Blade: Trinity
Year: 2004
Director: David S. Goyer
Starring: Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds & Wesley Snipes
Runtime: 113 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 18/04/23
Director: David S. Goyer
Starring: Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds & Wesley Snipes
Runtime: 113 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 18/04/23
Whilst Blade may have initiated the superhero movie revival, by the time Blade II came around there were now other properties making their way to the big screen and so the franchise needed to actually prove itself. Whilst performing well commercially, Blade II had a very mixed reception. So, by 2004 and the arrival of the third Blade film, Blade: Trinity, the genre was starting to take its first bold steps into being contenders with serious action movies with the likes of X-Men 2, and Spider-Man 2 setting a new gold standard. Could Blade’s final outing make a lasting impression?
Framed for the murder of a human, Blade (Wesley Snipes), becomes the target of a group of powerful vampires led by Danica Talos (Parker Posey) who need him out of the way in order to resurrect the original and most powerful vampire, Dracula (Dominic Purcell). Assisted by vampire hunters Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel), Blade faces his toughest challenge yet.
Framed for the murder of a human, Blade (Wesley Snipes), becomes the target of a group of powerful vampires led by Danica Talos (Parker Posey) who need him out of the way in order to resurrect the original and most powerful vampire, Dracula (Dominic Purcell). Assisted by vampire hunters Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel), Blade faces his toughest challenge yet.
Did Blade: Trinity leave a lasting impression? Yes, but perhaps not the one it wanted. In fact, it’s often cited as one of the worst superhero films ever made; and yet I think knowing that going in helped me to enjoy Trinity a lot more than I expected to.
Where the first Blade tiptoed a fine line between campy fun and serious action movie, Blade II went for full on horror and action and for me it really didn’t land well. Trinity on the other hand swings hard in the other direction and is about as campy as you can get before overdoing it like Batman & Robin. I think this may be why Trinity was received so poorly on release. The fledgling 00’s superhero movie genre had been working hard to try and shake the bad reputation left by 80’s and 90’s superhero movies, and here was Blade throwing back to those campy classics. But I think it works quite well given how absurd the story is. I mean, resurrecting Dracula from the dead? Framing Blade as a serial killer and landing him on the FBI’s most wanted list? It’s just cheese, pure and simple stinky cheese.
Trinity had a notoriously difficult production process, with many people who worked on the film citing Snipes as the root of all the issues. As an executive producer on the film, he threw his weight around and made life difficult for a lot of people involved. He didn’t like the original director, so writer of all three Blade films David S. Goyer stepped in as a replacement, which Snipes also didn’t like. He would regularly hold up shooting, intentionally go against Goyer’s direction, and was verbally abusive to his castmates (most notably Reynolds).
It's really visible in Snipes’ performance that he really doesn’t care anymore, and whilst that’s a shame it does allow for the supporting cast to step into the spotlight. I really enjoyed Biel in the film, she brought great energy, and, in all honesty, I would love to have seen an Abigail Whistler spin-off movie. Posey was a memorable villain, and whilst she absolutely hammed the performance up as much as possible, I felt like it tonally fit in quite well with how silly the whole film is.
I also liked Purcell as Dracula. He was completely the opposite of what you normally expect from the character of Dracula. A big dumb brute who spouts one liner’s and spends most of the film ripping his shirt off. Again, like Posey it just worked well for a film that really was not taking itself seriously in the slightest.
I will say that Reynolds’ performance did tip the scales a little too much for me. His wise cracking was often more cringeworthy than funny, and you could also tell that he didn’t really want to be there likely because of Snipes).
Where the first Blade tiptoed a fine line between campy fun and serious action movie, Blade II went for full on horror and action and for me it really didn’t land well. Trinity on the other hand swings hard in the other direction and is about as campy as you can get before overdoing it like Batman & Robin. I think this may be why Trinity was received so poorly on release. The fledgling 00’s superhero movie genre had been working hard to try and shake the bad reputation left by 80’s and 90’s superhero movies, and here was Blade throwing back to those campy classics. But I think it works quite well given how absurd the story is. I mean, resurrecting Dracula from the dead? Framing Blade as a serial killer and landing him on the FBI’s most wanted list? It’s just cheese, pure and simple stinky cheese.
Trinity had a notoriously difficult production process, with many people who worked on the film citing Snipes as the root of all the issues. As an executive producer on the film, he threw his weight around and made life difficult for a lot of people involved. He didn’t like the original director, so writer of all three Blade films David S. Goyer stepped in as a replacement, which Snipes also didn’t like. He would regularly hold up shooting, intentionally go against Goyer’s direction, and was verbally abusive to his castmates (most notably Reynolds).
It's really visible in Snipes’ performance that he really doesn’t care anymore, and whilst that’s a shame it does allow for the supporting cast to step into the spotlight. I really enjoyed Biel in the film, she brought great energy, and, in all honesty, I would love to have seen an Abigail Whistler spin-off movie. Posey was a memorable villain, and whilst she absolutely hammed the performance up as much as possible, I felt like it tonally fit in quite well with how silly the whole film is.
I also liked Purcell as Dracula. He was completely the opposite of what you normally expect from the character of Dracula. A big dumb brute who spouts one liner’s and spends most of the film ripping his shirt off. Again, like Posey it just worked well for a film that really was not taking itself seriously in the slightest.
I will say that Reynolds’ performance did tip the scales a little too much for me. His wise cracking was often more cringeworthy than funny, and you could also tell that he didn’t really want to be there likely because of Snipes).
Similarly, to Blade II, Trinity remains a CGI mess and doesn’t have the same level of finesse in the combat sequences that the original film did. There does appear to be some level of improvement, most notably from Reynolds & Biel’s performances though, which isn’t surprising if the claims about Snipes are to be believed. I did quite enjoy the finale, whilst it wasn’t the best fight in the franchise, it did feel appropriately high-stakes and each character was given a decent amount to do.
Blade: Trinity isn’t good, but I would personally say it’s an improvement over Blade II. This would prove to be the end of a trilogy, and Blade would remain dormant until recently with the announcement of Blade joining the MCU with Mahershala Ali in the leading role. A product of their time, Blade proved long before Deadpool that there was a market for a mature rated superhero movie, and whilst the franchise definitely had it’s ups and downs, as a whole I feel it succeeded in what it set out to do. Whilst there are definitely better Marvel franchises from around the same time, I think Blade offers something the others simply don’t and that has likely contributed to the trilogy’s lasting legacy.
Blade: Trinity isn’t good, but I would personally say it’s an improvement over Blade II. This would prove to be the end of a trilogy, and Blade would remain dormant until recently with the announcement of Blade joining the MCU with Mahershala Ali in the leading role. A product of their time, Blade proved long before Deadpool that there was a market for a mature rated superhero movie, and whilst the franchise definitely had it’s ups and downs, as a whole I feel it succeeded in what it set out to do. Whilst there are definitely better Marvel franchises from around the same time, I think Blade offers something the others simply don’t and that has likely contributed to the trilogy’s lasting legacy.