Blade 3 – Behead the King Edition

I was thoroughly unimpressed by this fan edit. I don’t remember all of my original issues since I no longer have this edition and I last watched it a few months ago, but I’ll do what I can to list them.

I’ll start with the positives, mainly being the removal of the stupid crap jokes that littered the original movie. Which is really the best part of the edit.

The bad: the added “score elements” in a few scenes I felt were cringe-worthy and amateurish, such as how NIN’s Closer starts playing in one scene to cover up the rap song being played from the SUV, but it is so forced and horrible I started laughing in disbelief that something like that would be even considered “good”. The other added songs weren’t as bad, but still forced and out of place, and I think the original music in those scenes fit much better. There were also a few bits of stupid dialogue that still needed to be cut (one in particular, Reynold’s character mentions the Darkstalker name near the end of the movie even though all references to their group name were supposed to be removed). Some edits I felt weren’t necessary at all and left empty, hollow scenes which didn’t need to be like that.

And the big one, for me, was the ending, which was completely FUBAR’d by the edits. And this is the part I wish I wrote down, because I can’t remember all the details, so I admit I may be incorrect on this. When Dracula dies, he takes the form of Blade as his honorable “parting gift” to trick the authorities so Blade can escape, although it isn’t 100% clear that this happens, you can see Dracula-as-Blade when the camera pans away from the battle scene and the “Blade” body isn’t wearing the same clothes as the fight, it has Dracula’s clothes, and there is only one body there. But during the autopsy, the “Blade” body they have actually is the REAL Blade who gets up and escapes, instead of the other ending where the body changes shape back to Dracula. The edit list says ‘changed the ending to Dracula staying in the shape of Blade’. So does this mean that Blade died and Dracula takes his form from now on? Or now there are two “Blades”, one good and one evil, lurking the cities? It’s unclear, and feels like one of those ‘let’s edit this because we can’ sort of things. The original ending was fine as is and did not need this mish-mash of ideas made just for the sake of editing.

Overall, I wish the edit stuck to just getting rid of the shit dialogue and did not have other edits. In the end, I prefer the original to this edit, because at least the original, as flawed as it is, didn’t have so many nonsensical issues.

This is the finale to the trilogy that we never got to see! Having read some background on the movie, it's no wonder why Blade 3 turned out the way it did. Mostly due to Wesley Snipes' lack of interest (it seems like he got forced into doing the third film by contract) the director had to find ways to appropriate his lines to other characters (this is why Ryan Reynolds, much to our detriment and lack of enjoyment) has so much screen time in the original cut. Along with those lines, lots of filler jokes were added and much of what should have been punchy one-liners turned into rambling awful jokes that just took you out of the movie alltogether.

Besides all that, this edit finds the serious action movie that Blade Trinity could have been in between all that other awfulness. Sure it's a little shorter than a typical hollywood movie and the audio editing could use a little work, but overall this is a much faster paced version where it's all about killing the vampire king and less about how much Ryan Reynolds' character can drag this movie down. While it may seem like I have a bone to pick with Mr. Reynolds (and I do usually) it's not like the man can't act or ruins every movie he stars in. I think what more likely happens is that these directors rely on him too much to make something good out of something that's just simply not well written. Some actors are miracle workers in this department; Ryan Reynolds just isn't one of them.

So the moments that are left in this edit are more focused on the central plot and the action surrounding that. You can't take all the camp out of a campy movie, but you can certainly clean up the campsite to make it more presentable :D. Great work CBB and I look forward to your future edits.

awesome! as a viewer, you usually have to GIVE a little while watching movies including vampires and werewolves, etc. due to the film makers demand for horrific cheesiness to be prominent in their movie. well, not any more (mostly). the “behead the king” edition sets out (like many fan edits before) to make a more serious movie out of a dud – turd polishing is a great phrase that comes to mind – and this edit does NOT disappoint.

as usual with CBB, technical aspects of this edit are great and really puts you at ease to just *enjoy* a movie as we all know it SHOULD have been. thanks, boon!

entertainment 9/10
fanediting 10/10
video 10/10
audio 10/10
original 6/10
fanedit 8/10

This was excellent. It is sooo much better. Thanks a lot!

Some of it could feel a little off, but the amount of which this movie improved warrants a 9/10 rating.

Update August 26, 2012

Excellent audio - no complaints what so ever.
Narrative suffers a bit, mostly near the end. Some points go by very fast and some references are not totally clear.
Great video, but I've seen even better.

*This rating was given before reviews were required*