Review of Blade (1998) by James R — 02 Apr 2011

Blade. When his mother was pregnant, she was bit by a vampire, which infected the yet unborn child. As a result, Blade was gifted with all of the vampires strengths, and none of their weaknesses (except the hunger for blood, but he supresses that with a serum), and with the help of his mentor Whistler, Blade hunts the "suckheads".

Wesley Snipes plays the role of Blade quite brilliantly, being the strong silent type who concentrates more on destroying the vampires rather than throwing out quips or growling. He doesnt seem to show of many emotions, and that doesnt hinder the character in any way, strengthens him and it helps show why he's feared, especially when hes killing vamps.

This film is a force of reckoning when it comes to its action scenes, and the highlight has to be the opening sequence. A club of blood soaked vampires and Blade, definately one of the best opening fight scenes in a superhero movie.

There are some problems with this film. The blood often looks mainly like red paint and the cgi can be terrible throughout the film, namely with La Magra's scenes and the vampires that react to the exploding serum. It also doesn't help that Quinn and his gang that go to hunt Blade are a kentucky sized bucket of douchebags. Also, Wesley Snipes' line: "Some motherfuckers always trying to iceskate uphill" Seriously? You've just beaten the bad guy and have the chance for an awesome send-off line, and THATS what you come up with? What does it even mean anyway?

Some of you may have reservations about Blade, and some just may hate this film, but know this: Its because of Blade we have some of the best superhero films today. Before Blade, Marvel had not made one single good comic book adaptation (i'm not counting the Hulk films starring Lou Ferrigno and Bill Bixby, because they were loosely based on the comics). Before Blade, Marvel had only given us two Captain Americas, Dolph Lundgrens the Punisher, an unreleased Fantatic Four and *shudder* Howard The Duck. Blade made back nearly three times its budget, and because of this film, Marvel took a chance and decided to make more comic films, starting with X-Men, and now, in the 12 years after Blade, Marvel have made more films then they did in the 50 years they did before Blade.

Praise be to the daywalker.