Blade (1998)
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Vampires have long been a favourite topic for horror film makers, however they have seldom produced particularly good - or successful - movies, for every “From Dusk Til Dawn” there is a film like “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” or the film version of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. This Wesley Snipes-starring action film makes a good attempt to challenge that poor success ratio, and it largely succeeds.
The eponymous Blade (Wesley Snipes) is a half-human half-vampire vampire hunter, who has all of the advantages of vampires (exceptional strength, reflexes and stamina) and none of the weakness (burning up in sunlight probably gets a bit irritating after a while). With the help of veteran vampire hunter Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) he hunts down vampires wherever he can find them, with a great deal of success, but runs into problems when ambitious vampire Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) decides that it’s time for vampires to come out of the darkness and attempts to summon “La Magra” - a powerful vampire god who will allow all vampires to walk in the daylight. Blade must try to prevent this, with the help of a female doctor who has been recently attacked by a vampire and thinks she can come up with a cure for vampirism.
The plot is entertaining enough, but it’s not exactly intellectual, it’s in the action scenes and the performances of the actors that this becomes more than just another mediocre vampire movie. Wesley Snipes manages to appear as the consummate action movie star - effortlessly cool and athletic and able to single-handedly take on a room-full of vampires and make it look easy. The vampires look menacing and dissolve impressively, without being as over-the-top as, say, the “From Dusk Til Dawn” series. Stephen Dorff makes an impressive villain, a thoroughly modern vampire who is miles away from the multitude of slightly camp Draculas that have appeared in so many films over the years. Kristopherson provides typically sold support as the gruff Whistler and Dorff’s henchmen are competent enough to provide a believable threat, while still keeping the traditional foolishness of movie minions. The action scenes are always impressive with Snipes appearance in a vampire-infested nightclub and the final confrontation with Frost being among the most memorable action scenes of recent years. “The Matrix” may be always associated with the slow-motion “bullet-time” but Blade used a similar trick a year earlier and the special-effects are never less than cutting-edge.
The direction and music creates suitably dark-yet-cool atmosphere for all this to occur in, and the pace is relentless, there’s not much time for quiet introspection in this movie. Despite the lack of time for character development, the character of Blade is still immensely charismatic and this makes the outcome seem much more important than it would in a lesser action movie. Although the plot is quite far-fetched it’s difficult to care when a movie is as entertaining as this one is.
Overall, Blade may not win any prizes for script-writing but as a big-budget action horror movie, it is virtually perfect. One of the greatest action-movies of the ‘90s.
Rating : 8 / 10
DVD Review (Region 2)
Considering that this was a very early DVD release, it has quite a reasonable amoung of extras. There are several interesting featurettes, the trailer and several deleted scenes - including an alternative ending that will make you glad they didn't use it for the film.
DVD Rating : 7 / 10
All content ©2003 William Marnoch.
Comments? Agree/Disagree with the Reviews? Suggestions? Random Ramblings? Whatever you might want to say, feel free to e-mail me at william@wmarnoch.freeserve.co.uk .