Plot
Blade, based on the slightly obscure, B-rated Marvel comic book, follows the adventures of the daywalking, half-vamp slayer Blade. sorry, that was awful grammer. Nevertheless, the basic plot has Blade trying to stop a rebellious vamp named Deacon Frost from unleashing La Magra and destroying human-kind. Blade is the product of a birth from a woman who had just been bitten. The changes in his blood gave him vampire strength, but wihtout the allergic reaction to sunlight and other anti-vamp devices. Its just the thirst that gets to him. He is taken in by Whistler, a vampire slayer from way back, and is trained to do the same. They quell the thirst with a serum, but it is just enough.
Frost, on the other hand, is vampire pissed off at the system. He was not born a vampire and therefore is a second class citizen. He shakes things up, and discovers that he can summon a Blood God, LaMagra, to destroy all the humans and create eternal darkness. all he needs is Blade's blood. In the end, Frost nearly succeeds, but of course, Blade defeats him.
My thoughts
This movie is often credited with reviving the comic book movie. It was based on,yes, a b-string Marvel character, but the grosses on the movie opened a lot of studios' eyes to the possibility of taking comic book characters and bringing them to the big screen. Movies like X-Men, Spider-Man and The Hulk would never have been made if this movie had failed.
Personally, I loved this movie. It had some of the best action scenes done in a long time, and it was original. There was nothing like this out at the time. Wesley Snipes characterized Blade so well. He pulled himself, if only momentarily, to the forefront of Hollywood. This was great, and a bad sequel would have been devastating.
Blade II additional cast
Nyssa: Lenor Varela
Reinhardt: Ron Perlman
Nomak: Luke Goss
Released: May 2002. Written by: David S. Goyer. Directed by: Guillermo Del Toro. My Rating: ****
Plot
After defeating Frost and La Magra, Blade goes on a search for Whistler, who wasn't killed, but kept alive as a vampire in stasis. He and his new partner finally find him after 5 years, and rid his blood of the virus. Not long after that, the stronghold is attacked by two vampire ninjas. However, they come in peace, and wish to ally themselves with Blade to fight something that is more dangerous than vampires.
What could that be, you ask? They are the reapers, headed by the evil Nomak. The emissaries that offered Blade the truce are members of the Vampire ruling house. They want to kill the Reapers, because the Reapers are killing the vampires. So, they introduce Blade to the Wolfpac, a group of elite vamps that were actually trained to kill Blade. They are led by Reinhardt, and as you might expect, tension runs high the entire movie.
After a few encounters with the Reapers, the Wolfpac is decimated, and Blade's new human buddy turns out to be a Familiar. The group is captured, and it turns out that the Reapers, Nomak especially, were created by the vamps to improve on the species. Well, predictably, Blade gets loose, and kicks ass all over the place. Very nice.
My Thoughts
Well, so much for a bad sequel. This one, penned by the same guy who did the first, didn't lose any of the edge the first had. There was continuity (the bad guys thank Blade for killing Frost) and some incredible action. I saw this one on opening nite, and enjoyed every minute of it. It really was one of those few sequels that lives up to the expectations of the originals. They didn't change much, but the plot was still fresh and original.
Blade Trinity additional cast
Drake: Dominic Purcell
Abigail Whistler: Jessica Biel
Hannibal King: Ryan Reynolds
Danica: Parker Posey
Asher: Callum Keith Rennie
Jarko Grimwood: Triple H
Released: September 2004. Written and Directed by: David S. Goyer. My Rating: ***.
Plot
After Blade kills a human, not knowing he was a human, the FBI invades his hideout and kills Whistler. The old man, in the scenes before he dies, drops a few hints about having some new friends that are helping the pair with their job. Blade, of course, ignores this. When the FBI does their dirty work, he's captured and interogated. It looks like the FBI has them, but really, its a splinter group of Vampires, intent on getting rid of Blade.
This group, led by Danica Talos, has also resurrected Dracula, or Drake, as he's called. He is part of the 'final solution' to rid the planet of humans. They have Blade right where they want him, but that's when all hell breaks loose and a rescue party arrives for Blade. They're led by two spirited youngsters by the names of Hannibal King and Abigail Whistler.
After an intense escape sequence, they head back to the lair of the 'Nightstalkers' as these new vamp hunters call themselves. They have been helping fight vampires, and are also working on a virus to kill the vamps. And they have found out that the vamps have risen Dracula. His blood is the purest of the vampire blood, and with it, they could amplify the virus.
After some ineffectual searching, they meet up with Drake, and he basically makes Blade look like a chump. You see, Blade isn't the only Daywalker around anymore. The good guys also find out that along with Dracula, the other part of the Final Solution are several 'farms' of brain dead humans to supply blood for vampires. As Blade and Abigail inspect this, Drake attacks the Nightstalker's den, taking an injured Hannibal King.
It would seem that King was once a vamp, and he was Danica's toy. Now, its time for Blade and Abigail to rescue King. And they do it in spectacular fashion. After a whirlwind battle with Drake, Blade finally injects Drake with the virus, and it begins to spread.
My Thoughts
Now, as a finale for the trilogy, it was not the movie I expected. The early rumors about it were of a vampire apocalypse, and that's when Dracula shows up. This final product was less spectacular as that would have been, in my opinion. The adding of King and Abby whistler also distracted from what should have been Blade's swan song. Instead of being Blade versus Dracula, it was Blade, Abby, and King, versus Dracula. It was extremely distracting. Blade's usual monotone, straight-forward performance and nuances were drowned out by King's increasingly annoying one-liners and Abby's pining for her dead dad. Yes, she was Whistler's illegitimate daughter.
Backstage, Wesley Snipes was unhappy with the picture, citing his under-involvment as the reason. He did no publicity work, and his involvement with the special features was non-existant. Instead, Biel, Reynolds, and newcomer WWE star Triple H did all of it. HHH, by the way was actually pretty convincing as Jarko Grimwood, and the fight he and Reynolds had in the end was pretty convincing as well. But, over all, the movie was sub-par, and not as good as the other two. Maybe Goyer tried too hard, and maybe they shouldn't have made this into a possible launch pad for a King/Abby spinoff. There are a lot of maybes, but the only real conclusion is that the trilogy, overall, is worth watching, but this chapter is a severe let-down for for any hardcore Blade fan such as myself.
