Blade
It can be rare that a single movie can pull off the proverbial āhat trickā and wind up being among the best of its kind in not one, but THREE different genres, but this 1998 release does exactly that, managing to not only be one of the best action movies ever made (a tremendous influence on later films to come after), not only one of the best comic book films ever made (it started as a Marvel comic), but is also arguably the best VAMPIRE film as well, laying out an intricate yet fascinating mythology of an unseen world beneath our own where all sorts of creatures of the night not only feed off of unsuspecting humans, but have also laid out a financial and societal foundation where they pretty much own and control everything as well, Illuminati style.Ā It certainly helps that the comic book character is considered a lower-tier one among the ranks of superheroes, which enables the filmmakers to expand on the initial premise without worrying about pissing off too many virgin fanatics (something which did in the Spiderman franchise), and then of course there is Wesley Snipes as Blade himself: a half human, half vampire hybrid with all of the advantages that come with both as well as a superbly conditioned martial artist as adept at hand to hand combat as he is with swords and guns.Ā Snipes brings the art of superhero badassery to a whole new level, and itās to the credit of director Stephen Norrington and writer David Goyer that they channel that into a hyperkinetic style that is visually arresting to say the least, with the action scenes being done in such a breathless way that any need to suspend oneās disbelief goes straight out the window and allows the viewer to get caught up in the saga right from the very first scene, which shows Bladeās dying mother giving birth to him after being bitten by a vampire, and then the opening action setpiece with him taking on a nightclub full of vampires (led by Traci Lords) preparing to chow down on their latest prey.Ā From having a throbbing techno soundtrack to not being afraid to pile on the gore and profanity for an R rating, all the while creating a delightful comic book tone that doesnāt take itself too seriously while still laying off the irony, itās clear that Snipes and Co. leave it all up there on the screen, and managed to create a classic for the ages.Ā In addition, we have Stephen Dorff as the villain, a rogue vampire named Deacon Frost who despises the ancient vampire order that shuns him due to the fact that unlike they who were born pure blood vampires, he was merely turned into one from once being human, and exacts a plan to create a sort of Vampire Apocalypse (with him as the Antichrist figure) in order to turn the whole world to the dark side and rule the Earth as he feels they should.Ā Dorff in some ways comes off as a shit-talking punk, but nonetheless a highly intelligent one whose plan scares most of the purebloods to their very core.Ā Then we have the legendary Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler, a veteran vampire hunter (and Bladeās mentor) who brings a lot of life to the film in a hardass, grizzled package; plus NāBushe Wright as the beautiful doctor who winds up bitten and is saved by Blade and Whistler while she comes up with an actual cure for vampirism; Donal Logue as the vampire henchman who constantly runs his mouth on Blade and continuously gets his ass handed to him for it; Udo Kier as the head of the pureblood council who comes into direct conflict with Frost; and Arly Jover sporting the European heroin chic look as the nasty female accomplice of Frost who also does double duty as one of his girlfriends.Ā As said the mythology laid out here is far cooler and more engaging than say, that of Twilight, as we learn about the vampires having their own bible and get to meet a disgusting blob of a ārecords keeperā named Pearl.Ā In fact, one could say that Blade could make short work of the Twilight beings by both outfighting them and handily dismembering them with his acid-tipped sword, but thatās an argument for an Internet message board somewhere in cyberspace.Ā Regardless, it all comes together to form an intoxicating mix, spawning two sequels (though it should be more) and a VERY short lived cable TV series that went down the tubes for making the mistake of thinking that the main character could be pulled off by someone other than its charismatic, machismo-dripping starā¦
10/10