Trailer:
"Blade. A mass murdering psychopath who believes himself to be a vampire hunter."
I know I said that the opening narration by Blade in Blade 2 was a lackluster opening but it is better than opening with a voice over from Ryan Reynolds. Where Blade 2 took everything the action that worked in the original and expanded on it, this film does the exact opposite and quickly succumbs to the curse of the third film.
The movie opens with a group of vampires searching for the long lost legendary vampire Dracula. They manage to awaken him and from there plan to wipe out the human race and replace them with the farming factories from the Matrix. How they plan to conquer the human race isn’t really ever explained.
Meanwhile Blade continues attacking vampires when the human law enforcement starts interfering with his work. This is probably the most interesting aspect of the film and it is short lived as Dexter’s dad (James Remar) tries to hunt down Blade under the belief that he is a delusional psychopath. They end up even killing Whistler….again except this time they make sure to leave out any emotion or meaning to it. One minute he is alive and the next he is dead. And it seems like Blade couldn’t care less this time around.
Blade is then recruited by a group of human vampire hunters that want his help to perfect a virus that will wipe out the vampire population. But to complete it they need the blood of Dracula. So let the shenanigans begin!
The main issue in this film comes from the fact that it is very, very poorly written. There are major pacing problems as some parts flash by too fast and other parts drag out and become boring. The dialogue lacks in any kind of subtlety and is too straight forward. The entire cast struggles with it’s clunky nature and only one of them manages to get a good performance out of it.
Ryan Reynolds begins his bad luck streak in comic book/superhero movies with this one, though this film is hardily his fault as he probably gave the best performance in it. He is a lot of fun to watch on screen and works in both his role as comic relief and in the few emotional moments he has. He also seems like the only true human hunter in the film as he is constantly over powered by vampires and has to outthink them…or get rescued by Blade.
This felt more natural than another character I could name. Point and case at Jennifer Garners stunt double Jessica Biel, Whistler’s daughter, who takes out vampires with more ease than even Blade. She even has time to listen to her ipod in the meantime and seems unconcerned with her circumstances, if her comrades will die, or if a vampire will sneak up behind her and bite off her head. She shouldn’t be alive anyways as Whistler himself said she was dead in the first film. Looks like the writers decided to conveniently forget that minor detail.
Even Snipes has some difficulty this time around. Sure he is still fun to watch on screen as the title character but he seems to struggle against the weight of the script and some of his truly uncharacteristic dialogue. Unfortunately there is no real threat for him here and he never seems to be in any real danger at any point.
The main villain of Drake/ Dracula could not be more boring. He isn’t helped at all by actor Dominic Purcell, a virtually unknown who could have been plucked off a street corner judging by the performance he gave. “Hey dude want to be in a Blade movie!” He is supposed to be this super elite vampire that will be the greatest test for Blade, yet all he does is run from him all the time. Even in the final showdown he pretty much gets his ass kicked for the majority of it until turning into that spider monster from Doctor Who. Don’t even get me started on his female sidekick who needs ten years worth of acting lessons before thinking about appearing on screen again.
The only place the movie really improves in is the CGI. This means they get to make more ridiculous special effects, but at least they actually look convincing when used. Still it takes away from the amount of practical effects and make up used in the originals. It also allows them to create more ludicrous gadgets that feel like they belong in a Men in Black movie more than Blade.
And that is pretty much it for Blade Trinity. The film suffers from lackluster writing which drags down its main cast and generates boring villains. With no real threat, action, or emotion the film is dull and empty. It felt like a film made out of obligation with no one attached who really cared.
FINAL RATING: 4/10- (40%)
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