#69 - Blade Trinity

We had to get here eventually, although with my track record, I expected you didn’t think as quickly. The final movie in the Blade Trilogy did have some issues behind the scenes, and they mostly revolve around the attitude of the star Wesley Snipes.

There’s no real getting around these issues. Apparently, Snipes would spend most of the day in his trailer smoking weed and would only come onto sets for close ups, letting his body double do anything else. He was particularly rude to most of the cast and called for the firing of writer/director David S Goyer, after having attacked him. Oh, and he later sued the production studio for his lack of screen time.

David S Goyer is his own can of worms. From the stupid sexist comment about the She Hulk being created to have someone for the Hulk to sleep with (you are aware they’re related right? That’s disgusting) and for of course being among the writing team of Batman vs Superman.  That said, he’d already written Blade’s 1 and 2, and wrote some of the Nolan Batman trilogy so it can’t be all bad... can it?

Oh no…

Yeah, this movie did badly, making a $125m on a $65m budget, that is likely a studio loss when you factor in theatre cuts and promotion and it was savaged by critics, with a 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

So, I’m braced and have excessive amounts of alcohol at my disposal, let’s dive into Blade Trinity

Mini Review - Blade II

The original Blade was a fun time, and it was successful, so in Hollywood tradition a sequel was green-lit. Now, I’ve spotted a problem with Blade’s longevity, he is a Vampire Hunter, and as such he doesn’t have a variety of rogues like other comic book characters, generally either someone from the hierarchy of vampires or random Avengers villains. As such I worry the action can get a little stale, something I’ll come back to in the review.

Wesley Snipes and David S Goyer were both involved as star and writer respectively, with the directing this time handed to Guillermo del Toro, last seen here when I did Pacific Rim but also known for the the Oscar winning The Shape of Water. The film gathered a mixed reception with a 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, just below the Fresh threshold of 60% with the average score being 5.9/10. That said, it was successful, earning over $150m on a $55m budget and sadly ensuring the green-lighting of Blade Trinity, we will get to that.

This review was originally scheduled for back in July, but got pushed back as my DVD was skipping moments and I felt I’d be rushing to judgement.

Mini Review - Blade

We’ll be taking a break from the Superman reviews for the time being because Kevin Spacey is a…

  

As I was saying, time to wind down with another superhero franchise, and what a topical time. At time of writing Black Panther just came out and celebrates the first superhero movie and probably first big budget blockbuster in general to have a predominately black cast of characters, but NOT as some people try to claim, the first Superhero movie with a black lead. That honour goes to… I’m not actually sure, but Blade sure as hell is one of them.

Blade came out in 1998, and it was sure as hell an adult movie, R rated in the US, rated 18 (the equivalent of NC-17) in the UK. It didn’t have blockbuster budget, only $45m and didn’t get blockbuster returns, $131m. It was just successful enough that a sequel was greenlit. It wasn’t exactly a critical smash either, rated 54% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 5.7/10. Here are my thoughts