Guest Author - Kirsten Olsen-Keyser

Blade began his life in 1973 within the pages of Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula. In comic book form, Blade is born in Great Britain and is a vampire from birth due to his mother being bitten by Deacon Frost while she was pregnant. He is the Day Walker with all of the vampire powers and none of their weaknesses. His straight talk and dark humor made him popular among fans spawning several comic books of his own.

The first movie in the series aptly titled Blade (1998) was written by David Goyer and directed by Stephen Norrington. Norrington is probably better known for his makeup and special effects work having only directed four movies total including Blade and the atrocious League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Norrington struck gold with Blade most likely because of Goyer’s writing. Goyer has had such hits as Dark City & Batman Begins as well as writing both sequels to Blade, and Batman (The Dark Knight) and the screenplays for the upcoming films, Magneto and The Flash.

The second film, Blade II (2002) was directed by Guillermo del Toro, the man behind such brilliant and original films as Pan’s Labyrinth & The Devil’s Backbone as well as the mediocre Mimic and Hellboy. The third Blade installment known as Trinity (2004) was directed by David Goyer himself.

The joy of all three films is that none of them are bogged down by the script. Each has a very straight forward plot and each is connected to the other in some way. Blade has an origin story similar to the comic and focuses on the relationship between Blade and his father figure/caretaker, Whistler. Interspersed with fantastic fight sequences and steadfast glares from our hero, Blade attempts to stop Deacon Frost from awakening the Blood God. Wesley Snipes is a dead ringer for Blade and delivers what few lines his character has with ease. No one ever said that Blade was a man of many words! Stephen Dorff plays Deacon Frost with style and malice and the choice of Kris Kirstofferson as Whistler was a stroke of casting genius.

Blade II continues directly where Blade ended. The villain this time is an evil greater than vampires lurking the streets. Blade must ally himself with his enemy in order to fight the greater foe. With enough one-liners to keep you giggling and a superb performance from Ron Perlman as Reinhardt, Blade II shed enough levity into the blood soaked darkness while at the same time was crammed full of skirmishes and excitement. The master fight choreographer Donnie Yen, lent his talents to Blade II and the hand to hand combat scenes really shine.

Blade: Trinity was panned by some critics, but was a fitting end to the trilogy. Now tracked by the FBI for killing a human, Blade is left virtually alone to defend himself with enemies at all sides. The vampires, having found “Dracula” in a ziggurat somewhere in the Fertile Crescent, believe they now have the ultimate weapon against Blade as well as a “cure” for their genetic inability to tolerate sunlight. An extremely buff Jessica Biel as Abby and the irrepressible Ryan Reynolds (sporting an incredible six pack) as Hannibal King make up the bones of the Nightstalkers, a group of vampire hunters who become Blade’s sidekicks on this adventure. Parker Posey exceeds as the misguided vampire leader, Danica Talos and even pro-wrestling star Triple-H (Paul Levesque) performs marvelously in the role of blood sucking bodyguard, Jarko Grimwood. Tackling the character of Drake a.k.a. Dracula, is Australian actor Dominic Purcell (John Doe, Prison Break) who performed all of his own stunts during the final sword fighting scene. While this third film is not quite as good as the other two, it has its moments and marks the true beginning of Goyer’s budding career as a director.

The Blade Trilogy is definitely worthy of a place on your comic book DVD shelf and currently stands out as one of the better movie sequences for Marvel.

Estimated Grosses

Blade: $70,087,718
Blade II: $82,348,319
Blade:Trinity: $52,411,906