THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Going out on a high note is hard as hell to pull off and New Line Cinema definitely understood that when they concluded the trilogy of Marvel's Blade.
PLOT
Blade: Trinity follows the daywalker Eric Brooks continue slaying vampires with his mentor Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), but things take a turn they don't prepare for when a vampire gang frame him for killing a familiar. When that happens, The FBI raids his hideout and kill Abraham. The vampires did this because they don't want him in their way to resurrect the first vampire Dracula aka Drake, which they pull off after finding his tomb in the Syrian Desert. After a futile result of medical and interrogative sessions, the police hand Blade over to a group of medics. But little do they know they are also the same vampires that woke up Drake: The sibling pair of Danica & Asher Talos and their strong-arm Jake Grimwood. Their plans get intercepted however when the daywalker gets rescued by Hannibal King & Abigail Whistler, the latter being Abraham's whistler, who have their own regime of slaying vampires dubbed the 'Nightstalkers'. Their team includes: chemical specialist Somerfield (Natasha Lyonne), her daughter Zoe (Haili Page), chauffeur Dex (Ron Selmour) & weapons manufacturer Hedges (Patton Oswalt). Through them, Blade learns that the Taloses want to use Drake's powers to cure their weaknesses as he is immune to sunlight. The Nightstalkers have been working on an experimental bioweapon that can kill vampires at a gentic level they call 'Daystar'. They need a pure blood source to make it effective, so they hope to use it on Drake to wipe out vampires all at once, which could put Blade at risk. When the protagonist trio go to confront Talos' familiar, psychiatrist Edgar Vance (John Michael Higgins), they find him slain by Drake who did so to prevent spilling any details. Blade chases him long enough for the original vampire to share his respect towards him and confesses he feel all humans unworthy of his notice, holding his following in contempt. When he escapes, Blade and Abigail find Talos' blood farm full of brain dead humans being drained for vampire consumption. Upon discovery, the daywalker decides to deactivate the life support systems and kills the familiar Martin Vreede (Mark Berry) for rounding up humans as long as he has. At the Nightstalkers' hideout, Blade & Abigail find the group dead except King & Zoe who were taken by Talos. In shock of all they’ve lost, Blade encourages Abigail to use Daystar. Before going to rescue what’s left of their crew, they see a video message left by Sommerfield who confirmed Drake’s blood must be interfused to make the weapon work. King is tortured by the opposing vampires who demand to know what the Nightstalkers plan to do. When he refuses, they threaten to turn him and force him to feed on Zoe. Thankfully, that doesn't happen when Blade & Abigail arrive in time to free them both. Once free, King is able to kill Jarko and Abigail is able to kill Asher while Blade duels with Drake. The daywalker is able to defeat him stabbing him with a Daystar arrow that summons the virus into the air, killing Danica and all nearby vampires. In his final words though, Drake reminds him that as the last vampire standing, he'll thirst for blood and be the race's future. The films end with Blade being presumed dead when his body is found by the FBI, but it is then revealed Drake shapeshifted into him as his parting gift, giving him a chance to keep fighting on his own.
THOUGHTS
Considering there was consistency of quality with two films in a row, it was easy to get my hopes up on what would come from this finale. Sadly, this is in the middle where it ain't terrible nor is it great. The pressure was on for debuting director David S Goyer, who had written the previous films, and I believe there was a fair amount of balance between god & bad qualities that make the whole movie worth watching. The visuals were not perfect when it came to Abigail's UV bow & arrow, but they were quite effective when seeing Drake in his demonic form or the usual trademark of disintegrating vampires. Hell, even the dog vampires gave the creeps as that was the point. The editing is well paced for the action/chase sequences, which still kept me on the edge of my seat. What I do think this film differs from the predecessors is accepting the fact no one is perfect no matter how hard you try to be, which is why there is no shame in having a helping hand. Wesley Snipes embraced that in a big day as the day walker. For a long time, all he had was Abraham and felt unstoppable with him by his side doing the absolute. But when losing his mentor, he felt lost and didn't know how to act without him. Once he found new allies out of the Nightsalkers though, he understood he's not the only one who wants to make a difference. He may have not said it aloud, but him facing Drake unsure of what would happen to him after proved he was willing to die for his cause which he almost did. The fact he gets to live to face other threats that will likely originate from the supernatural category like vampires further proves to always fight the good fight. And if his cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine proved anything, he never stopped. Going into new characters, I think each one got to stand out in their own way. Jessica Biel made Abigail a capable hunter since she has a playlist when she's kicking ass. Considering how vampires became responsible for the loss of her family, including her dad, it only drove her more to keep doing what he was doing half his life. And like it or not, she's the last one Blade could consider family due to how much of a parental figure he saw through Abraham. With that in mind, it almost felt easier for him to give her team a chance. What made him hesitant was someone he didn't understand yet respected along the way. Ryan Reynolds arguably fits into this mold of action as Hannibal King he has his own set of strong will that drives him to be part of the cause. The guy started out irresponsible when walking into the clutches of Danica as a vampire slave and once he was free from her, his motive was to never be vulnerable again while still being true to himself. And he proved that with each vampire he took down while still cracking a smile or two. Considering that you want to go grand for a trilogy, it made sense to get the biggest threat in vampire lore itself that is the infamous Count Dracula. Dominic Purcell gave his own spin on the character on making him his own vision of an idealist. For someone who's lived for centuries, he has own idea on how the world should look while he's around which wouldn't be good for us. Even without the other threats that brought him back such as the manipulative Danica that's brought to life by Parker Posey, or the way Callum Keith Rennie showed Asher to be one who solely follows whoever is leading the path to dominance, or even how much of a brute Jarko Grimwood thanks to being played by Paul Levesque/Triple H, the guy did feel unstoppable until the odds were no longer at their favor. Drake even changes things up in showing honor to those who cross him, which he shows after being defeated by Blade. It made sense for him to do so because however Blade lives his life, he is the new embodiment of Drake whether he likes it or not and that will haunt him in more ways than one which is a unique spin on having the last laugh if you ask me. Having said all the pros I can scavenge, there are still a handful of things that didn't make sense as I re-watched it. From the top, I feel like Blade should've led that opening chase with his UV lights if that is guaranteed to work on all vampires that aren't Drake. If he doesn't want to make a scene, he should've done that from the start and leave said headlights on. I mean that would've benefitted him for sure had he done it before. And how the hell does Whistler have sensitive info on four different computers? If he's able to make an array of vampire weapons, he should get a hard drive while he's at it. I don't even understand why the FBI went from 'shoot to kill' once the raid began, only to not shoot Blade at all after already crippling Whistler. Even if they don't know he's a vampire, there's no reason to not shoot someone they believe to be a threat. Also, why doesn't Abigail use a garlic arrow on Jarko instead of a plain one that does no permanent damage? If the goal is to eliminate vampires, go all the way. It's even out of place for Blade to remind King that interrogating familiars is the best way to track down vampires. If we're three movies deep, there is no way the audience needs to be reminded either. And if I gotta talk about a big ass continuity error, it's gotta be Abigail showering the blood off her when we didn't see any on her while she was tended to King who he got injured upon encountering Drake. If his injury was so severe that blood splattered on her own, it wouldn't be a bad idea showing that. Other than that, I think this one still works for what it is. To wrap up, Blade: Trinity is a decent comic book sequel that may not be an epic finale, but remains an entertaining movie nonetheless. If you enjoyed the first two, I hope you like this as well.
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