Blade Trinity (5 Stars)

Nobody but Wesley Snipes can play Blade. He's getting older, but as long as he can still stand upright he can play the role. Who else could step into his shoes? Jamie Foxx? No way! Michael Jordan? Hmmm, maybe. Idris Elba? Too British.

After my last review I was criticised for giving it a five star rating because it's too much of a B-Movie. I agree that it has a B-Movie feel to it, but I won't budge from my rating. It's a success in everything it sets out to do.

Success Rate:  + 0.0

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Blade 2 (4½ Stars)

What a contrast to "Captain America Brave New World"! That was a boring film which will be the latest in Marvel's series of box office flops. "Blade 2" is an exciting action film that gets everything right. What's gone wrong with Marvel since 2002? Oh wait, I know. It was bought by Disney and put under the control of Bob Iger, a businessman who would rather promote his version of the DEI agenda than make good films. Whenever one of his films flops he shrugs his shoulders and continues on as before, demanding a pay rise for his efforts. Walt Disney must be turning in his grave. Bob is 74, well into retirement age. Shouldn't he be sent to an old people's home, so that he can be replaced by someone who knows what he's doing?

I described the plot in my last review, so I'll only add a few words here. My readers who aren't Marvel fans might be excited to see Donnie Yen's name in the credits. Don't get too worked up. He has a minor role and can easily be missed. His potential is wasted. We only see him performing one kick in the whole movie. He was the film's fight choreographer, so he was probably slotted in as an actor at the last minute. He was already on the set, so it saved the trouble of hiring someone else.

This is a better movie than "Blade", and the main reason is that Blade himself is a more likeable character. In the first film he was very remote, but now he's a more sympathetic person. He even smiles. Even if a character is remote and emotionless in comics, he has to show more emotions in a film to win over the audience. In "Blade 2" Wesley Snipes wins me over.

Success Rate:  + 0.9

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Blade (3 Stars)

"There's only one Blade. There's only ever going to be one Blade".

After seeing Blade's re-appearance in "Deadpool & Wolverine", I thought it would be good to return to the original Blade films. I admit that I could hardly remember them, which is always a bad sign. I checked my old posts and saw that I'd given the first film a low rating and the two sequels a high rating. So I watched "Blade" today, hoping I'd change my mind about it.

I didn't. The film has a cheap B-Movie feeling to it. There's a lot of action, but the characters aren't particularly interesting. Even Blade himself is someone I can't relate to. He's cold and heartless. To be fair, that's how he's portrayed in the comics, but it doesn't make him interesting as a character.

There's a certain poignancy to the mother-son relationship. Blade has spent all his life searching for the vampire who killed his mother. Now he finds out that she's still alive, and she's a servant of the vampire who turned her. Blade has to fight his mother to the death. This is something that could have been handled better by a more talented director.

The film's special effects are embarrassingly bad. Was it deliberate?

"Blade" was made in 1998. It can be considered a link between the poor quality direct-to-video Marvel films of the 1980's and the well produced films that began with "X-Men" in 2000. Next I'll have to watch the other two films and see if they really are better.

Success Rate:  + 0.9

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Heaven's Gate (4 Stars)

This is an epic western, made in 1980, about the Johnson County War of 1890, in which hundreds of settlers from Eastern Europe were slaughtered by land owners. It follows the life of Jim Averill, a wealthy Harvard graduate who's been sent to Casper, Wyoming to supervise the hanging of a criminal. He becomes sympathetic with the plight of poor settlers from Eastern Europe after seeing a woman being beat up in the street.

The problem is that wealthy cattle owners let their animals graze on empty land between the mountains. When settlers arrived and staked claims, there was less land available. In addition, some settlers were accused of stealing cattle for food. The penalty for stealing a cow was execution without trial. That was within the law, because both the mayor and the sheriff of Casper approved of strict measures to combat anarchy. The most important organisation in the county was the Stock Growers Association, to which the mayor and the sheriff both belonged.

Averill finds out that 50 gunmen have been hired from Texas to carry out a final solution. A list has been made of 125 people who are to be killed. Averill's girlfriend Ella is also on the list. He organises a resistance, putting weapons in the hands of the settlers, but even though they outnumber the gunmen four to one their lack of skill puts them at a disadvantage.

"Heaven's Gate" is infamous for having been the biggest financial flop in film history at the time it was made, losing $40 million. It's blamed for having killed off the western as a film genre. The critics also hated it, some calling it one of the worst films ever made.

Maybe the problem for the critics was the film cuts. The original version was five and a half hours long, but it was cut to three and a half hours for the theatrical release. After only a week in the cinemas the film was withdrawn, and a year later it was re-released as a two and a half hour version. The version I watched today is dubbed the Director's Cut and was released on disc in 2012. It's three and a half hours long, but supposedly differs significantly from the original theatrical release.

How can you expect a film to retain its quality after such savage cuts? Certain things in the film weren't clear to me, and I'm convinced that my questions would be answered if I saw the additional two hours of footage. When Averill arrives in Casper and visits the Stock Growers Association, the sheriff tells him he's been barred from their meetings. When? Why? Averill seems to have a history in Casper. Everyone knows him.

Averill is also friends with Nate Champion, an enforcer for the Stock Growers Association. In an early scene Champion carries Averill back to his hotel when he's drunk. Friendships across enemy lines don't just happen. The two men have a history, and it looks like this history has been edited out.

Many critics today have reevaluated the film, based on the Director's Cut. I don't see anything particularly bad about it.

Before watching the film I knew nothing about the Johnson County War. Wikipedia's page is informative as a brief summary. The main characters of the film were real life people, but the film has changed the background of the main characters, Averill and his girlfriend. That's remarkable. In real life Ella Watson was a seamstress and a landowner, but the film portrays her as the owner of a brothel. She died childless, otherwise her descendants would be suing the film for slander.

Success Rate:  - 12.6

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Blade Trinity (5 Stars)

This is the third film in the Blade film series, made in 2004, after "Blade" (1998) and "Blade 2" (2002). The three films don't build a trilogy, technically speaking. In a trilogy three films work together towards a goal, such as Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy which had the underlying plot of showing the resolution of the problems between Peter Parker and Harry Osborn. In the case of the Blade films the only connection between films, plot-wise, is Whistler's vampire condition between the first and the second film.

"Blade Trinity" is about the return of Dracula to Earth. He's spent hundreds of years trapped underground in Syria, supposedly in voluntary exile. He seems to have decided in a moment of clarity that the human race was better off without him, but when he's released his survival instinct takes over and there's no way he wants to leave again.

Dracula's return is announced in Tomb of Dracula, which was published by Marvel from 1972 to 1979. So Blade lives in a world where Marvel comics are published? This is a problem for the apologists who want to fit all of Marvel continuity – comics, films and television series – into one well-defined Marvel multiverse. Our world is called Earth-1218. Marvel as created by Stan Lee in the 1960's is Earth-616, even though he obviously wanted to base his stories in our world. The Blade films take place in Earth-26320, which isn't where the recent MCU films take place; the Marvel Cinematic Universe takes place in Earth-199999. That's where the latest Spider-Man lives, but Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man lived (and presumably still lives) in Earth-96283, while Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man lives in Earth-120703.

You can find the official list of the Marvel alternate universes in the Marvel Database. If you think all of this sounds stupid, I agree with you. The explosion in the number of alternate realities was an attempt by Marvel (the company) to claim that there was still continuity in their stories, even though continuity irrevocably broke down between the late 1970's and early 1980's. In other words, it was a lame attempt by second-rate writers to excuse their errors.

But I digress... the reason for bringing back Dracula is that the vampires consider themselves degraded, since they've grown genetically weaker over the centuries. They think that by infusing themselves with Dracula's pure blood they can grow stronger again.

A band of vampire hunters that call themselves the Nightstalkers, led by Hannibal King and Agigail Whistler (the daughter of Blade's friend Abraham Whistler), has built the prototype of a new weapon called Daystar, which can destroy vampires in a wide area. They believe that the weapon can only be perfected by adding Dracula's blood, so they ask Blade for assistance.

I never knew that Ryan Reynolds had been in Marvel films before he was Deadpool. He's an exciting super-hero, a good representation of Hannibal King in the comics. The only difference is that he has more humour in the film. Well, it's Ryan Reynolds, isn't it? He likes telling jokes non-stop, which is why he was the perfect actor to play Deadpool.

I was impressed by the muscularity of Jessica Biel as Abigail Whistler. I've seen her in films before, but I never realised she was so strong.

I said that "Blade 2" was an improvement over "Blade", but "Blade Trinity" is the best of the three films. The action is more thrilling than in the previous two films, but most of all we finally see the emotional side of Blade. In the previous film he showed hints of emotion, but in this film his face is torn, especially after Whistler's death, and we expect to see him cry. No, he doesn't start crying, but the emotion is so intense that we can almost smell the tears. Wesley Snipes has grown into the role. There should have been more Blade films. It was too soon to stop. Wesley Snipes said in a recent interview that he would like to play Blade again, because he thinks he would be able to play the character differently now. I don't know what he means by that, but I think he should be given another chance. It has to be now, before he gets too old.

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Blade 2 (4½ Stars)

I'm happy to say that "Blade 2" (or "Blade II", if you prefer) is much better than the first film. I accredit the improvement to the new director, Guillermo Del Toro. Whatever he touches turns to gold.

Damaskinos, the lord of the vampires, sends a delegation to Blade to ask him for a truce. He needs Blade's help to eliminate the Reapers, a new type of vampire that is spreading through Prague and could soon cover the whole world. Due to a new virus the Reapers are a type of vampire mach two. They feed on both humans and vampires, but if they feed on a vampire they turn the vampire into another Reaper. The Reapers are immune to garlic and silver, and it's impossible to stake them because of their hard chest. They heal within seconds from any wounds. Their only weakness is sunlight, to which they seem to be more sensitive than normal vampires.

Over the last two years Damaskinos has been training an elite group of vampires, the Blood Pack, which was supposed to be used to kill Blade. Damaskinos says that Blade should lead the Blood Pack in his battle against the Reapers, which creates a lot of tension.

The biggest problems come from Dieter Reinhardt, the former leader of the Blood Pack, who immediately challenges Blade's authority. I've always liked Ron Perlman as an actor, but in this role he's breathtaking. He's mean and he's evil, but he has such a cool attitude that it's impossible not to like him.

Guillermo Del Toro said in an interview that it was important for him to distance himself from the sensitive type of vampires created by Anne Rice. He wanted his vampires to be monsters. That's not a new idea, the vampires in the first film were already cold-hearted and cruel.

This thinking was behind the design of the vampire lord Damaskino. He's not supposed to look attractive. But don't you think he looks like the Master from the first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"? On the other hand, Damaskino's daughter Nyssa doesn't look ugly at all, and her evil tendencies are under control. She looks like she's stepped out of the pages of the Vampire Chronicles.

Not even Blade can keep his hands off her.

The Reapers look totally disgusting. Look at that mouth! I'd never let one of those things bite me, not even if it were a woman. If there are any female Reapers, that is. Nothing is said about their gender, but all the Reapers shown in the film are male.

I criticised Wesley Snipes' acting in the first film, but I can't fault him this time. Maybe it's the presence of a superior director that's drawn more out of him. It could also be that Wesley has grown into the role. Blade is a difficult character to play. He's someone who doesn't reveal his emotions, even though the emotions are there bubbling beneath the surface. In "Blade 2" Wesley Snipes portrays this trait perfectly. He doesn't show full emotions, he just gives a hint of emotion when he's dealing with his partner and best friend Whistler. That's something I didn't think he could do after watching the first film, but he's proved me wrong.

I regret waiting so long, 14 years, before watching this film for the first time. If any of my readers haven't seen it yet you need to, after watching the first film, of course.

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Blade (3 Stars)

This film was made in 1998, but I've avoided watching it until now. Not watching a Marvel film for 20 years is a record for me. However, I had my reasons.

In April 1972 a Marvel comic began called "Tomb of Dracula". I felt uneasy about it, because in my eyes Dracula didn't seem to be someone who should be part of the Marvel universe. I can't explain it logically. It just felt wrong. I never read any of the comics until issue #44, which was a crossover story that continued in Doctor Strange #14. When the Blade film was released in 1998 and advertised as a Marvel film my reaction was bewilderment, because I'd never heard of him. I asked an employee at my local comic shop about him -- in those days the Internet existed, but there wasn't as much information available online as today -- and I was told he'd been a supporting character in "Tomb of Dracula". So that was where he came from!

It was primarily the connection with Dracula that put me off, but I also didn't like the trailers in which I saw him fighting vampires with guns.

Now I've finally grown weak and I've bought the Blade trilogy on Blu-ray. I'll be watching the films over the next few weeks. Probably not back to back, because there are other films I urgently want to watch. So many films, so little time.

Never having read about Blade in the comics I can't compare the film with the source material. That's a good thing. I'm usually critical of the smallest deviations from the comics, and many of the deviations are enormous. Just look at "Doctor Strange", which managed to turn the Ancient One from an Asian man into a white woman. That's white-washing and gender-washing in one. At least he was killed at the end of the film, so we don't have to worry about him any more.

In the vampire mythology of "Blade" there are two types of vampires: pure-bloods who were born as vampires, and half-bloods who were turned from humans into vampires. That's an interesting idea, but highly unorthodox. A half-blood vampire called Deacon Frost rebels against the ruling council of pure-blood vampires. He wants to carry out a secret ritual to become a Blood God, La Magra, who has great powers, including the ability to walk in the daylight.

There's a rare third type of vampire, to which Blade belongs. His mother was turned into a vampire when she was pregnant, only a few hours before his birth. He was born as a vampire able to walk in the daylight, with the full strength of vampires but no immortality. He suffers from bloodlust, but he uses a serum which keeps it under control.

Blade battles Deacon Frost and his minions with the assistance of Dr. Karen Jenson, a haematologist, played by the actress N'Bushe Wright. She's a capable actress, based on the evidence of this film, but I've never seen her before. According to the information on Wikipedia this was her biggest role.

"Blade" was a big box office success, but I don't think this was deserved. It has all the characteristics of a cheap direct-to-video film. The martial arts battles are poorly choreographed and unconvincing. The special effects are poor, even for the 1990's. Wesley Snipes' acting is wooden. It's an interesting story, but the film could have been made a lot better. I hope the other two films in the trilogy are better.

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A soldier's daughter never cries (4 Stars)

"The golden light above you shows me where you're from,
The magic in your eye bewitches all you gaze upon".

This is the fifth film starring Leelee Sobieski, made in 1998 when she was still 15. It's based on the autobiographical novel by Kaylie Jones, in which she calls herself Channe, short for Charlotte Anne.

Channe's family are Americans who live in Paris in the 1960's. Channe's father is an ex-soldier who writes novels about the Second World War. It can be assumed that he's successful as a writer, judging by the size of their apartment and the fact that they have a full time maid living in the house.

When Channe is six her parents adopt a boy called Benoit. They say that his name sounds ridiculous in English, so they call him Billy instead. Couldn't they just have called him Ben? The film then follows Channe's life and loves. In France she's close to a boy in her class called Francis, but her family moves back to America when she's 15. Desperate to find love, Channe sleeps with a number of boys, but she finds that they reject her afterwards.

The film is a well made family drama. Like all films based on true events it doesn't have a clear cut plot with logical milestones. The story winds and turns with random events occurring. As a viewer I almost feel like I'm spying on someone else's life. We grow to know and love Channe through the course of the film. It's a magnificent performance by Leelee Sobieski, who shows a depth of talent way beyond her age.