Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Blade

You could genuinely make the case that Blade started getting comic book movies back on track.




After the global panning of Batman & Robin in 1997 comic book movies were in a rough place and DC was out of the game for a good while. This led Marvel to make a firm advance with their characters, Blade in 1998, X-Men in 2000, and Spider-Man in 2002, and with Morbius coming up it was an appropriate time to discuss other Marvel vampire movies. I'm actually fairly impressed with the first Blade movie, pretty much building this character and the world from the ground up since they heavily departed from the comic book version, yet it still is entertaining and doesn't try to be the next mega blockbuster. It undeniably has influence from the decade it was made, so it has some cheesy tinge to it but I wouldn't have it any other way. So our story follows quite possibly the coolest vampire hunter in media cleaning house around New Orleans and more specifically targeting a rising vampire by the name of Deacon Frost who has his own big plans for the world. Very easy story to tell, but how they do it is what counts. I really have a bit to commend the production team on in this movie, casting Wesley Snipes was a no brainer and he handles it with an ultra cool and experienced demeanor with the actor himself championing putting a lot of martial arts in the film because he admired foreign action films so much. And it does show in the choreography and action, while still having some gunplay and gadgets. I like how the story progresses and how they build the world, with only a few slight clunky pieces of info delivered but overall is done seamlessly and has good pacing throughout. Our main viewpoint character played by N'Bushe Wright though honestly not having too much to do besides be our human window into this supernatural world does a decent job, Stephen Dorff though not the biggest comic fan nails that cocky asshole villain role and at times seems to enjoy himself, knowing what I know I thought Kris Kristofferson was excellently cast as a semi-mentor/quartermaster with so much grumpiness and wiseass remarks he fits perfectly in the movie. Out of curiosity I compared this movies staking effects to Buffy, cause the CG is not great but it works okay and I actually prefer the staking effect here more. I am however disappointed that they had a Stan Lee cameo filmed but it didn't make the cut and I even heard tale Dr. Michael Morbius was also gonna get some screentime here but it never came to pass. That's a bummer, but all in all it's a decent movie. I give it 3 stars, 7/10, and in the meantime before we review the second film tomorrow I'm gonna tear up the dance floor with that rave song.

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