My first reaction when walking out of the latest (and presumably final) installment of the Blade series was one of those "ah well" shoulder shrugs. You know the type, one of those shrugs where you have no real opinion of something and you could take it or leave it.

And that's basically how I felt about Blade: Trinity. Sure, it was mindlessly entertaining for most of its 105 minutes, but I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again and I'm sure I'll forget about it sooner than later.

Wesley Snipes is back as the leather-clad, bad ass half-vamp/half-human vampire slayer, Blade, and this time he has to team-up with a group of human hunters who've dubbed themselves "Nightstalkers" (which, for all you non-comic people, was an actual short-lived Marvel comic in the 90's) in order to go after the original Dracula so they can gather some of his blood in order to unleash a virus they've created that will wipe out the bloodsucking race for good. So it's Blade, smartassed Hannibal King (played with sarcastic wit by Ryan Reynolds), and Whistler's daughter Abby (Jessica Biel) heading out to invade the vampire headquarters, defeat Drac, and unleash their creation.

It's got to say something about a movie when the opening narration contains the line "The movies are full of sh*t" only to live up to that line. This, my friends, is one dumb movie. It's a constant barrage of loud techno music, overly exaggerated action sequences (admittedly a few aren't bad), and loose plotting. Series writer David S. Goyer makes the jump to the director's chair also and he's loaded the film with what people expect, only you're almost wishing for the style that Guillermo Del Toro brought to the second movie.

That's not to say that Blade: Trinity is bad, like I said if you're looking for a fairly enjoyable time this suffices; it's just too bad the finale has too much herky-jerky and unimpressive fight scenes, Goyer decided to include vampire dogs (it didn't work in Zoltan: Hound Of Dracula and it doesn't work here), and it contains a little girl character who's a bit too similar to Newt from Aliens.

Snipes is more than serviceable in what's become his signature role, Reynolds steals the show (and gets all the funny lines), Biel is definitely eye candy, and wrestler Triple H (real name: Paul Michael Levesque) proves he's no actor. (Chris Hartley, 2/18/04)

Directed By: David S. Goyer.
Written By: David S. Goyer.

Starring: Wesley Snipes, Dominic Purcell, Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds.