Friday 29 April 2011

Three isn’t always the magic number.

The Hollywood money maker that is the trilogy, we all know the obvious ones such as Indiana Jones (anyone mentions Crystal Skulls I will cry like a puppy punched in the face), Star Wars (The original trilogy) and Back to the Future. Mostly because they are the good ones, the ones that have a cohesive pattern and a story arc that runs through all of the films.
 
But let’s try and keep things somewhat positive and look at a trilogy that should have been good but fell just short of the mark. BLADE! That’s rite Blade one through three.
 
Blade 1998 a film that shook up the vampire genre and gave it (pardon the term) a new lease of life. A story about a man trying to be good but born out of an evil situation, his mother life taken by a vampire and due to this his biology is forever changed making half human half vampire. With Stephen Norrington’s dark and twisted brush strokes while in the director’s chair made this film not only frightening but exciting.
 
Blade 2 2002 the second is the saga and what a saga it was. This film was about Blade teaming up with the vampires he hates so much to prevent a more aggressive and entirely more dangerous breed of vampire from killing all the vampires and then turning on the humans Blade has spent his life trying to protect. With all the right ingredients it’s a sorry thing to say that the second Blade film was a disappointment. Guillermo Del Toro directing means broad fantasy brush strokes matched with such a strong grip of story that is unmatched many. And with a great supporting cast Ron Pearlman and Tony Curran to name a few it is a sorry thing to say that Blade 2 was a bit of a number 2.

Blade: Trinity the third time we go down the rabbit whole. What can I say, Ryan Reynolds is taken for granted again as being just a piece of eye candy that can crack a joke, when in fact he is much more than that (see Chaos theory, Smokin Ace’s or The Amityville Horror). Written and directed by David S. Goyer a man with a good track record as a writer but with Trinity seems to have fallen flat on his face as a director. This is an interesting story that has been poorly presented; it’s been wrapped up in attractive actors who have been under utilised and a visual ascetic that is weak and boring.

To sum up, when is doubt stop at one film. Let’s face it you’re not really going get better that Wesley Snipes going ape shit with a ruddy great sharp thing and Kris Kristofferson being drunk and shouting.

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