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By
WAYNE KLEIN
It's tough to be a
bloodsucker. No, I'm not referring to lawyers or
agents. I'm referring to vampires. The big, nasty
ugly kind of vampires that populate the world of
"Blade Trinity" and hate silver, stakes the usual
assortment of items popular in the Catholic
Church. The third film in the trilogy may or not
be the last depending upon the final box office
count and home video sales. As a popcorn film
"Blade Trinity" has all that: it's got a sword
fight that looks like it was lifted from the
"Highlander" film; there's a higher body count
than all the "Lethal Weapon" movies combined;
there's enough pearly whites on display to send an
orthodontist into ecstasy. Oh and there's lots of
toys, very, very cool toys.
Based on the Marvel comic book character created
by Marv Wolfman (there's a perfect man for a
horror/adventure comic) and Gene Colan, "Blade
Trinity" continues the adventures of a hybrid
human-vampire named Blade (Wesley Snipes) and
vampire killer Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) as
they try to wipe out the scourge that has plagued
humanity for centuries. The threat this time is
even worse; the original vampire that started it
all has been discovered and the vampire community
plans to turn humans into cattle.
The vampires turn the table on Blade painting him
as a psychopath resulting in a massive police
hunt. Using familiars (mortals working for the
vampires) within the police department, the
vampires hope to capture and kill Blade. Luckily,
they fail to take into account two fellow vampire
hunters by the name of Hannibal King (Ryan
Reynolds from "The Amnityville Horror") and
Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel "The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre").
Despite an annoying dance music soundtrack by
Ramin Djawadi and The RZA, "Blade Trinity" works
very well as a fun, profanity laced action
adventure film. Director/writer David Goyer
("Batman Begins," "Blade," "X2," "Blade II," "The
Puppetmasters") digs right in giving audiences
just enough of a recap about Blade so they can
follow the adventure. Snipes invests Blade with as
much depth as a cardboard cut out but surprisingly
his approach works. Blade works best as a strong,
silent action hero. Filled with a solid supporting
cast including Parker Posey, "Blade Trinity" never
rises above its comic book origins and that's just
fine for fans of the series. I'd suggest the
bloodier and gorier unrated edition for fans as it
captures the spirit of the original comic book
best.
Special features include two trivia filled
commentary tracks by David Goyer, Jessica Biel,
Ryan Reynolds and various production and
crewmembers. Curiously missing is Wesley Snipes
who recently filed suit against the producers and
the studio. There's a fascinating 16 part
behind-the-scenes documentary entitled
"Daywalkers, Nightwalkers & Familiars" as well as
a blooper reel and an alternate ending that
doesn't quite work as well as the finished one. |
