Review of Blade (1998) by Filipeneto — 09 Aug 2020

We are facing a film that was planned and thought for the teen audience, thirsty for pure hard action with fights more choreographed than ballet and litres of blood everywhere. I could be exaggerating, but this film is just that. It's good, if what we're looking for is something to entertain without thinking too much.

Its based on a coherent script, although its fantasized, superficial and sometimes illogical. Everything revolves around Blade, a vampire who walks during the day, hunting and killing other vampires, usually the naughtiest. Blade's real motivations are never fully explained, but we understand that they are related to his past and his late family. Here, however, he has to face a powerful vampire, who carries out a palace coup and takes power in vampire society, and who is determined to invoke an ancient blood divinity that will exterminate the entire human race (it seems unproductive to liquidate their food source, but things are what they are). The film has dialogues full of insults and heavy slang, scenes of bloody deaths and violence, but it was made for a young adult audience. The film also explains many things about the rules and the vampire society, as well as the way humans sometimes want to be turned into vampires, but that is all in the background when it comes to action.

Wesley Snipes is convincing in his role, which is basically a highly trained and apparently unstoppable tough assassin, "Terminator" style. He never laughs, never shows emotions, he imply hit, fight and kill. He is not a friendly guy. Kris Kristofferson gives life to his mentor and greatest ally, an elderly human who, in the past, was a vampire hunter. Basically, he sounds and behaves like a smug cowboy from those old western movies. Stephen Dorff gave life to the main villain and was very effective in his task, giving his character an air of sadistic cruelty that made him threatening and convincing. N'Bushe Wright appears simply for being pretty and as a draw for the male audience.

Technically, its a film that bets everything on action and on highly planned and choreographed fight scenes. Of course, some of them are shown in slow motion, a feature that "Matrix" helped to popularize the following year but which, for me, becomes tiring and even expendable. There are dozens of deaths, we can't even count them, and there are kills for all tastes. It looks impressive... and it is! You can see how much money was invested in these scenes. The sets and costumes are good, but I would particularly highlight Blade's costume, black with some quilts that seem to work as bulletproof armour, and a raincoat that looks like a black cape. Showy and stylish.