Blade 1 + 2:
Blade through the first two movies had consistently been a dark, edgy movie franchise and thats what made Blade. The dark atmosphere that went along with the quiet, yet intense personality of Blade was in perfect balance. There was a bit of subtle humor here or there to keep it interesting but overall the atmosphere stayed consistent. The first 2 films had meticulously added detail and personality to ensure that even though this was not your average vampire movie, that its still had a realistic vampire feel with dark scary looking characters, and vampires that acted like they were superior to humans in every way. Believability and credibility is never been an issue.
Basically Blade was a no nonsense, no mercy vampire killer with little or no remorse for the thousands of vamps that he tears apart.
He's driven by hatred for vampires and a desire to protect the general public who are seen as innocent and mostly oblivious to the vampire threat. Tension is created by the way Blade and Whistler are set up in the story. It's the two of them versus an entire world of physically and financially powerful vampires. Although Blade is powerful and cunning, he is not so overwhelmingly power that he can just take them for granted and hence the audience must take seriously each time he encounteres them.
Blade 3: (in contrast) Suddenly we have slapstick humour. The dark edgy atmosphere is gone, replaced with a techno style, teenie bop feel. Blade isn't about humor, it's not suppose to be funny. If it were suppose to be funny than they would have got Ben Stiller to play Blade not Wesley Snipes. The Nightstalkers were a joke. Blade even makes the comment that they're just a bunch of punk kids that dress like idiots. Well there's some irony in Snipe's lines because thats a key element(or flaw) that ruins the whole feel of the franchise. Ryan Reynolds was funny, i'll give him that. The sad thing is that people don't go to a Blade movies expecting a comedy. Vampire hunter: rough, tough, rugged, take no prisoners type of attitude. Night Stalker: joke cracking, techno bopping, careless, morons. It's sad that Reynolds when to all that trouble to workout and look believable when everything that happens in this movie goes to undermine the effort. All the tension that should be in this movie is evaporated and the audience is left wondering what on earth is going on. This is a good example of what happens when the reigns are given to the wrong hands. The writing, acting and particularly the direction are to blame. There isn't a more startling contrast in ability, and quality in a sequel. It's a true trinity of incompetence.
Blade 3 makes you question everything in the plot. Like why are
all the vampire henchmen/ henchwomen all little punk kids or teenies
boppers? Why would the lord of the vampires, Dracula, go through the trouble of running around
in the streets to steal babies? Dracula is suppose to be this all-powerful
immortal, so I don't think he would waste his time to do such petty things.
Then again, why did it take this many years for the powerful vampire
race which we're lead to believe in the first two movies basically control the world to find their
lord and master? This version of Dracula, or "Drake" (eyes rolling) looks like a
backstreet boy, or a meat head you might see at the gym on steroids. He has very limit acting ability and hence has very little believability as a suitable nemesis to the all powerful Day Walker.*Spoiler Alert* By the way, he goes down easier than Nomak and Frost, this supposed "Lord and ruler of the vampires".They spend way too much time on useless characters like the ones that Triple H plays, and not enough time developing the plot or main character. It's like they hired all these stars, (not all actors) and spent most of their time trying to get them screen time. Similar to the way ensemble cast movies flop out due to trying to fit everyone in the run time, and ignoring any relevance to the story that they're trying to tell. That's assuming they got a story in mind beyond trying to pad merchandising and marketing figures. So what is the plot? I can barely remember but supposedly the vampires have suddenly outed blade to the FBI and Blade is on the run from everyone so he seeks help and shelter from some douche bag kids he stumbles upon. They're lead by Ryan Reynold and Jessica Biel who are more useless than Priest, Verlain and Light Hammer from Blade 2. To make matters worse, Triple H and Parker Posey are resurrecting a steroid injected boy band member.
Blade is a shadow of his former self. He looks cheap. They cheaped out on his costume so they can pay all the other actors. Just as a small indication, his vest which looked very cool in the first one is replace by a cheap nylon vest with straps and he has a cheap looking buckle. They bought him a Blade costume off Ebay. Also, its as if Snipes isn't sure how to act in this new found personality. Snipes suddenly looks confused on how to play this role because he was probably wondering what on earth was going on. Then there's the matter of Whistler. Who they brought back in the second, went through a lot of trouble to explain his return and was an important element of both previous movies. In the third he just dies outta nowhere without much of a fight. Kristopherson probably demanded to have a minimal role after reading the script.
So what really happened? My guess is that they just wanted to make as much money off the success of the originals and get the heck outta here. Snipes himself said this would be the last one. Just a pity considering the potential, the hype, and the success of the first two. David Goyer, shame on you. You need to stick to writing where people can edit out your crap and call you on stupid decisions, and take away full creative control. Shortly after this movie was made, Snipes sued the film company for screwing up the movie so much. When I saw this in the theatre the audience was laughing out loud through most of the movie. But not from the comedic parts but rather at how bad it was.
In conclusion, save your time and money. Rewatch the originals. 0/10
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