Movie Review by Neils Hesse
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds
Director: David S Goyer
Vampires will be vampires, boys will be boys and Blade will always be Blade. Unlike the first two instalments this one kicks off in bright daylight in the Syrian Desert with a group of vampires unearthing the tomb of Drake A.K.A Dracula the first vampire and soon enough one of their number incurs Drake’s vicious wrath.
Fast forward to Wesley Snipes A.K.A Blade walking out of a burning building pursuing a bunch of bloodsuckers leading to an adrenaline charged car chase that ends as a set up by the vampires to alert the FBI about Blade and his murdering ways. A violent FBI siege on Blade and Whistler’s base ensues which leads to disastrous results and the introduction of the Nightstalkers, a team of vampire killers led by Abigail – who also happens to be Whistler’s daughter played by an extremely physically efficient Jessica Biel – and Hannibal King a fast talking ex-vampire played by a pumped up Ryan Reynolds. It is with this team that Blade will fight his greatest fight against the ultimate vampire.
David S Goyer who has written all the BLADE movies and is currently co-scribe to the new Batman movie takes up the reins for the first time as director in the third instalment of the BLADE movies. So does he cut the mustard? Well he just about makes it, despite a few dodgy CGI inspired scenes and a slightly lacklustre ending and he still manages to get Blade to do what he does best, which is hunt and exterminate vampires. Blade is based on a comic book after all so it is meant to entertain but it still could have benefited from more positive direction as even popcorn movies need some flavour to keep them tasty.
Wesley Snipes is physically well built to play Blade, his martial arts training and his portrayal of the menacing no bullshit attitude of the character is perfectly done as he aptly demonstrated, much to my joy, in several scenes throughout this film. One particularly dark comic scene involves him giving a vampire disciple the chance to run for his life in twenty seconds, only to shout twenty seconds after barely five had passed and then kill him.
Jessica Biel comes on board as Whistler’s daughter and she more than holds her own as her fight scenes throughout the film are all seamlessly executed. Ryan Reynolds is surprisingly very well built for his role and also provides several killer one liners such as when Blade puts down their chosen name of Nightstalkers his response is “Well we wanted to roll as the Care Bears but that was already taken!”
This may not have the truly dark feel or freshness of Stephen Norrington’s first BLADE movie or the ferocity and gothic feel of Guillermo Del Toro’s BLADE 2, but at the end of the day when you go to see a film like BLADE you go to see Wesley Snipes kick ass and trust me – he does!
