Movie #80 - Blade Trinity

Blade Trinity
New Line Cinema
2004 - Rated R - 1 hr 53 min
Director: David S. Goyer
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Parker Posey, Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds

Whistler's gotta step messing with us.  He doesn't die, apparently, and he's got a secret daughter.  No, not one of the ones killed by vampires, a self proclaimed "other daughter, born out of wedlock" and she's Jessica Biel! Surprise!

Thank God, too, because Blade's getting old now and he needs the Mickey Mouse Club to help him kill vampires now.  Honeslty, Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel have some cool action scenes but any scene with Reynolds quickly degenerates into a comedy special. It's not horrible but I don't really see it fitting within the Blade franchise framework.  Maybe Reynolds and Snipes, if they wanted to get these two in a movie together so badly, should have done a stand alone buddy-cop movie or whatever. The banter between them is kinda fun, but mostly I think Blade Trinity is just gratuitous cinematic noise.

Movie #79 - Blade II

Blade II
New Line Cinema
2002 - Rated R - 1 hr 57 min
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, Norman Reedus

So let me get this straight, Whistler ain't dead? And now he's a vampire?

I hate when movies do this and they lie right to our faces. "Hey, remember how we didn't *show* him die in that last movie? We were totally kidding! Firing a gun at point blank range into your own temple doesn't *always* kill you, so we're capitalizing on this tiny percentage of failed suicide attempts to back our claim. Whistler ain't dead, the vampires got 'im, and you gotta come get him. Bitch."

On the plus side, Norman Reedus is a delight and Ron Perlman is an awesome bad guy.  The movie keeps your attention, but not in the same way the original did.  Snipes is still all "I'm not like Angel at all, Joss Whedon. Wanna fight about it?" and believable about it, too.  But really, I don't think this installment was necessary.

Movie #78 - Blade

Blade
New Line Cinema
1998 - Rated R - 2 hours
Director: Stephen Norrington
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristoffersen, Donal Logue

The working title for this movie was Blade, the Vampire Slayer. I'm really glad they steered away from that, because then it really would have seemed like a tougher, edgier, Wesley Snipes-ier Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And Joss Whedon was all set in that sector, thanks.

But Blade sounds harsher, fierceer even, than your average high-school vampire slaying film.

This movie is good, definitely the best of the three, and introduces the concept of a vampire-virus-infected vampire killer as just this unfortunate life-sucks kind of occurrence.  I think this is my favorite Snipes role after Demolition Man, and it kinda makes me miss the magic of 90's era action films (and their action heroes.)

Anyway, onto the less than stellar sequels.