Wesley Snipes and HIS stunt double. The fights are less flashy and more grounded in a street-fighting style which adds to the brutal nature of action sequences. The opening action sequence in Blade II is another strong introduction to the character. Then the movie ups the ante with another spectacular sword-fight in the warehouse with the two assassins, wonky CGI aside. Then it just gets crazier as the movie goes which culminates in the final battle between Blade and Nomak. The action in the first two movies was spectacular. Again, Blade Trinity drops the ball with the action. The fight choreography is just…BAD. It lacks the hard-hitting edge of the first two movies. Also, this movie doesn’t really have a standout fight sequence like the blood rave from the first movie or the fight between Blade and Reinhardt’s henchmen. No. The fights lack the emotional heft that drove the fights in the first two movies. The only standout here is Wesley Snipes, because he knows exactly what he’s doing. I don’t think anybody else did, and the overreliance on CG is painfully obvious.
Ultimately, Blade Trinity was a real mess. It’s come to light over the past several years that there were some serious problems between Wesley Snipes and the film’s writer/director, David S. Goyer. Word is, is that it got physical between the two at one point and Snipes would only communicate with Goyer via sticky notes. I don’t know how true all that is, but what you see on screen is the result of really bad decision-making in terms of writing and directing. Yet, for all the film’s problems, I still found it be a good deal of fun. It’s not in the upper-pantheon of action films, but it’s far from the worst. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a great movie, and even worse sequel. The trilogy deserved an ending better than this, and I wish that Dracula had been treated a hell of a lot better than he had. The fact that the movie’s still kind of fun speaks volumes about how dedicated most of the cast and crew were about making the movie, and THAT comes across on screen, which is a good thing, and the fact that it doesn’t ruin the first two is a miracle in and of itself. If you decide to skip this one, you’re not missing much. The first two movies are action masterpieces. Trinity is just…odd.
Yeah, the Blade trilogy didn’t exactly end with a bang, but these movies are still worth watching today. Honestly, I hope that Marvel and Kevin Feige can do the character justice. It’s the one Marvel movie, aside from Deadpool 3, that I’m interested in right now. So, those are my thoughts on the Blade trilogy. 2 out 3 ain’t bad, and those two still hold up 20 years later. That’s pretty damned good, in my opinion.