Wesley Snipes returns to the role that will define his career, the vampire butt kicking Blade. In this, the third film in the Blade trilogy (where lead to believe its the last) Dracula, the original vampire, has been resurected to lead the vampires in their quest to kill Blade and gain control of the human world. Blade and Whistler (Kristofferson)have become public enemies number one from a vampire set up and now the FBI are on their trail. Blade’s world is torn apart forcing him to accept help from the Nightstalkers, a group of young vampire hunters lead by Whistler’s daughter Abigail(Biel) and Hannibal (Reynolds).

The Nightstalkers have developed a biological weapon that could destroy the vampire race and it is up to Blade to beat his way into infusing it into Dracula’s blood.

The Blade movie franchise has been a bit of a hidden gem. Hiding in the shadows of it’s heavily exposed counterparts, X Men, Spiderman, The Hulk, the darker and nastier Blade movies have delivered the goods with every outing. Unfortunately Trinity is the weakest of the movies. David Goyer, the writer of the first two movies is given directorial duties of his own scriptthis time round. Whilst his love of the character is obvious, his skills of commanding performances and creating suspense is a lot less so. I really enjoyed this movie at the cinemas but it does not hold up well on repeat viewings (unlike it’s predecessors). Trinity is definately the most fun of the three, with Reynold’s Hannibal delivering a lot of spunk and humour to the film but what this film lacks is a genuine sense of threat. Dracula is never allowed to show his power and as a result we never believe that he is going to kick Blade’s butt. The vampires this time round also seem weaker, the Nightstalker crew easily turning them to ashes on nightly hunts. Indie queen Parker Posey and wrestler Triple H deliver very ordinary performances (Despite what the cast and crew say in the commentaries) and create flacid vampiric bad guys that would have been more at home in the appalling Van Helsing.

Overall, I think this movie is well worth it’s first viewing, it is fun (which may disappoint the film’s origianl audience). Reynolds shows potential for future buddy action films and you do feel there is till life in the franchise for Blade and the Nightstalkers, just keep the writer to writing duties only and don’t let him have the final word.

THE EXTRAS

There is a fair bit on this double disc.
Disc One
Two version of the film The original theatrical release (113 mins) & The Extended version (123 mins). The extended bits don’t add a great deal to the film, the most obvious difference is in the film’s final scene.
Audio Commentaries Two of them are featured here. Commentary One has Writer/ Director Goyer with actors Reynolds and Biel. This commentary is more anecdotal and many times the conversation doesn’t coincide with what’s happening on screen. Plenty of opportunities to get up and make a coffee as the trio gush at how fabulous everyone’s performances are. Commentary Two has Goyer joined by producers Peter Frankfurt and Lyn Harris, Cinematographer Gabriel Beristain, Production Designer Chris Gorak and Editor Howard E. Smith. The production crew get technical on how they approached the film. I couldn’t help but smirk as they all overplay the importance of their contribution to the telling of the story. Goyer unintentionally reveals how unprepared he was to direct by revealling how often he used up to 8 cameras to film a scene with several camermen told to film whatever they want as he “may use it”.
Disc Two
The usual collection of a special edition DVD extras are here.
Featurette - Inside the world of Blade Trinity (106 mins)
A series of making of docos (18 of them!) exploring the films production with interviews with cast and crew.
Goyer on Goyer: Writer interviews Director
David Goyer blows his own horn as he tries to convince us that this is the best of the three blade movies. Lets hear what Del Toro has to say about that.
Alternate Ending
Thank God this wasn’t in the final cut. This is the kind of extra that is a must on a DVD as you would get p**sed off if you read rumours of it existing. Glad to have seen it, glad they left it here in the extras, well away from the film.
Outtakes (10min)
Blooper reel. My wife loves these, I tend to give them a miss.
Gallery
Two sections-Visual Effects Progressions and Weaponsintersting developement shots for the special effects in the film which were thankfully sparingly used. (Take note Stephen Sommers)
Trailers
Blade Trinity x 2
Blade Trinity Soundtrack
Million Dollar Baby
Constantine

CONCLUSION

Comic book hero Blade returns for his third cinematic outing to kick more Vampire butt. But this time the Vampires have the ultimate defense, the original vampire himself, Dracula.