Fearless Vampire Killers
Now Playing: Blade: Trinity (2004, David S. Goyer)
It's hard to get too fired up about Blade: Trinity. It is what it is, and if you liked the first two, you'll probably like this one. The first two Blade films, despite their shortcomings, were fun action flicks that managed to retain a sense of cool, presaging the current comic book to film craze (though a lesser-known comic book hero is not likely to be turned up; Blade began life as a secondary character in Marvel's Tomb of Dracula). As in the first two, Blade: Trinity provides a minimum of characterization, instead piling on the creative vampire executions and gravity-defying martial arts while making do with snappy one-liners. I enjoyed the first two and this one as well, though it feels the slightest of an already slight franchise.

As you must know by now, the films' premise is that vampires comprise an apparently significant proportion of the populations of most major cities, controlling even society's legitimate institutions through their human familiars. Blade (Wesley Snipes, with a freaky stare and a really great growly delivery) is a genetic anomaly, a vampire that is immune to sunlight, silver, garlic, and the other means of destroying regular-Joe vampires. He, however, must inject himself at regular intervals with a special serum that allows him to suppress his thirst for human blood. Together with his mentor and weapons-designer Whistler (Kris Kristofferson, providing much-needed grit and acerbic humor), Blade hunts and exterminates vampires on a large scale. He's really good at it, too, which makes him vampire public enemy #1. As the third entry picks up, a team of vampire archaeologists is working to unearth the resting place of Dracula himself, to resurrect him as part of a "vampire final solution." Led by head vamp Danica Talos (Parker Posey, slumming), this group plans to get Blade out of the picture by framing him for the murder of a human, making him look like a psycho to the general population, which generally doesn't believe in vampires. Captured by the FBI, Blade is rescued by a splinter cell of fellow vampire hunters led by former vampire Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds, looking and sounding for all the world like a roped-up Jason Lee) and Whistler's illegitimate daughter Abigail (Jessica Biel, and I'm struggling to include a parenthetical statement here-OK, she's hot and kicks ass). The Nightstalkers (An only slightly lamer name than Blade 2's 'Bloodpack'; it's explained away with the line "We were going to go with 'Care Bears' but it was taken," from the continually-quipping King) are working on a virus that will exterminate the vampire menace once and for all. Meanwhile, the vamps are working on something with Drake (as he's now called) that will allow them to dominate humans once and for all, because...well, it's not exactly clear why the vamps want to change the status quo. But who cares? We didn't come for long-winded explanations; we came for ass kicking and plenty of it!

David S. Goyer, who wrote the other two Blades and, it seems, every other comic book adaptation in existence, steps behind the camera for this installment, with mixed results. He's not as gifted with action as previous directors Stephen Norrington and Guillermo Del Toro, but he doesn't shame himself on that count, either. The fights are confusingly edited at times, but pack a more visceral punch than the wire-fu heavy previous installments. More annoying is his tendency to keep jumping from shot to shot, never holding on a frame for long enough for our eyes to take it all in. The look is not nearly as impressive as Blade 2, but it's pretty good, and you can hardly compare second-time director Goyer to Del Toro on that count; he's the master of getting twice as much atmosphere out of half the budget. I was most annoyed by the inconsistencies in the script, with which Goyer should have done a better job. Hannibal King has been "cured" of vampirism, we're told. How? Why don't they cure Blade? Hell, why don't they cure all the vampires instead of committing vampo-genocide? The film takes place in America, yet all signs are printed in English and some other language (Esperanto?). No explanation is given. Blade is at first resistant to working with the Nightstalkers, but his change of mind is completely unmotivated. Drake is motivated by a warrior's conception of honor, yet he behaves quite dishonorably at several points during the film. I could go on.

Other observations: Goyer seems pretty good at working with his actors, getting good performances from just about everyone, with the exceptions of Dominic Purcell, whose Drake is supposed to be an ancient Sumerian yet sounds like he was brought forth from a tomb in Encino, and the inexplicably awful Natasha Lyonne, mumbling her way through a performance as the Nightstalkers' blind biotechnician. Biel proves a game heroine, and Reynolds threatens to steal the show as the wisecracking King. Posey adds some bitchy fun to the proceedings (one of the things I like about the Blades is their conception of vampires as decadent Eurotrash)--but couldn't they have designed a dental prosthesis that didn't make her sound like a thirteen year old with braces? And, gods help me, pro wrestler Triple-H is actually pretty good as a vampire henchman. Oh--and the vampire Pomeranian is priceless.

Note: After I wrote the preceding review, I watched Blade 2 on DVD and had the following thoughts: 1) Watching Del Toro's execution of the action sequences again, the difference is like night and day. Del Toro's fights are flashy, to be sure, but always coherent, while Goyer's are, for the most part, confusing. Del Toro has the confidence to hold the shot for long enough for the viewer to get a feel for what's going on, while Goyer's quick cutting seems to be sleight-of-hand designed to obscure it. 2) I can't say enough about Del Toro's production values. Damn, his stuff looks good! 3) Though I still wish Goyer had imparted more of an effort to unify the three films mythological inconsistencies, there is some precedent for vampires being "cured," as Whistler, who has been turned into a vampire in between the first two films, is put through a "rapid detox" regimen to purge the vampire virus from his system. This does not seem to be an option for Blade, so I assume there are biological differences between those who are born vampires and those who are turned. Still, a little explanation would be nice. 4) Kristofferson's Whistler is the soul of the series, and Del Toro mined the character for all it's worth, getting great interplay between wisecracking badasses Whistler and vampire teammate Reinhardt (Ron Perlman). Whistler is totally wasted in Blade: Trinity. 5) The only job with a higher mortality rate than technical support for Blade is Red Shirted Security Guard on the starship Enterprise. If you're planning on taking either job, I'd advise a hefty life insurance policy.