Blade (1998)

Director: Stephen Norrington

Writer: David S. Goyer

Tagline: The power of an immortal. The soul of a human. The heart of a hero.

Actors: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson, N'Bushe Wright, Donal Logue, Udo Kier, Traci Lords

Runtime: 2h 0m

Category: Comic Book, Vampire

Synopsis: At an operating slaughterhouse, inside the blood collection room, a rave is bumpin’ away. Not until the blood starts to pour from the overhead spigots does a new attendee realize there is something wrong with this picture. Everyone turns into vampire and starts attacking him when a tall, dark figure of a man storms in. Blade, or “The Daywalker”, as he is called, cleans the place out. Unknowingly, he had uncovered a secret plan to overthrow the vampire elders and evoke La Magra, the Blood God. Is Blade strong enough to stop even a vampire god?

Review: I had absolutely no expectations about this movie from the start. I think that was attributed to the fact that I knew very little about the story. But, being a slight fan of the vampire sub-genre, I was curious. If I’m not mistaken, I was wide-eyed throughout the entire movie. I thought that this movie kicked so much ass it’s not even funny (considering it wasn’t meant to be funny). The story itself is brilliant: a human with vampire abilities…sounded cool to me too. Apart from that, I thought that giving him the weakness of “the thirst” was a terrific idea. Showing that just because a character is a hero, or superhero, doesn’t mean he is immune to everything; every hero has a weakness. I actually thought that since the character of Blade was so well refined, that they would have skimped on the rest of the story; I was wrong. The story itself was really cool and had a lot of substance to it. I understand that this movie was based off of an actual comic book character, although I know nothing about its origins.

The characters were another story. I thought that the characters were wonderfully done and well portrayed. Making Wesley Snipes’ character a “man of few words” was probably a good idea. Every time I see that man all I can think of is his performance in Demolition Man. Although, I though he did very well, as did the rest of the cast. Most of the characters were well acted and made very believable. That is very important in “classic monster” movies; if you don’t have any viewer connection the viewer will turn it off. We as a people expect a certain level of performance pertaining to our beloved roots with the old horror icons; Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Mummy…all of these performances set the bar very high. So, there is a lot to live up to. Put this cast pulled it off. Bravo.

The special effects were, when present, very well done. They concept of vampires bursting into ash when they die was nicely done. It wasn’t over-the-top or extravagant; just a general flash deterioration of their immortal flesh. Unfortunately, the only effect I didn’t like was when Blade cut Frost in half at the end. I thought that was kinda hoaky with all that goofy-looking blood and stuff. Apart from that, the effects were very well done.

Rating: 22. Although I thought this movie was great, there was a lot of down-time. They had to make room for the informational parts of the story; like backgrounds. Apart from that the movie was awesome. The dark, gritty feeling you get from some of the old 70’s slashers was well adjusted here, giving way to a feeling of eternal darkness. (22of25).

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