The cruellest cut

December 31, 2004
Wesley Snipes in  <i>Blade Trinity</i>.

Wesley Snipes in Blade Trinity.
Photo: Supplied

The third Blade film has arrived to critical scorn. But director David Goyer tells Jim Schembri why critics don't count.

Everybody on a so-called "star tour" for a film is naturally primed to talk up the movie to the conga line of press that shuffle before them.

Thankfully, David S. Goyer, who wrote the first two Blade films and wrote, directed and produced the latest, Blade Trinity, has done us a big favour by switching off that part of his brain dedicated to pumping the film before he even turns up for our interrogation.

He already knows we think the film stinks.

In Blade Trinity, vampire hunter Blade (Wesley Snipes) continues slicing his way through an army of vampires, this time with the help of newcomers Abigail (Jessica Biel, from TV's 7th Heaven) and Hannibal (a buffed Ryan Reynolds, aka Van Wilder).

While the standardissue vampires conveniently disintegrate upon contact into a digital heap, the team faces a far more formidable foe as the original Dracula pops up for the ultimate showdown - although its resemblance to another franchise monster makes the last reel of the film look like Blade v Predator.

The film is a noisy, boring blur, a frenzy of fireballs and clanging cutlery filled with misfired humour, a typically stone-faced performance from Snipes, an irritating turn from the wisecracking Reynolds, a host of uninspired digital effects and action sequences that are cut together in that special, new-millennium way that makes them look interchangeable with the action scenes from any number of other films (Daredevil, X-Men, Catwoman, Batman, Spawn etc) made in the past ten years.

That's all very interesting, says Goyer, who created the hugely lucrative franchise back in 1998. But, really, who cares? Certainly not him.

"Critics actually don't matter on a movie like this at all," he says, sipping on green tea.

"And I'm not saying that as a slam back at you or anything. On a movie like this, the critics are irrelevant because - and I'm not saying this specifically to you - in large part the people reviewing the film are so completely removed from the audience that it's intended for that they're not capable of reviewing the film on the merits it should be reviewed on."

He notes how after slamming the first Blade, critics began liking it about a year later, citing it as one of the better film adaptations of a comicbook hero.

Then came Blade 2, directed by "critical darling" Guillermo Del Toro (Devil's Backbone, Hellboy), which they loved but which fans didn't because it had strayed too far from the first film.

"This film, to a certain extent, is going into an almost no-win situation with critics," Goyer says.

"Unlike a movie like The Return of the King, which is an intended sequel and part of one big story split into three parts, it's extremely difficult doing a third Blade film because it has such an insular and specific universe. If critics didn't like it the first time around, they're not necessarily going to like it the third time around."

Everybody involved in churning out big-budget Hollywood films hopes their masterpiece will be a hit. However, when it comes to the third instalment - or third 'iteration', as Goyer prefers to call it - of a highly successful franchise, it¿s not so much a case of making a film they hope will be a hit, but making one that had better be a hit.

The first two Blades films made about $US500 million, all told.

This one must do equal business to justify its whopping $US62 million budget.

So Goyer, with his producer hat on, set about making sure Blade Trinity was going to be a hit before they even started shooting.

Say what? Goyer explains.

"The real money from Blade is in DVD,'' he says, smiling.

"We had a meeting with the homevideo department at New Line before we embarked upon Blade Trinity, and they said how, to a certain extent, it almost doesn¿t even matter to them what the film does theatrically. Obviously they want it to be a theatrical hit, but certain titles do so well on DVD."

"The Blade movies have always just made hundreds of millions of dollars on DVD, so there's no question that this film will be profitable. (New Line) also made an enormous pre-sale on television for the film, even before it came out, like $20 million just on a television sale."

As is increasingly the case these days, directors shoot feature films with DVD very much in mind. Bloopers, out-takes and deleted scenes are all now earmarked in the digital editing suites for inclusion as bonus features on the DVD. Featurettes are prepared, extra footage shot for special editions and so on.

So ingrained has the practice now become that while shooting S.W.A.T., Samuel L. Jackson complained to director Clark Johnson about the time it was taking to shoot a scene: "We're just shooting extra hidden features for the DVD, right? Because we got the shot."

Indeed, this being the third Blade, Goyer wasn't just thinking DVD, but DVD boxed set.

"Oh yeah," he says. "It's not irrelevant what the movie does theatrically, but that's not where they're banking on getting their money."

You could almost say that all the hype surrounding the film's cinema release is a glorified awareness campaign...

"... for the DVD!" Goyer blurts, happily finishing the sentence. "Especially with genre films, it is! Sometimes you've got sequels being driven by what a film did on DVD as opposed to theatrically. In the case of the Blade films, the first was not profitable theatrically, it just about broke even. The profits all came in the DVD, but that is the case with a lot of blockbuster genre films these days."

And as with a lot of blockbuster genre films these days, it is crucial that the film does huge business overseas. It must therefore speak in the universal, international language of images.

Like the first two films, Blade Trinity is not exactly dialogue-driven; when it comes to gearing a film for big box-office grosses in non-English-speaking markets you don¿t want audiences distracted by too many subtitles.

Thus comes Rule No. 1 of making a franchise blockbuster: Speak in images, not words.

"Yeah," Goyer says. "I don't want to make it sound completely cynical in terms of what we're doing. We don't sit there and say 'ha ha ha! We don't care!', but we're certainly well aware of why Blade plays overseas. If you're doing a movie that takes place in such a bizarre universe, it's difficult to have a soliloquy halfway through. We had (test screenings) with other scenes that were more pensive and the audiences hated them."

Then comes Rule No. 2: Don't screw with the formula. Don't stray from what worked before.

Small, carefully measured changes are fine, but only if you absolutely have to.

"Some people will say that we did f--- with our legacy, but then we were forced to," Goyer says, referring to why Blade - a loner in previous films - now has a team.

"Wesley hurt his knee on the second film and we had to shut down production. He had knee surgery and there are a bunch of things that he can't do any more. This is why we had to bring in some other people (to help fight the vampires)."

Hence Rule No. 3: Make sure any changes work within the formula, not outside it.

"When Wesley does these movies he speaks very little, but when you do the third iteration you have to do something different," Goyer says.

This is where the film's (new injection of) humour comes in. The humour is what people are responding to the most.

"Some people are saying that it looks like Wesley's sleeping his way through the film because for the first time he's actually playing opposite someone (Reynolds) who's doing a lot more, so there's more contrast."

Rule No. 4 is a no-brainer: Fights. Lotsa, lotsa fights.

"Obviously we have X amount of fight sequences that we need to do," Goyer says.

"We didn't break it down into percentage points, but I was aware of how many action set-pieces we had in the first two movies and (we had to match that).

"I remember reading an online review of the first Blade film that said 'every once in a while you want to see a film that¿s just simply about kicking ass. This is that movie. And let's face it, that's the primary reason people go to see this kind of film, so you have to deliver on that."

One of the truly amazing things about Blade Trinity - and one of the biggest criticisms any reviewer worth his Blade duffle bag full of movie merchandise would maintain - is that the film's action sequences are so thoroughly bland.

Goyer says he and his crew did not want for anything on the film in terms of money or resources.

After two Blade films he knew so precisely what he was after that he was able to prepare in detail and ended up half a million dollars under budget.

Boy. You sure don't hear that often about a Hollywood film.

"Yeah yeah," he says. "They gave it back to me to use, so I ended up having a lot extra to play around with in post-production. There's no sequence in the film where we didn't have enough money."

So strange, then, that with all the money and resources at his disposal Goyer should produce action sequences that have such an astonishing sameness about them. The frenetic cutting, the tight framing, the ear-splitting sound mix, the clang of swords, the muzzle flash from automatic weapons, the fireballs, the yelling - the action in Blade Trinity looks like so many other action scenes it's uncanny.

What gives, man?

David Goyer is nothing if not polite. He not only listens to this tirade without throwing any furniture, he actually agrees.

"You're talking about it being cutty versus letting it play," he says.

Exactly. Hold a shot in a film like this for more than two seconds and it's Bunuel. "Right, right, right."

So talk us through why these expensive sequences all look the same.

"There's a zeitgeist, a rhythmic zeitgeist that exists amongst filmgoers and genre goers for what's acceptable and what isn't, what makes them feel comfortable and what doesn't," Goyer explains.

"You haven't seen ZigZag (2002), the first film I directed?"

No. Couldn't find it anywhere. ZigZag was about two men who try to return stolen loot to a bank. It starred Snipes, Oliver Platt and John Leguizamo.

"If you didn¿t know I had directed both films you would probably say there¿s no way this person directed both these films," he says.

"For that film I was inspired by a lot of French naturalistic films like Dreamlife of Angels (Erick Zonca, 1998) and Krzysztof Kieslowski films such as Red, White and Blue, and The Decalogue - films that nobody that watches Blade will ever know what I'm talking about or will ever see!

"That film had lots of long, lingering takes, but that style depends on what kind of audience you¿re making the film for and what they feel comfortable with. The people seeing a Blade film are used to a certain kind of frenetic pace.

"I also think there's a lot they can take in. I'm 38, so I'm talking about people who are 20 years younger than I am. That generation gets so much more sensory input: they walk through life verybody on a so-called 'star tour' for a film is naturally primed to talk up the movie to the conga line of press that shuffle before them."


"For my purposes, the people in Hollywood that are making films look at this film and say 'Goyer directed a big movie, he brought it in on time and on budget. It's a third iteration, which is hard to do. OK, maybe we'll give him an opportunity to do something else. My hope is that I can now make a film like Murder Mysteries."

Given how the billion dollars Mel Gibson made for Warner Brothers didn't earn him a skerrick of support when it came to making The Passion of the Christ, we wish Goyer the very best of luck.

And remind him of Rule No. 5: If you want studio support for a pet project after making them lots and lots of money with a hit franchise, get it in writing first.

Blade Trinity is now screening.