Who would’ve guessed that out of the first three Franchise Fridays I have done two of them would be about vampires? I can assure you this wasn’t planned. I have no particular affinity for vampires or vampire films, it just so happened that the ‘Blade’ films fit for the bill for what I fancied watching this week; short and sweet. I went into these films with no prior knowledge of anything apart from the basic premise and the popular opinion about the third film being terrible and so I was decently excited to sit down and watch them. And so, I did. Last night. One straight after the other. Below is what I thought of them
Blade (1998)
This film offered me pretty much the exact experience I was expecting. First of all, this film is 90s to all ball. From its visual style to its musical choices and costuming it screams 90s and gives the film an element of ‘cheese’ that I kind of loved. There are some moments in the film that feel particularly odd due to how they’re edited. The filmmakers decided to just speed everything up and do a load of quick cuts. It sticks out like a saw thumb and pulled me right out of the film. However, something that surprised me was how well the special effects hold up. Now, there are moments where it doesn’t look great but for the most part it looks pretty good for being 22 years old. As for the film’s narrative it doesn’t exactly push the boat out. It is a story we have all seen a thousand times before; bad guy wants to perform ancient ritual, needs the good guy to do it, ladida with all the bells and whistle that come with it. Whatever. It’s not a terrible narrative and keeps the film ticking along, but I knew where it was going at almost every beat and so struggled to get invested and the film dragged for me as a result. The acting isn’t exactly gold standard either. No one stands out as having been bad in the film but equally most of the actors don’t stand out as being great either. Stephen Dorff is the villain of the piece and I know he is trying his hardest, but I just couldn’t take him seriously. He felt more like a 90s, douchebag, fuckboy than a legit threat and he was not intimidating in the slightest. You’ll notice I said most performances didn’t stand out as being great and that’s because I really enjoyed Wesley Snipes and Kris Kristofferson in this film. Both played their characters brilliantly and were a lot of fun. And fun is a key word for this film because any scene where Blade is beating the shit out of vampires is an absolute ton of it and where the film really shines. Especially that opening club scene which is absolutely superb. Visually it is gripping with the excess blood flowing from the ceiling and as for action scenes it is a riot from start to finish. It is so good that it kind of sets the rest of the film up to fail as a result because nothing can top it. Well at least nothing in this film, but I still have two more to watch.
Blade II (2002)
Well I can say that nothing in this film tops that club scene either. However, overall, I had a much better time with this one. I was instantly bought in when I found out it was directed by Guillermo Del Toro and then I was sold when the opening scene f the film dropped us into Prague, one of my favourite places in the world. I give it five stars. But in all seriousness, this was a lot of fun to watch and flew by in comparison to the first film. Right from the start the film has a much better visual style to it. That isn’t to say that I didn’t like the style of the first film, but this film takes that and makes it more crisp and appealing. It also has a lot more visually impressive set pieces with the lighting especially being much more effective. The premise is a lot more interesting with a new mutated breed of vampire threatening the world, forcing Blade to team up with other vampires to stop it. Already that idea is a lot more fun than the first films narrative and I was bought in throughout. What the film does particularly well is take the goofiness of the first film but plays it straight. This just leads to a lot of fun sequences and characters without ever feeling like it is jumping the shark. Speaking of the characters the new additions in this film are all a lot of fun and much more memorable than the characters of the first, with Ron Pearlman being a particular highlight. Blade himself is allowed to cut loose a bit more as well and Snipes is again great in the role. The action scenes remain a lot of fun and are again the strongest parts of the film. There is sometimes an overabundance if CGI in these scenes and there are a couple moments where it looks pretty shocking, with one moment in particular making the characters look like pure rubber, but for the most part the CGI stands up quite well. The practical effects in the film are as good as any other Del Toro film and it does not shy away from getting up close and personal with its practical effects. I enjoyed this film a lot more than the first, but if popular opinion is anything to go by that’s where the fun will end as the final film in this franchise is apparently a stinker. But I am open minded, and I will go into this film with no preconceived notions on its quality. And besides, it has my boy Triple H in it so how bad could it actually be?
Blade Trinity (2004)
Well the quick and easy answer to that question is so much worse than I could possibly imagine. This film is absolutely horrendous from top to bottom. And it started quite promisingly with a decent enough opening action scene. There is another quite fun action scene towards the end but by that point I was completely checked out and just wanting it all to end. And these are the only positives I can find from this film. Firstly, this is one of the worst directed films I have ever seen. Honestly, I can’t even describe how utterly baffled I was with every directing decision. There is more than one moment where we are introduced to a character by showing the character’s face for half a second before quickly cutting to Blade’s reaction to this introduction meaning we are never actually introduced to them. The characters are not helped by a terrible script, especially Ryan Reynolds who is given the funny man role and falls so, so flat. I hated his character and he is in the film mor than fucking Blade. There is one character worse and that is the main villain, Dracula. Oh sorry, I mean Drake. Yes, they call Dracula Drake in this film and if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about the final product, I don’t know what will. It isn’t helped that ‘Drake’ is the most generic looking, mid-200s looking douchebag guy making his character more hilarious as the main villain than anything else. The acting is also hilariously bad. Snipes seems completely checked out and the rest of the cast all do horrible jobs, especially Parker Posey who is absolutely horrific, often comedically so. The worst thing this film does above all this other crap is that it is also the most boring of the trilogy. The goofiness is doomed down to a degree where it became completely boring. I did not care about any of the new characters and the narrative was completely uninteresting. It’s no surprise that this was the last film in this franchise. It is complete and utter shit.
Having now seen the whole ‘Blade’ trilogy I can see why the first two films were so successful and why the third was a failure. The second is the pinnacle o the series, but both the first two films are decently fun times with some great action scenes and fun performances. If you haven’t seen them and you like your action films, I’d definitely say check them both out. But avoid the third one like the plague. It is genuinely bloody terrible and doesn’t have enough so bad it’s good moments to make it worthwhile. If I was to follow this accidental trend next week’s Franchise Friday would be the ‘Underworld’ series but I think I’ll miss it. No, I think I fancy something lighter, a comedy perhaps, and probably a franchise that has aged like bad milk….