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

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 group.

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 and dying 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, Dracula, now called 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 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 efficiency. 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 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]
  • Werewolf 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]

Cast

Reception

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].

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] Bob Longino of the Atlanta Journal said "It's silly, violent fun, sometimes mindlessly entertaining but hardly, if ever, engaging". 

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.

Production

David S Goyer had originally planned for the film to be set 20 years after the events of the second movie where the vampires finally had achieved world domination and enslaved all humans, with Blade being the last hope for humanity. Blade's slower aging could be explained by his vampire blood. The storyline was deemed too dark and was later dropped.

Trivia

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (November 2009)
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  • Colin Farrell was offered the role of Hannibal King, but turned it down.  Also Ashley Scott was considered for the role of Abigal.
  • An early idea of David S. Goyer was to include not only Hannibal King, but a female character called Rachel Van Helsing from the Tomb of Dracula comics, but then he heard about the movie Van Helsing and decided against it. He ended up creating the character of Abigail Whistler, Whistler's daughter, in her place.
  • Even though it's the third movie in the Blade series, this was the first movie to have the Marvel Studios logo at the beginning of the movie
  • An issue of The Tomb of Dracula makes a cameo appearance. This is the comic series that originally introduced Blade, Deacon Frost, and Hannibal King.
  • Originally, Blade was to finally have an on-screen sex scene in this film, after not including a sex scene in "Blade II" nor "Blade". Both Wesley & David Goyer stated this on the Blade II DVD commentary. For reasons unknown, the planned sex scene was scrapped altogether. The Sex scene was going to be with Abigail.
  • The film's opening chase scene was originally scripted for its predecessor Blade II, but was scrapped due to budget concerns. The director of this edition of Blade wanted to include the scene, regardless of how much it was to cost. Another scene that was included, yet was originally scrapped, was the Vampire Blood farm scene (which featured human victims who were brain dead yet kept alive for their blood supplies). This scene was supposed to be featured in the first Blade movie. The director again wished to include it, to demonstrate the superiority of the vampire race, and that they are beginning to take over the world.
  • In Blade II, Wesley Snipes defeated the vampire security guards by using a few wrestling moves (which included a standing suplex and other moves). Two years later, WWE superstar and former World Heavyweight Champion Triple H was cast into the film as Jarko Grimwood. Triple H used a lot of wrestling moves also, including a running powerslam, and his trademark "knee to the face" move.
  • Apart from the running powerslam move, Ryan Reynolds (who played Hannibal King) took the brunt of Triple H's wrestling moves, refusing to allow a stuntman to "do his job".
  • Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds went through a grueling training regime all in an attempt to keep fit and stay true to their comic book counterparts. Dominic Purcell, Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds all went on a strict diet as well, which according to the DVD extras, was something Dominic disliked (as he was restricted from eating junk food, which he craves).
  • The scene of Blade on his knees, resting (or meditating) was originally scripted as having him hanging upside down like a bat and sleeping. This idea was scrapped from the script due to the difficulty of pulling the trick off.
  • In the scene when Hedge (Patton Oswald) is introduced, he is seen wearing a Fantastic Four t-shirt displaying the 4's logo.
  • David Goyer had prepared this particular sequel as grounds for a spin-off focusing on the Nightstalkers, but between the lackluster box-office and lack of audience interest, the spin-off never materialized. A series created for Spike TV called, Blade: The Series, features Blade's character in continuing adventures. The lead is not played by Wesley Snipes, but by rapper/actor, Sticky Fingaz. The series picks up where the third movie in the series ends. The show was canceled after one season.
  • For a limited time, the DVD release included a comic book that covered Abigail and Hannibal's origins prior to freeing Blade within the film.
  • Abigail Whistler was created exclusively for the film, much like Whistler himself was for the original. Although Whistler did appear in the Spider-man animated series before his film appearance. Goyer claims that Whistler was taken directly from him, right under his nose.

Lawsuit

Both Wesley Snipes and Kris Kristofferson, who at the time had become good friends after working on the two previous Blade-installments, were reportedly unhappy with this movie and with David S. Goyer's script decisions. They felt that too many new characters were added to the universe, and that Blade did not need any sidekicks besides Whistler.

In 2005, Snipes sued New Line Cinema, and David S. Goyer (director of Blade: Trinity) claiming that the studio did not pay his full salary, that he was intentionally cut out of casting decisions and filmmaking process, despite being one of the producers, and that his character's screen time was reduced in favor of costars, Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel.

Snipes contends that Goyer, his fellow producers, and New Line kept him out of the project's decision process, which ended up harming the film's performance (it made just $52 million, compared to the previous installments that had made $70 million and $82 million respectively). He says that a portion of his salary - $3.6 million - was withheld as punishment. The suit is still pending.

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 appearance as the one-eyed newspaper vendor who talks to Whistler in Esperanto and discusses the public perception that Blade is a menace to society.

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 3/4 stars
  10. ^ Roger Ebert Blade II : Reviews 3.5/4 stars
  11. ^ Roger Ebert Blade: Trinity : Reviews 1.5/4 stars
  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. 

External links

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Blade: Blade (1998) • Blade II (2002) • Blade: Trinity (2004)
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Iron Man: Iron Man (2008) • Iron Man 2 (2010)
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Dracula (1924) • Count Dracula (1972) • Dracula, a Musical Nightmare (1974) • Dracula (1980) • Dracula: The Musical (1982) • Dracula (1995) • Dracula (Czech musical) (1995) • Dracula (1996) • Dracula: A Chamber Musical (1997) • Dracula (2000) • Dracula, the Musical (2004) • Dracula – Entre l'amour et la mort (2006)
Film adaptations
Nosferatu (1922) • Dracula (1931) • Dracula (1931 Spanish version) • Drakula İstanbul'da (1953) • Dracula (1958) • Dracula (1968) • Count Dracula (1970) • Dracula (1973) • Count Dracula (1977) • Dracula (1979) • Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) • Dracula (1992) • Dracula (2002) • Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002) • Dracula (2006)
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Dracula's Death (1923) • Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966) • Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971) • "Buffy vs. Dracula" (2000) • Blade: Trinity (2004) • Van Helsing (2004) • The Batman vs. Dracula (2005)
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