Main Cast: Steve Braun, Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds, Parker Posey
Release Year: 2004
Country: US
Run Time: 114 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Wesley Snipes returns as legendary vampire hunter Blade in this, the third film inspired by the popular Marvel Comics character. A fearless warrior immune to vampires, Blade (Snipes) has become a hated enemy of the bloodsucking community, and as they gather in their desert compound, a group of vampires is plotting to eliminate Blade once and for all by turning the mortal community against him. The vampires have concocted a misinformation campaign that paints a picture of Blade as a ruthless murderer and has sent the FBI on the vampire hunter's trail, led by the relentless agent Cumberland (James Remar). At the same time, the vampires have brought their founding father, Dracula, back to his undead state, renaming him Drake (Dominic Purcell) and investing him with special powers that allow him to walk unharmed in daylight. After a dangerous encounter with Cumberland, Blade and his ally, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), form an uneasy alliance with a scruffy team of human vampire slayers, the Nighstalkers, led by Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds), and Whistler's daughter, Abigail (Jessica Biel. While Sommerfield (Natasha Lyonne), a biologist working with the Nightstalkers, researches a scientific answer to the vampire problem, Blade and his comrades take a more hands-on approach against Drake and his minions, including Danica Talos (Parker Posey), Asher (Callum Keith Rennie), and Grimwood (Triple H). Blade: Trinity was directed by David Goyer, who also wrote the screenplay for this film, as well as the first two movies in the series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Wesley Snipes was robbed out of a fitting third entry in the successful Blade series with Blade: Trinity, a film that was so obviously made to set up another franchise that Snipes is basically relegated to a co-starring role in his own film. Joining him in this very non-horror outing are the heavily pumped up Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds, complete with his own nonstop imaginary laugh track. To say that director David Goyer decided to go the jokey route with this one is a major understatement. Funny enough to slay most eager-to-please audiences, Goyer has written and cast a high-adrenaline action comedy with fight scenes thrown throughout the picture -- none of which are exciting or filmed with the sure hand that the character's fans are used to. The style of the series has been ground to a halt here as well, with sets and lighting schemes that leave little to be desired, making the viewer hunger for even a hint of the panache that was so abundant before. As far as the music goes, the trip-hop soundtrack is severely overused as are the numerous slow-mo walking scenes that are there for sheer "cool" factor. The casting is a problem as well, with the king of all vampires, Drake (Dominic Purcell), coming off as beefed-up runway model trash, while Parker Posey slums it up with her usual quirky shtick that falls flat in almost every scene. Many will find Reynolds to be the saving grace of the film with his Kevin Smith pop-culture-tinged dialogue keeping things light and airy, but they tend to forget that this is a Blade movie, not a reverse Rush Hour! In fact, there's something disturbing about a creator who takes a series away from his main actor -- but then audiences wouldn't be able to get all hot and worked up over a young Hollywood starlet as she loads up her iPod with official soundtrack clips to kill bloodsuckers to, would they? ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
Eric Fraser - Art Director, Patrick Banister - Art Director, Sheila K. Millar - Art Director, Ronnie Yeskel - Casting, Coreen Mayrs - Casting, Heike Brandstatter - Casting, Art Schaefer - Co-producer, Laura Jean Shannon - Costume Designer, Pete Whyte - First Assistant Director, David S. Goyer - Director, Vic Armstrong - Second Unit Director, Edward G. Perez - Second Unit Director, Eric Sears - Editor, Howard E. Smith - Editor, Conrad Smart - Editor, David S. Goyer - Executive Producer, Stan Lee - Executive Producer, Avi Arad - Executive Producer, Toby Emmerich - Executive Producer, Cale Boyter - Executive Producer, Chuck Jeffreys - Fights Choreographer, RZA - Composer (Music Score), Ramin Djawadi - Composer (Music Score), George Drakoulias - Musical Direction/Supervision, Mike Elizalde - Makeup Special Effects, Chris Gorak - Production Designer, Gabriel Beristain - Cinematographer, Linda Harris - Producer, Wesley Snipes - Producer, David S. Goyer - Producer, Peter Frankfurt - Producer, Lynn Harri - Producer, Evan Webber - Set Designer, Cheryl Marrion - Set Designer, Andrei Andrianko - Set Designer, Spectral Motion Incorporated - Special Effects, Patrick Ramsay - Sound/Sound Designer, Eddie Perez - Stunts Coordinator, Clay Donahue Fontenot - Stunts Coordinator, David S. Goyer - Screenwriter, Brian Murphy - Second Unit Camera, Joe Bauer - Visual Effects Supervisor, Skip Lievsay - Re-Recording Mixer, Aaron Glascock - Re-Recording Mixer, Aaron Glascock - Supervising Sound Editor, Curt Schulkey - Supervising Sound Editor, Pixel Magic - Visual Effects, Digital Dimension - Visual Effects, Giant Killer Robots - Visual Effects, Amalgamated Pixels Inc. - Visual Effects, Café FX - Visual Effects, Milne FX - Visual Effects, Hatch FX - Visual Effects, Tedd Kuchera - Set Decorator
The film begins with an opening narration about Dracula:
In the movies, Dracula wears a cape and some old English guy always manages to save the day at the last minute with crosses and holy water.
But everybody knows the movies are full of shit.
The truth is, it started with Blade and it ended with him. The rest of us were just along for the ride.
The film starts with a collection of vampires looking for "Drake", a.k.a. Dracula, they find him in Syria in a tomb where he retreated to sleep for a time. He is ultimately woken by the group.
The vampires succeed in framing Blade (Wesley Snipes) for the killing of a familiar posing as a vampire. A few days later, the FBI attack the hideout. During the siege, Whistler destroys the hideout after being mortally wounded and dying in the ensuing explosion. With his mentor gone Blade allows himself to be captured.
As the police prepare to hand Blade over to a group of vampires, Blade is rescued by Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel). The two head a group of vampire hunters called the Nightstalkers, formed by Blade's mentor to assist him. King and Abigail reveal that Danica Talos (Parker Posey), who was the vampire who bit King, has located the first vampire, Dracula, now called Drake. Talos hopes that by resurrecting him, Drake (Dominic Purcell) will help save the vampire race by producing more daywalkers, and eliminate Blade. In his first confrontation with Blade, Drake shows a sort of affinity for Blade, as they are both "honorable warriors" (ironically, while Drake is delivering his speech about honor, he is hiding behind a baby he has taken hostage). During the chaos, King is incapacitated by Drake.
Blade eventually learns of a bioweapon the Nightstalkers had created called Daystar. The weapon is capable of killing any and all vampires in a nearby area. However, there are two catches: The first is that Drake's blood must be infused with the virus. As he is the first vampire, his DNA is still pure, which, infused with Daystar, will make it work to its maximum efficacy. The second: the virus has a possibility of killing Blade, as he is a half-vampire.
Blade and Abigail learn of the vampire "final solution", which involves several hundred homeless being kept "alive" in a chemically induced coma, trapped in body bags. This keeps in line with vampires needing live food sources if the entire vampire race were to take over the world. Blade has all of them put out of their misery, shutting down their life support.
The two return to find the Nightstalkers have been all but wiped out. The only exception is King who has been kidnapped by Drake and a young girl named Zoe (Haili Page), the daughter of one of the Nightstalkers. Blade and Abigail go to the Talos building to save their friends.
Meanwhile, King is chained and tortured for information about Daystar. When this fails to get any information from him, Talos threatens that she will bite King and leave him to feed on Zoe. Blade and Abigail eventually enter the building and the fighting begins. Abigail kills Danica Talos' brother Asher (Callum Keith Rennie) and King kills Jarko Grimwood (Triple H) while Blade engages Drake in a sword battle. In the end, Blade impales Drake with the Daystar arrow, and releases it into the air, killing all the nearby vampires, including Danica Talos. As Drake dies, he praises Blade for fighting with honor and tells him that through Blade the vampire race will survive. Dying, he offers Blade a "parting gift", he also warns him the thirst will eventually win.
From here there are multiple endings:
Theatrical Ending: As Blade fought honorably, Drake gives him a "parting gift" by transforming his body into a replica of Blade's just before he dies. The FBI captures the body of who they think is Blade and thus call off their manhunt for Blade. In the morgue Blade's body reverts into that of Drake's. Hannibal's voiceover tells the viewer that Blade is still out doing what he does, and that the war will never end.[1]
Unrated Ending: The body captured by the FBI is Blade, but he's not really dead. He sits up abruptly in the morgue, attacks the FBI agents, and appears ready to bite a nurse on the neck. The ending is ambiguous as to whether Blade retains his humanity or gives in to his vampire thirst, thus becoming the new vampire messiah as Drake predicted. This is the ending seen on the director's cut of the film, and commentary on the DVD indicates it was the ending director Goyer intended.[1]
Werewolf Ending: The Daystar virus circles the globe and wipes out all vampires. Blade walks off into the sunset, his long battle finally over. The final shot is of the Nightstalkers battling a new enemy... werewolves[2][3]. This version of the ending was used in the novelization of the film and is included on the DVD as an extra, however it was rejected for use in the film itself early on in production, due to similarities to the vampires versus werewolves in the Underworld series, the discontinuity with the back story, and for simply being too silly in Goyer's opinion.[4]
The film's American box office take proved disappointing, at only around $50 million[5]. Internationally it was somewhat more successful, pulling the film's overall gross to $130 million, matching the first Blade's take but coming behind Blade II, which grossed $150 million worldwide[6][7].
Critics
The film was a critical disappointment, earning a rating of only 27% on Rotten Tomatoes[8]. Roger Ebert, who gave Blade 3 stars out of 4[9] and Blade II 3½ stars,[10] gave Blade: Trinity only 1½ stars, writing: "It lacks the sharp narrative line and crisp comic-book clarity of the earlier films, and descends too easily into shapeless fight scenes that are chopped into so many cuts that they lack all form or rhythm."[11]
Critics and fans have complained that the movie lacked the dark and sharp comic book clarity of the first and second film. Also it is said that Snipes had very little screen time as the film was more focused on Hannibal King and Abigail Whistler.
The movie was originally going to be set 20 years after the events of the second movie in which the vampires have taken over the world and have enslaved humanity with Blade being Humanity's last hope. The storyline was dropped because it was deemed too dark.
Language
In the DVD special features[12]' director David S Goyer talks about how cities are often multilingual. For example Blade Trinity is shot in Vancouver Canada where signs are in English and French. Goyer decided to use the Esperanto language and flag as part of the fictional city where Blade is set.[13] The Esperanto flag is shown twice, at the entrance to the Police headquarters after Blade is rescued from jail, and on rooftop scene where Drake threatens to drop a baby over the edge.[13] Background elements such as signs and advertisements include Esperanto translations. Hannibal King is at one point seen watching the Esperanto language film Incubus on television, with one reviewer unkindly remarking that first time director "Goyer's grasp of directorial fundamentals (such as when to tilt the camera and when to shoot in close-up) is about as strong as Shatner's fluency in Esperanto."[14] The film's Director of Photography Gabriel Beristain makes a cameo appearances as the one-eyed newspaper vendor who talks to Whistler in Esperanto and discusses the public perception that Blade is a menace to society.
