CS Daily Archive > Weekend Read > 12/10/04

It's Not the Vampires That Suck Here

By Matt anderson

Allied with a group of young vampire hunters, the Daywalker faces his ultimate test when Dracula is (unearthed) in the weakest and allegedly final installment of the Blade trilogy.

Blade: Trinity

David S. Goyer (also directed)
Based on characters created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan

In the Iraqi desert, a team of vampires uncover the tomb of Dracula (Dominc Purcell). Back in civilization, Blade (Wesley Snipes) and Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) are still on the hunt, but on his latest chase Blade mistakenly kills a human posing as a vampire -- and the vampires upload video footage of the entrapment onto the Internet. In an FBI raid on their hideout, Blade is captured and Whistler is killed. Enter the Nightstalkers, led by Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel), a team of vampire hunters on the same mission as Blade: they know Dracula is back, and they must work together if humanity is to survive.

The original Blade was impressive: a vampire movie that reimagined the mythology, gave vampires a modern look, and gave us a dark, conflicted, but cool hero. It was inventive and different. Blade 2 took a fresh angle, allying Blade with the vampires to fight a mutual enemy. Now comes Blade: Trinity, the final chapter in the trilogy, and what better way to end the series than by bringing in the ultimate villain: Dracula? This is a Blade movie after all, so this version of Dracula will be the coolest, the most inventive, and will do justice to both the franchise and the first bloodsucker. Right?

Wrong.

This Dracula is nothing more than a B-grade movie villain. He's not intimidating, scary, or even cool; he's just weak. He's the king of the vampires, yet he runs (yes, runs) away from Blade? Blade should be running from him; Blade should be scared, not the other way around. But then again, a B-grade villain is appropriate in a B-grade movie, which is sadly what this is. It's disappointing, because the elements to have a great closing chapter were there, but this film just doesn't deliver.

Writer-director David Goyer (who wrote the first two installments of the Blade franchise) has always produced eye-catching action, and Trinity is no exception. There are a few exhilarating moments and great set pieces, but Goyer's characters let the film down. Blade is our hero, and we love watching him kick ass, but we also want him to have some depth, to show us his human side if only for a second (he is half- human after all). Those moments of weakness, of humanity, are what make action heroes real. They separate the great from the mediocre.

The Nightstalkers suffer the same cardboard cut-out fate. Abigail is Whistler's daughter; what a great opportunity to have a moment between her and Blade, right? After all, Whistler refers to Blade as a "son" earlier on, and after his death there should be great pathos and a bond between his two children, right? No. Does Abigail even get a moment to grieve when she finds out her father is dead? No. It's forgotten as soon as it's mentioned. Same for Hannibal King; the funniest character the franchise has seen has a backstory that's swept aside as soon as it's mentioned, so more action can be crammed into the story. And the minor members of the Nightstalkers -- including Natasha Lyonne (what?!) picking up a paycheck as the blind scientist (double what?!) -- are glossed over. And the blind scientist's daughter? She seems to have been voted "Cute Moppet Most Likely To Be Taken Hostage To Initiate Third Act Rescue."

Trust me, I like action as much as the next Blade fan, but I also like to know enough about my action heroes to care if they live or die. Characters are critical to action movies. Without an emotional stake (pun intended) in them you have a bunch of fight scenes and explosions that look cool, but are quickly forgotten because there was no one in the movie worth remembering. There are a few great lines, mainly spoken by action figure/comic relief King. And Blade does have one spot-on comment -- to a human familiar helping the vampires, who's fearful the vampires will kill him for helping their nemesis-- that reminds us how great he can be when attitude and character come together. But in the end, astonishingly, Blade: Trinity would have benefited from a little more character and a little less action.

As much as it would be great to say that the writer who brought Blade the Vampire Hunter to the screen created the best film yet, unfortunately all I can is: if you want great vampire action with some character, stay at home and rent the original.

Blade: Trinity
New Line Cinema
Rated R; 106 min.

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Talented but unproven, Matt Anderson is a writer from Australia who frequently drops in on Los Angeles uninvited, forcing the CS staff to deal with his many nonwriting-related escapades.

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