Blade Trinity : Signs and Meaning

We watched a movie in our art appreciation subject last July 16 and 20, 2011. The movie that we are required to watch should be Dante’s Inferno but because of some error in audio visual room at Asia Pacific College – 7th floor our professor had a random choice then we all decided to watch the Blade Trinity.

I remember some of the scenes in Blade Trinity when we started to watch that movie. Since the movie was created last 2004, my uncle bought a DVD of it but i didn’t finish all the scenes and I’ve never watch the last parts of the Blade so i really didn’t understand the story. But when I saw the entire scenes of the movie last week without any cut, even though i didn’t understand the Blade I and II i was amazed on the editing and story of the movie Blade Trinity.

Mostly of the characters are vampires and Blade on which Wesley Snipes as Blade is the main character of the story. And the film starts with a group of vampires, looking for “Drake”, a.k.a. Dracula (Dominic Purcell). They subsequently find and wake him in a Syrian figurations, although not before he kills one of their own number.

Being unaware of the existence of vampires, the world considers Blade to be a serial killer. The vampires capitalize on this misconception and succeed in framing Blade (Wesley Snipes) for the killing of a familiar posing as a vampire. During the ensuing manhunt, the FBI locate and attack the hideout. During the siege, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) is mortally wounded and perishes after setting the hideout self-destruct. With his mentor gone, Blade allows himself to be captured.

The police prepare to hand Blade over to a group of supposed federal agents, who are, unknown to them, vampires. But he is rescued by Hannibal King and Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel). The two head a group of vampire hunters called the Nightstalkers, formed by Blade’s mentor to assist him. King and Abigail reveal that the vampire Danica Talos (Parker Posey), who turned King into a vampire in the past (but now cured), has located Drake. Talos hopes that by resurrecting him, Drake will help save the vampire race by producing more daywalkers, and eliminate Blade. In his first confrontation with Blade, Drake shows an affinity for Blade, as they are both “honorable warriors”. Ironically, while Drake is delivering his speech about honor, he is hiding behind a baby he has taken hostage; however, he appears to consider humans as unworthy of any consideration unless they first prove themselves. During the chaos, King is incapacitated by Drake.

Blade eventually learns of a bioweapon the Nightstalkers had created called Daystar, an airborne virus capable of killing every single vampire in the world. However, there are two catches. The first is that they need Drake’s blood and it must be infused with the virus. As he is the first vampire, his DNA is still pure, which, infused with Daystar, will make it work to its maximum efficiency. The second: the virus could possibly kill Blade, since he is half-vampire.

Blade and Abigail learn of the vampire “final solution”, which involves a warehouse where hundreds of homeless humans are being kept “alive” in a chemically-induced coma, trapped in body bags. This keeps in line with vampires needing live food sources if the vampire race were to take over the world. Blade has all of them put out of their misery, shutting down their life support.

The two return to find the Nightstalkers have been all but wiped out. The only exception is King, who has been kidnapped by Drake, and a young girl named Zoe (Haili Page), the daughter of one of the Nightstalkers. Blade and Abigail go to the Talos building to save their friends.

Meanwhile, King is chained and tortured by Jarko Grimwood (Triple H) and Asher Talos (Callum Keith Rennie) for information about Daystar. When this fails to get any information from him, Talos threatens that she will bite King and leave him to feed on Zoe. Drake tries to convince the young Zoe to become a vampire so that she won’t have to die. He tells her that there is no God, heaven or angels, Zoe simply states to Drake “My friends are coming to kill you”. Blade and Abigail eventually enter the building, and the fighting begins after they freed King. Abigail kills Asher and King kills Jarko Grimwood while Blade engages Drake in a sword battle. In the end, Blade impale Drake with the Daystar arrow, and releases it into the air, killing all the nearby vampires, including Talos. He then honors Abigail and her fighting skills by making her a full-fledged “blade.” As Drake dies, he praises Blade for fighting with honor and tells him that through Blade, the vampire race will survive. Dying, he offers Blade a “parting gift”; he also warns him that the thirst will eventually win.

The Signs and Symbols on which gave me some time to research are the glyphs and weapons they used. I was also curious to that movie on how and why those vampires still exist and used modern technology to their plans.

The background of the movie was an issue of The Tomb of Dracula makes a cameo appearance. This is the comic series that originally introduced Blade, Deacon Frost, and Hannibal King.

The tattoos of blade also compose of meanings.  The designs of Blade’s tattoos are original to the movie adaptations, with a style derived from Polynesian influences. The blackwork designs cover most of his upper chest, arms and shoulders. His partially shaved head reveals more designs that wrap around the back of the head and extend down the neck. These fantastic designs were created by tattooist Freddy Negrete. His tattoos became the most popular for online movie tattoo searches.

A glyph is an element of writing: an individual mark on a written medium that contributes to the meaning of what is written. A grapheme is made up of one or more glyphs. And the glyph i saw in Blade Trinity the movie was the tattoos among the vampires, showing which family or clan they belong to. Sometimes these marks are found on humans, servants or “pets” who are loyal to or owned by a vampire. Some perform daylight tasks, some are like kept cattle, providing light snacks and some hope through service to become vampires by being turned by their owners. Blade finds one on the back of a police officer, revealing he is in fact working with the vampires.

Deacon Frost, who became a vampire through being “turned” by another vampire is not a member of one of the great houses of the vampire nation and uses his own symbol to mark humans loyal to him. If you watch the details when he translates the ancient scrolls of Erebus, you will see the symbol he chose for himself, the symbol of La Magra, the Blood God.

The upward moving triangle is sometimes called the blade (the chalice and blade figure ceremonially in many ritual magic operations). It is a symbol of aspiration or rising up, male force, and fire. It is purely phallic in origin. The triangle represents aspiration, rising force, and the male principal.

The downward pointing triangle is sometimes called the chalice. It is the symbol of water (as it flows downward), the grace of heaven, and the womb. it is one of the most ancient symbols of female divinity, as a representation of the genitalia of the goddess.

They also have weapons that can kill pure blood vampires. Its like an army guns because of the style and made of enhanced metals.

Trinity in the dictionary and it will tell you that it’s the union of three closely related members. That’s a clever guise for this, the third movie about the half-human, half-vampire Marvel comic book hero named Blade.

 

OTHERS:

 

In Marvel Comics‘ Blade universe, vampires (homines nocturnae) are a sub offshoot of humanity descended from Drake (also known as Dracula or Dagon), a Sumerian who was worshipped as a god. His progeny are known as “Pure-Bloods”, while those beings who are bitten by Drake or his descendants are byproducts of vampirism.

Vampirism in the Blade universe broadly shares many of the characteristics of vampirism in wider folkloric and popular culture, but differs in many details. Significant differences between Blade vampires and the folkloric depiction of vampires include the definition of vampirism as a biological condition, and not just a supernatural affliction. This means, such as, that Blade vampires are not affected by religious symbols such as crucifixes and holy water. Other attributes traditionally associated with the folkloric description of vampirism such as turning into mist or a bat, or living hermit-like lives, also are not depicted. Blade vampires are intricately involved in modern human society and live high-tech lives. The Blade vampire races also have their own language, which all vampires speak. A majority of all vampires also speak human languages.

In the Blade universe, vampirism is a virus transmitted through the vampire’s saliva during a neck bite, made by the vampire’s fangs when feeding, or by dying with vampire blood in one’s system or after being bitten. It takes approximately 72 hours after infection for the virus to effect a mutation in the victim to become a vampire, considered here as a new life form. This life form’s blood cells cannot produce haemoglobin and so must feed on human blood. The diet of humans is edible to vampires, but provides little to no nutritional value. This need for human blood is known as “The Thirst”.

This mutation endows the vampire with an improved metabolism and other biological functions that grant many improved or even superhuman capabilities of strength, speed, senses, endurance, movement, and longevity. These are made possible via new specialized organs created during the mutation process.

Pure Blood and Non-Pure Blood (turned) vampires

Vampires are divided into two specific species categories: pure blood and non-pure blood, which carry specific connotations reflected in their society and hierarchy. Pure bloods are born as vampires, the offspring of two people who are already vampires. Non-pure blood (‘turned’) vampires have had a human existence before being turned into a vampire.

Pure bloods stay youthful during very long lives, such as Charlotte, a pure blood vampire of the House of Chthon in Blade: The Series, is about 300 years old and still maintains the youthful appearance of an adolescent girl. A pure-blood vampire that looks like a full-grown adult is, then, truly ancient.

This youthfulness is due to pure blood ability to biologically regenerate from birth, meaning that unless injured with silver, they will heal all injuries flawlessly. It is also implied that they can see in light levels considerably below that of human visibility. While all vampires are capable of having offspring both through reproduction and ‘turning’, the birth-rate between mating pure bloods is so low that it is practically non-existent.

A pure-blood vampire is unable to become a human again, due to the condition being fixed in their DNA. This is not the case with non-pure bloods. In the first Blade film, a retrovirus is found that can return non-pure bloods to their human status.

These differences result in a class system divided according to pure blood or non-pure blood status. Pure bloods derive their importance from the ‘incorruptibility’ of their lineage and so tend to take positions of dominance, about themselves as superior. Non-pure bloods are often in lower positions such as lackeys, minions or lieutenants. Non-pure blood reaction to this state of affairs is diverse; some accept the hierarchy as natural or even regard pure bloods as gods, while others look upon pure bloods with disdain.

 

Known Pure Bloods

Blade: Trinity

• Drake (aka Dracula) – The first vampire, the oldest of the pure bloods. He was killed by Blade.

 

I liked the movie but for diehard fans of the comic series or the first two movies, it’s difficult to imagine this film satisfying for anyone. Trinity tries to be inventive by introducing new vampire hybrids (in a Rottweiler and a Pomeranian), brave new allies, and intricate new weapons. Yet, much of this is severely overshadowed by dialogue that is corny, irrelevant, and laughably bad. Numerous combat sequences end before we even see them begin (thanks to the fast-paced editing), while those that linger tend to run exhaustively long. The plug should have been pulled on this video game long ago.

 
Reference(s):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_%28Blade%29
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art18594.asp
http://symboldictionary.net/?p=1914
http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?q=blade+trinity+symbols&um=1&hl=tl&tbm=isch&tbnid=IKc9g86GGBLKsM:&imgrefurl=http://fyeahtattoos.com/post/5828707875/im-tiffany-i-have-yet-to-meet-someone-who-likes&docid=R18hw-IjfgX7uM&w=480&h=640&ei=CD4pTsagHIX-mAX2uYWWDA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=102&page=1&tbnh=134&tbnw=101&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0&tx=39&ty=27&biw=1024&bih=660
http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?q=blade+trinity+symbols&um=1&hl=tl&tbm=isch&tbnid=fkBADH8W87Sz7M:&imgrefurl=http://www.shopping.com/blade-trinity-sword/products&docid=e67n2sNRhI7aqM&w=149&h=148&ei=Fj4pTrD9M4rmmAW8gv3yCw&zoom=1&biw=1024&bih=660
http://espertjuh.deviantart.com/art/Blade-3-Trinity-glyph-s-37751355?q=boost%3Apopular+in%3Adesigns+glyph&qo=5
http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?q=blade+trinity+weapons&um=1&hl=tl&biw=1024&bih=660&tbm=isch&tbnid=-6CmOSmyAGB1SM:&imgrefurl=http://www.whatsyourobsession.com/hot-toys-announces-their-most-annoying-character-yet-abigail-whistler-from-blade-trinity/&docid=rNg1NtANBUJNoM&w=600&h=450&ei=oj4pTo-nDLDimAXy2biZDA&zoom=1
http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?q=blade+trinity+weapons&um=1&hl=tl&tbm=isch&tbnid=E-88paRcA–J-M:&imgrefurl=http://www.kingego.com/item/BLADE-CHAIN-SABRE-817&docid=8MNhoWV2Nk7DWM&w=209&h=209&ei=oj4pTo-nDLDimAXy2biZDA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=410&page=1&tbnh=131&tbnw=129&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0&tx=58&t

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0359013/
y=72&biw=1024&bih=660
http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/2004/blade-trinity/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade:_Trinity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyph