Blade: Trinity *** (2004, Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds, Parker Posey, James Remar, Natasha Lyonne, Eric Bogosian) – Classic Movie Review 1,067

Wesley Snipes returns as Marv Wolfman’s Marvel Comics vampire-hunter swordsman in the 2004 American superhero film Blade: Trinity, with Kris Kristofferson back as old kung fu master Abraham Whistler.

As David S Goyer, the writer of the Blade film series also gets his chance to direct the 2004 final part of the trilogy, Wesley Snipes returns as Marv Wolfman’s Marvel Comics cartoon superhero Blade, a vampire-hunter swordsman who’s half-vampire himself, but gets out in the daytime with the help of a magic potion.

This time, he’s hunted by the FBI, while he links up with the Nightstalkers to battle Dracula. Misbegotten third episode in the vampire saga, with Snipes, the excellent cast (Kris Kristofferson, Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds, Parker Posey, James Remar, Natasha Lyonne and Eric Bogosian) and Gabriel Beristain’s distinguished cinematography the main saving graces.

It is mostly a series of heavily-edited fight scenes at the expense of coherent entertaining plot. Yet, even if it’s a let-down, there is plenty of robust and lively action, though, and some effective dark humour, so Blade fans will want to see it and find some entertainment value squeezed in.

Kris Kristofferson is once again back from part one Blade (1998) and Blade II (2002), loyal again in support as Snipes’s old kung fu master, Abraham Whistler, though he apparently died in the original 1998 film Blade.

Snipes was paid $13 million to repeat his role. He was said to be unhappy with the script and the original choice of director. David S Goyer, who wrote all three films, was then selected to replace the director, which Snipes also protested about. Allegedly Goyer and Snipes did not get on, with Goyer recalling it as ‘the most personally and professionally difficult and painful thing I’ve ever been through’. Snipes’s version is that as an executive producer he had the authority to make decisions but that some people had difficulty accepting it.

The US box office gross was $52 million, for a worldwide total gross of $132 million on a budget of $65 million.

A 13-part TV series, Blade: The Series, followed in 2006, with Sticky Fingaz replacing Snipes.

In 2024, Snipes reprised his role in Deadpool & Wolverine.

A reboot film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe starring Mahershala Ali is planned.

Kristoffer Kristofferson (June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024)

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1,067 derekwinnert.com