Blade: Trinity Movie Review: By Paul Heath

Expectation for this new Blade movie was high. Here, we have everything that should make this film a good movie, the original writer back on board, and indeed filling the directors chair this time round too, the returning Snipes in the lead role, a beautiful babe in the form of Jessica Biel, a hulking hunk courtesy of a pumped Ryan Reynolds and a supporting cast that includes Parker Posey and um, Triple H -- yes the WWE wrestler. I'd love to say that Blade: Trinity blew me away and is the best in the trilogy, but boy, it falls WAY short of the mark in almost every way.

So the story goes like this. The nation of Vampires have managed to find Dracula, now called Drake somewhere in Iraq (?). They set Blade up for the killing of a human and the police come after him, locking him up and hoping to throw away the key. That is, until a group of human Vampire hunters named the Nightstalkers, set him free to take on the Vampire Nation once again and ultimately defeat Dracula, sorry, Drake himself.

Okay, so I'm going to start off by saying what's good about this movie. Wesley Snipes is, as ever, reliable as the wisecracking hybrid vampire killer Blade but in some scenes, particularly towards the end, you can't help but notice that he just looks so bored in the role. Jessica Biel is fine and dandy and kinda hot looking as Whistler's daughter Abigail and I will say that Triple H turns in an okay performance as Jarko Grimwood. There I said it. But the standout performance is owned by Ryan (Van Wilder) Reynolds who is easily the most entertaining and the best thing about this film.

So, what's bad. Well, pretty much everything else. I was just completely bored in the screening. The main problem with the film unfortunately lies with the script. It's flawed in so many ways and has more holes that a slab of Dutch Edam. And it's cheesy to boot too. Goyer has pointed his nose in the right direction, but just as the film looks like its moving in an interesting way, it veers way off in a completely different direction. I think that the plotline where the police come after Blade after is huge public 'outing' could have produced some interesting stuff, but after Blade is cut loose by the Nightstalkers, Goyer just forgets about it and moves on to concentrate on the Vampire Nation. There's also the thing where Abigail Whistler uses an iPod to go into battle with the vampires, possibly one of the biggest product placement deals in the history of Hollywood, and completely unnecessary. How much did Apple pay for that one?

It's just all been done, and the film offers nothing new. You kind of think by the end that the Blade series has run its course, which is a shame, because there could, and should have been a lot more potential in there.

A dissapointment.

Grade: D

Paul Heath