Mini Review - Blade

We’ll be taking a break from the Superman reviews for the time being because Kevin Spacey is a…

  

As I was saying, time to wind down with another superhero franchise, and what a topical time. At time of writing Black Panther just came out and celebrates the first superhero movie and probably first big budget blockbuster in general to have a predominately black cast of characters, but NOT as some people try to claim, the first Superhero movie with a black lead. That honour goes to… I’m not actually sure, but Blade sure as hell is one of them.

Blade came out in 1998, and it was sure as hell an adult movie, R rated in the US, rated 18 (the equivalent of NC-17) in the UK. It didn’t have blockbuster budget, only $45m and didn’t get blockbuster returns, $131m. It was just successful enough that a sequel was greenlit. It wasn’t exactly a critical smash either, rated 54% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 5.7/10. Here are my thoughts

Blade (Wesley Snipes) is a half-human half-vampire hybrid because his mother was bitten during her pregnancy. Blade crusades to eliminate the world of vampires as one Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) plans to ascend vampires into the prominent species on Earth using a blood god called La Magra.

When it comes to story, it’s OK, it’s certainly not the strongest story in the world, and there are certainly holes you could poke in it, but it’s certainly not to the standard where it’d fit into either of my review categories.

The biggest draw to blade is the action. Blade is certainly a badass, killing with anything he can use. A sword, guns, martial arts, stakes. I credit Wesley snipes and any stunt-men for making the action scenes look convincing

Less convincing is the CG, man that has not aged well. The skeletons remind me of something out of a PS2 video game. And there are other CG effects that just look terrible, including the… what even is that big lump character?

Let’s look at characters… and I can’t really give them a lot of credit here. It’s not that they’re stereotypical as such, but Blade himself is kinda bland, they give him half-hearted arcs like him rejecting the serum that controls his blood lust and the death of his mentor but neither really pan out too much.

Speaking of the mentor, Kris Kristofferson’s Abraham Whistler is probably my favourite character. He’s wise but often pessimistic and he has a gruff voice. And he can kick ass when he needed, I wish we’d seen more of him but sadly his death means that would require some extreme bullsh*t… Yes, I know what happens in Blade II.

Dr Karen Jenson (N’Bushe Wright) doesn’t contribute much when it comes to action but she’s kind-hearted, and her medical expertise does have its uses. She’s involved in near-death experiences a lot and has to be rescued by Blade, so I’m kinda glad she scores her own victories near the end and even manages to rescue blade. The problem is the character she faces she talked to for 2 seconds on screen.

I really like Deacon Frost, he is not your typical villain even though he does have a typical villain plan. He can go from calm subtlety to over the top in a matter of seconds, he’s highly unpredictable but cunning as well. He’s an outcast in a way because of his blood heritage. Also, did all the references to vampires being pure-blood or half-blood give you Harry Potter vibes? Or was that just me?

Quinn (Donal Logue) on the other hand is just annoying. Sure, he is powerful, he survives every time Blade maims him and basically burns him to death but for one, Blade should’ve just killed him like everyone else and second, he’s a very obnoxious character, not really need when Frost can become that on a whim.

There were a couple of weird directing quirks I didn’t like in the movie. The car following scene is just bizarre in all the fast-forward editing. The strobe effect and darkness I saw in a lot of fight scenes was just annoying, and made the fighting difficult to watch.

My only other complaint really is the police. Not the branded idiot who gets killed, I mean the police that shooting at a guy who, in their view, has a hostage. I don’t like it when it was close range, but when they were on another roof it was just annoying. Speaking of guns, given current events it was kinda uncomfortable watching them spread a pro-gun mentality.

Blade delivers some decent action with Wesley Snipes being badass and a villain I kinda like, but it does have its problems with a cliché story about a prophecy and some rather flat character work.

Rating 65/100