Blade (1998)

Blade is tons of fun, particularly when viewed through the nostalgic lens of 90s action cinema. It's also worth noting that the success of this movie - an R rated vampire flick with an African American lead - gave birth to the comic book movie era. The action, effects, and music are silly and dated, plus the story makes no sense. But Blade is nevertheless still fun.

First released in 1998, Blade brought commercial success back to Super Hero films, after the woeful distribution of films like Batman & Robin and Steel stopped the genre in its tracks. Starring Wesley Snipes as the eponymous Half-Vampire/Half-Human hybrid come Super Hero/Vampire Hunter, Blade works with Dr. Karen Jensen and Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) in order to defeat vampires Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) and Quinn (Donal Logue) and their host of undead soldiers before they can kill Gitano Dragonetti (Udo Kier) and the other vampire Elders in a ritual that will transform Deacon Frost into La Magra, the vampire Blood God. With me so far? No? That figures. The script's interesting, but it's not terribly sense-making. What I mean to say, is, the script's rubbish, but the *story* is great. The whole film is really rather story and effects driven, but the characters are pretty lacking. Quinn is sort of fun, and Deacon's... well... he's attractive, but not a lot else. Still, there's more to him than most of the characters, including the titular Blade. Straight up, just putting out there, I think goth-culture is attractive, so, my aesthetics may go quite a way to influencing my decision in the final score, if you disagree with me, you might want to keep that in mind, seeing as most vampires have at least a little bit of that going on. All that aside though, the opening of Blade is one of the strongest ways a film can start off that I've ever seen. It has basically everything you could want for a modern vampire tale. Including the Blood Rave song, Confusion (Pump Panel Remix) by New Order. The cinematography was another cool point, lots of ins and outs in a non-nauseating way. Although the fight choreography suffered from a serious case of "Only-One-Guy-Attacks-At- A-Time" Syndrome. Come on guys, this ain't Tekken. When there's an army to fight, fight an army. Maybe not all at once, I know that could get a tad pointless, but it really didn't transfer well in this film. To end with, there's one plot-hole I'd like to bring up, I don't think I'll be spoiling anything too badly, but if you want to go in completely fresh, stop reading. There's one point when Frost says he needs to kill the 12 Elder vamps in a big underground ritual in order to complete his ascendancy into the Blood God (Khorne?), but he kills the leader earlier, on a beach. Okay, so maybe he wasn't counted, and he was actually number 13. But, Frost's lady-friend Mercury kills another with Blade's sword, before the ritual gets started, and nobody seems to care... I am dubious- faced. After all that though, Blade is a vampire film that's not slow like Nosferatu, and not indescribably awful like Twilight, so for people with tastes like mine, it's certainly worth a geez. 66% -Gimly

The Daywalker. Half human and half vampire, Blade's function in life is to rid the world of vampires, he is driven forward by the notion that his mother was killed by his half brethren. This is no ordinary vampire film, this is nothing to do with bearing crosses and creatures making music of the night, this is armoured weaponry, dazzling swordplay and a protagonist that is as cool as anything that has leaped off of the comic book page. Wesley Snipes (perfect piece of casting) is Blade, a much troubled superhero (aren't they all?), he has to take a formula suppressant to keep away his inner vampire cravings. Aided by trusty pal, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), they wage war against all blood suckers and here they must stop the sinister Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) from executing his monstrous plan. There are no cranial pondering's here in this piece, this is a joyously high velocity action horror movie, containing great choreography and retaining its comic book heart. Blade is pure popcorn fodder for the MTV generation, in fact director Stephen Norrington utilises his music video background to great effect as the combat scenes are scored with delightful sledgehammer precision. Blood brains and gore flow freely as the film hurtles towards the head splitting conclusion, loud, dark and tinged with brooding menace, Blade is hugely recommended for a ripper of a night in. 7.5/10

Some good fight scenes and like Snipes in the role (reminded me of a time when he was trying) and Stephen Dorff was an okay villain, plus it was a serviceable plot. However, and I know this was 1997/98 when it was made, but the CGI at the end took me out of it (hell, good CGI done today takes me out of these sorts of films). But all in all, found it entertaining enough. **3.75/5**

When this came out I thought it was the best vampire movie ever. Tons of action, fight scenes, and gore. I love how the vampires look when they die. One of my favorites!

Wesley Snipes is "Blade" - an immortal half-breed charged with protecting mankind from the menace of the ever-peckish vampires with only his quirky sidekick "Whistler" (Kris Kristofferson) as an ally. Finally, the vampire council decide it is time to rid themselves of their nemesis and so "Deacon Frost" (Stephen Dorff) is tasked with bringing him down. I was always a fan of Dorff - never the best actor, but he had a bit of presence on screen - a good looking bit of rough, I suppose - and here is is a good counterpoint to the fastidious man-in-black whom he is out to destroy. The fight scenes are too choreographed for me, way too much acrobatics that detract from the menace of the story - it's supposed by about vampires, not rhythmic gymnastics - but it still moves along well as "Frost" tries to summon the blood god "La Magra" to give him the ultimate power to defeat our hero. This doesn't hang about, the action is fast-paced and the effects and characterisations gel quite well together for an enjoyable, if predictable story that is by far the best of the sequels it spawned.

'Blade' is not entirely what I expected. I had no clue this was about vampires, like at all. I evidently knew little about these films, I was anticipating a relatively standard yet stylish superhero flick - based upon the lead character's look, which is the only thing I knew of. That's not a criticism, as the vampire stuff ended up being pretty fun to watch unfold. I will say that Wesley Snipes is the reason for that fact though, as Stephen Dorff and his band of one-dimensional renegades are only just narrowly watchable. Snipes as the titular character is excellent though, while Kris Kristofferson and N'Bushe Wright are good too. The special effects haven't aged the best, though some parts are still decent and, to be honest, even the less than good pieces still work. For example the effect used when the vampires are killed looks fine, though the end with Frost's blood does look a bit dorky now - but again, works.