Blade
Year: 1998
Director: Stephen Norrington
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson, Wesley Snipes & N'Bushe Wright
Runtime: 120 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 04/04/23
Director: Stephen Norrington
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson, Wesley Snipes & N'Bushe Wright
Runtime: 120 mins
BBFC: 18
Published: 04/04/23
It’s well known now that in the 1990’s comic book publisher Marvel was in dire financial straits. To save themselves from bankruptcy they sold off the properties to a large number of their iconic characters to movie studios just to keep their heads above water. But with the comic book movie scene also on unsure footing with the recent failures of films like Batman & Robin, it would take something special to break the mould and be able to make a decent return at the box office.
Who would ever have thought that a mature rated film based on one of Marvel’s more niche superheroes would ignite the spark that exploded into the modern superhero movie genre.
Human-vampire hybrid Blade (Wesley Snipes) is a vampire hunter. Born a crossbreed he has all of the strengths of a vampire and few of their weaknesses, including the ability to expose himself to sunlight.
When the council of vampires becomes infiltrated by Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), he uses his position of power to summon a vampire deity which will guarantee vampirism’s dominance over humanity.
Blade, along with his trainer Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), and haematologist Karen Jenson (N’Bushe Wright) must stop Frost and secure humanity’s future.
Who would ever have thought that a mature rated film based on one of Marvel’s more niche superheroes would ignite the spark that exploded into the modern superhero movie genre.
Human-vampire hybrid Blade (Wesley Snipes) is a vampire hunter. Born a crossbreed he has all of the strengths of a vampire and few of their weaknesses, including the ability to expose himself to sunlight.
When the council of vampires becomes infiltrated by Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), he uses his position of power to summon a vampire deity which will guarantee vampirism’s dominance over humanity.
Blade, along with his trainer Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), and haematologist Karen Jenson (N’Bushe Wright) must stop Frost and secure humanity’s future.
For better or worse, Blade sticks to the mostly successful formula of the Batman films. It’s campy fun, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it keeps things simple.
Blade is not the kind of film you would associate with starting a superhero revolution, but it simply tried to do what DC did well in their cinematic offerings, but just using a Marvel property instead and going for an older target audience.
Blade starts as it means to go on, with a blood rave in a vampire nightclub. There’s a lot of blood in Blade, kind of obvious when you’re making a vampire movie, but it keeps the action surprisingly tame by having the vampires disintegrate upon death.
With some well shot and highly choreographed combat scenes, Blade succeeds in being an entertaining action movie, even successfully using a number of slow-mo shots in a pre-Matrix world.
Blade is not the kind of film you would associate with starting a superhero revolution, but it simply tried to do what DC did well in their cinematic offerings, but just using a Marvel property instead and going for an older target audience.
Blade starts as it means to go on, with a blood rave in a vampire nightclub. There’s a lot of blood in Blade, kind of obvious when you’re making a vampire movie, but it keeps the action surprisingly tame by having the vampires disintegrate upon death.
With some well shot and highly choreographed combat scenes, Blade succeeds in being an entertaining action movie, even successfully using a number of slow-mo shots in a pre-Matrix world.
Where Blade rests on its laurels is the one dimensional characters and shonky dialogue. Whilst I wasn’t exactly expecting anything amazing, I had expected a little more than I got.
Snipes’ performance tiptoes between a gritty camp and just lazy. Kristofferson is wooden as all hell. Wright is given woefully little to work with. Dorff is really the only person who embraces the campiness well enough to look like he’s enjoying himself, and that does give him a certain allure on screen when compared to basically anyone else.
For 1998, Blade does what it set out to do, it made the superhero film bearable again. It’s definitely not great by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a fun time and despite its flaws it never becomes disappointing or tedious. Crucially, it set a reasonably attainable bar for other studios to meet with their upcoming projects, and with its success it paved the way for the X-Men and Spider-Man franchises.
Snipes’ performance tiptoes between a gritty camp and just lazy. Kristofferson is wooden as all hell. Wright is given woefully little to work with. Dorff is really the only person who embraces the campiness well enough to look like he’s enjoying himself, and that does give him a certain allure on screen when compared to basically anyone else.
For 1998, Blade does what it set out to do, it made the superhero film bearable again. It’s definitely not great by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a fun time and despite its flaws it never becomes disappointing or tedious. Crucially, it set a reasonably attainable bar for other studios to meet with their upcoming projects, and with its success it paved the way for the X-Men and Spider-Man franchises.