Blade Trinity
This is the third movie based upon Marvel Comics’ vampire hunter Blade. The action in this movie is of course explosive and cool as always and has its usual originality. The movie is also consistent with previous Blade movies so should please fans in that regard, and has reasonably good acting.
Now what of plot? The adverts may make the movie sound like it consists of Blade plus two new vampire hunters versus Dracula. Well yes and no. In my opinion the plot isn’t actually too corny at all. Blade does have to face off against the ‘first vampire’, who is known by some cultures as Dracula, by others, Drake, by others, Umanustatep, etc and so forth; actually he is not referred to as Dracula at all throughout the movie, hence the ‘Dracula’ element is not a problem. Although having one big primary enemy in any movie does have the consequence of narrowing the plot a bit and may cause the movie to seem perhaps less powerful in comparison to Blade 1 & 2.
But what significantly detracts from the movie is that it has a more light-hearted mood than is appropriate for this genre. Blade teams up with two young hunters: Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel), and Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds). In fact the interaction between Blade’s grim personality and that of the less serious Hannibal King is one of the most entertaining aspects of the movie, and makes Blade Trinity by far the most entertaining Blade movie released! Those who are not Blade fans will also find this movie considerably more accessible due to the humour involved. However this comes at a price. Movies such as: Blade, Interview with a Vampire, Underworld etc. are based in dark, bleak, gothic underworld, type setting. Whilst the humour in Blade Trinity is hilarious and makes the movie more entertaining than its predecessors, all up it detracts considerably from the gothic underworld feel that is portrayed perfectly in the previous Blade movies. The way the movie is filmed is similar: there is too much sunlight! Sunlight and humour in a gothic setting should be minimised else it removes the darkness and desolation of the world presented. There are scenes where sunlight is just pouring through the windows! A big no!
Anyway, to summarise, this movie is a lot more entertaining than the first two, but isn’t as good all up. It is by no means bad, just not as good. If you are a Blade fan definitely go see this since it will satisfactorily cure your Blade fix. If you’re not a Blade fan and you did see this, you will probably leave with the impression “hmmm…yeah… I guess it was ~pretty good” and you will definitely be entertained. Try to see Blade 1 & Blade 2 first, or you simply won’t appreciate as much of as you probably should. Blade Trinity is a good movie, but is by no means a must see, and doesn’t live up to the first two.
7/10
Michael Hill
