Bryan Singer’s X-Men and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man are pinpointed as the movies that launched the popularity of superhero cinema into the stratosphere, but the contributions of Stephen Norrington’s Blade should never be overlooked or underestimated.
Arriving a year after Batman & Robin almost killed the genre entirely, Wesley Snipes’ charismatic Daywalker proved that comic book adaptations had lost none of their cool if handled correctly, while Guillermo del Toro’s sequel upped the fantasy levels and proved to be just as popular as its predecessor.
Unfortunately, the wheels came off in spectacular fashion when Blade: Trinity limped into theaters, although the debate still rages as to exactly why the third installment proved to be such a disappointing and conflicted conclusion to the once-mighty franchise.
Snipes clashed with writer and director David S. Goyer, leading to a phoned-in performance that even saw him given CGI eyeballs after he refused to open his own for the sake of a scene.The leading man denied the accusations, and even ended up suing New Line Cinema and Goyer after the fact, before he ended up getting sued himself by the United Talent Agency.
A terrible reputation hasn’t stopped Blade: Trinity from becoming a huge hit on Netflix this weekend, though, with FlixPatrol revealing the panned trilogy-closer has crashed into the Top 10 in the United States this weekend, debuting in an impressive fifth spot.
Terrible reviews and underwhelming box office saw plans for multiple spinoffs canceled, but at least Mahershala Ali’s Marvel Cinematic Universe reboot is set to enter production this summer.