Blade: Trinity

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Blade: Trinity

Promotional poster
Directed by David S. Goyer
Produced by Wesley Snipes
Avi Arad
Cale Boyter
Toby Emmerich
Written by Screenplay:
David S. Goyer
Comic Book:
Marv Wolfman
Gene Colan
Starring Wesley Snipes
Jessica Biel
Ryan Reynolds
Parker Posey
Dominic Purcell
Kris Kristofferson
John Michael Higgins
Triple H
Music by Ramin Djawadi
RZA
Cinematography Gabriel Beristain
Editing by Conrad Smart
Howard E. Smith
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release date(s) December 8, 2004 (2004-12-08)
Running time Theatrical cut
113 minutes
Unrated cut
122 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Esperanto
Budget $65,000,000
Gross revenue $128,905,366
Preceded by Blade II
Followed by Blade: The Series

Blade: Trinity is a 2004 American vampire, Marvel Comics action film, written and directed by David S. Goyer, who also wrote the screenplays to the first two Blade films. It is the third film in the Blade trilogy, following on from Blade and Blade II and it is based on the Marvel Comics character Blade, played by Wesley Snipes. The story continues in Blade: The Series.

Contents

[edit] Plot

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 gang.

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, killing him 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, 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 the 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 (ironic, as Blade only won because Whistler shot Drake in the back) 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]
  • Werehyena 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]

[edit] Cast

[edit] Reception

[edit] Box office

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].

[edit] 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. 

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: Blade: Trinity (soundtrack)

A soundtrack containing hip hop music and electronic music was released on November 23, 2004 by New Line Records. It peaked at #68 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and #15 on the Top Soundtracks.


[edit] Production

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. 

[edit] 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.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b LJSilver (May 29, 2008). "Theatrical and Extended Versions compared". http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=2136. Retrieved 2009-10-27. 
  2. ^ Myspace Photo album of Norman Cabrera's work including examples of the Blade 3 "Hyena Wolf" concept
  3. ^ Photo of Blade 3 "Hyena Wolf"
  4. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_CpDtljb6s
  5. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=blade3.htm
  6. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=blade.htm
  7. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=blade2.htm
  8. ^ Blade: Trinity Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
  9. ^ Blade :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews
  10. ^ Blade II :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews
  11. ^ Blade: Trinity :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews
  12. ^ David S Goyer. 'Nightstalkers, Daywalkers and Familiars: The World of Blade: Trinity. 
  13. ^ a b António Martins, (16 March 2004). "Flags of the World, Blade Trinity, Unnamed City in the USA". http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fic(bla3.html. Retrieved 2009-10-27. 
  14. ^ Nick Schager (July 6, 2004). "Blade: Trinity, Film Review". Slant Magazine. http://www.slantmagazine.com/Film/film_review.asp?ID=1159. Retrieved 2009-10-27. 

[edit] External links

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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade:_Trinity"