Month of Superhero Film Reviews: Blade

Howdy ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Day #4 of my Month of Superhero Film Reviews! During this month I’ll be reviewing of some of the best and worst comic book adapted films. Today we’re gonna start on a new trilogy but this time it’s even further into the past, we’re going back to the 90s with Blade.

Man, now we’re really going back. This was actually one of the key films I remember from the 90s as a kid and really liking. Back then I was a big Wesley Snipes fan and this film really cemented that in stone. Little did I know back then that I was watching not only a superhero film, but a Marvel superhero film. Stupidly I never knew nothing about Blade being a Marvel character until I was a teenager, I still feel ashamed about that. Anyways let’s move onto the story.

So Blade tells the story of Eric Brooks aka Blade, a person who was born into the world half-vampire, half-mortal man. At that present point in time he is the protector of the human race and goes around slaying vampires while looking for the man responsible for biting his mother and causing him to become who he is.

In terms of the cast they’re all pretty good, but this film really is just about one person, Wesley Snipes of course! So let’s talk about him. Wesley Snipes as Blade/Eric Brooks is the definition of awesome. In this film Snipes gives us this cold, lone wolf kind of character who not only struggles to suppress his vampire-like urges but also longs to find out who was the man who made him who he is. Snipes was at his peak of awesomeness in this film and it shows as he puts his martial arts skills to use in all of his fight scenes, the dude is so athletic and kinetic, and Snipes also has some funny scenes with his dialogue or some facial of body expressions too. And then there’s the second most important person in the shape of Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost. Dorff had a presence on-screen and a nice level of charisma as the main villain in this film, he was such an asshole but in a way that was cool, funny and he was the perfect match for Blade.

As for Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler, he was Blade’s mentor and weaponsmith. Kristofferson was nice, his performance was everything you’d expect of a mentor-like character but he also had some emotional and funny moments too. N’Bushe Wright as Dr. Karen Jenson was good, Wright was an interesting female character who wasn’t just a damsel in distress and actually got to help Blade out and get into the meat of the action too and that is something I always appreciate. And lastly Donal Logue was hilarious as Quinn. He was mainly there for the sake of humour, but he did have a lot of funny dialogue and scenes that made his character stand out.

When it comes to the presentation it is very nice, I love the camera work and rapid style editing use for action sequences, the fight scenes were also wonderfully choreographed and I liked the use of lighting which was emphasized in night and day scenes. The CGI was decent for its time and make-up was nice, but other times it looks really dated. As for the soundtrack, it feels so 90s from the choice of songs to music composed by Mark Isham.

I think the reason I like this film so much and why I it works with other audiences is because it’s so different and unlike other superheroes before it. It’s not your regular Spider-Man, Batman or Superman story here, this lies in the realm of supernatural story-telling, just grounded in reality. I got a lot of Batman vibes from this film, I guess that’s mainly down to the story by David S. Goyer, after all he did work with Christopher Nolan on The Dark Knight Trilogy, I kind of feel like this was a 90s precursor to that.

And lastly how does it compare to the comics? Well Blade is a character I’m still not overly familiar with, I know of him from the films and his small appearance in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. From what I’ve read on Wikipedia apparently there are elements that were taken from the comics but were modified for the 90s film audience such as making Blade a “daywalker” whereas in the comics he was just a human who was immune to vampire abilities and relied on the use of his skills and weapons. Also the character Deacon Frost was updated and was made a great deal younger in this film.

So to conclude Blade is a great film, while not fitting into the conventional style of superhero films, it has the basic elements that makes it fit into the genre. It is action-packed, nicely stylized, unique, features a fantastic central performance from Wesley Snipes and to date for me is the coolest film that has vampires in it.

Rating: 8/10 (This badass film is often forgotten about and needs to be watched more!)

So there’s my review people, only 26 more to go. So have you seen Blade and if so what are your thoughts on it? Drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts yo! Come back tomorrow and I’ll have a new film review online, until then peace out!