AndrewBloom
CONTAINS SPOILERS8/10 2 years ago
[8.0/10] Style counts for a lot. *Blade* doesn’t have the greatest plot or the most nuanced performances. But it is impossibly cool. The black leather, the washed out industrial aesthetic, the heroin chic look that was de rigueur at the time, the buckets of bullets from supercharged weapons, the badass fight choreography, the dark sunglasses, and the other trappings of 1990s R-rated genre films may have reached their apotheosis here.
The movie is cinematic candy, built to thrill and entertain and captivate. In that it succeeds. From the opening moment where the titular vampire hunter slays his way through a blood-sucking rave, to the close vignette where he prepares to stop another such shindig in Moscow, and all the staking, slashing, and blood-drenched combat in between, *Blade* is made of the kind of in-your-face cool that appealed to teenagers with youthful power fantasies of being a dark avenger.
The story, penned by David S. Goyer, is mostly empty calories. Blade wants to kill the vampires that threaten the world. The villain wants to resurrect the vampiric “blood god” who will wipe out humanity. And, in turn, Blade wants to stop the bad guy. Along for the ride are some of the usual figures, like a mentor for the hero, a lieutenant for the antagonist, and love interests for both who inevitably throw down. But at base, the narrative provides a foundation from which the creative time can deluge the audience in kickass set pieces, impressive effects, and oodles and oodles of cool as hell vibes.
That said, the script does have a little something going on under the hood. Pulling its premise from the Marvel Comics, the central premise of Blade as a “daywalker” -- uniquely situated with all of a vampire’s powers but none of their weaknesses due to being born of a mother who’d just been bitten -- gives the character some inherent intrigue. His search for the vampire who killed his mother provides him with a crusade. His thirst for blood that he resists through any means necessary gives him a cost and a curse for all his abilities. And his foot in two worlds makes him a plausible “chosen one”, both the key to unleashing “La Magra” and the champion with the talents to stop it.
The main baddie of the picture, Deacon Frost, does have an intriguing motivation. Played with extraverted verve by Stephen Dorff, Frost is a human who was turned, not a natural born vampire, something that limits him to a lower caste relative the vampiric council. He’s a shit, and a bastion of selfish cruelty at that, but the chip on his shoulder, and his desire to attain enough power to truly be “the top of the food chain” is well-justified given the psychology on display.
Even the other major characters have shading or performances that liven them up beyond the basics of the shoot-em-up plotting. It’s a little convenient that Blade shows some sympathy to a bite victim who just so happens to be a hematologist. But despite being a love interest, Dr. Jenson isn’t reduced to that. She has a self-possessed quality and capabilities that allow her to hold her own in overmatched fights, come up with the decoagulant that helps the hero explode some vamps, and even willingly give up her own blood to stop the villain from ascending unopposed.
Throw in Kris Kristopherson injecting all kinds of grizzled vet energy into Whistler, Blade’s handler, and Donal Logue being annoying, but memorably so, as Frost’s second, and the cast of characters fills out despite the lack of real depth or layers for any of the main players. Hell, even the goons and henchmen who are mostly living props at least have cool costumes or the film’s over-the-top vibe to keep the audience’s attention.
Along those lines, it’s striking just how much in common *Blade* has with *The Matrix*, which came out just one year later. The aesthetics of both the setting and the film are remarkably of a piece, and the music and fight scenes are similar as well. Beyond that though, both feature a unique chosen one who storms the villain’s stronghold, a hidden world of cloak and dagger conspiracies beneath the one we know, and a mentor figure showing a newbie how deep the rabbit hole goes. I don’t think there’s any copying at play -- these elements were just in the ether around this time and can be seen in other films within the subgenre -- but the alignment is uncanny.
*Blade* shares a panoply of neat effects with *The Matrix* as well. While some of the CGI elements, like Magra-fied Frost’s blood appendages or the skeletal vampire spirits look a bit dated, the overall imaginative designs of these elements makes any age forgivable. The pustulated look of the blood-thinner bombed vampires, or a morbidly obese demon, or a precursor to Neo’s bullet time in the Chinatown stand-off between Blade and Deacon grab your attention and don’t let go. The production design team goes above and beyond here, mixing the clean yet dark-tinged aesthetic that was all the rage in 1998 with some traditional gothic imagery and monsters that leaves the look and feel of the film as memorable as anything in the story.
So do those superlative action sequences. *Blade* does feature some quick cuts, but not so many that they make it impossible to track the action. Every skirmish turns high octane in a second and gets the blood pumping in turn. Wesley Snipes doesn’t convey a tremendous inner life for the titular crusader, but he’s nonetheless perfect for the part. Taciturn, even-keeled, tired of the shit but raring to keep fighting, he is magnetic on the screen, cutting the figure of mankind’s only hope to stave off the evil that lurks in dark corners. His action hero bona fides were never at a higher ebb than this, and he, as much as anyone, imbues this film with that ineffable air of coolness that makes you pump your fist with each demon he takes down.
What more can you ask for from a flick like this? Occasionally *Blade* goes overboard with its plot points. It’s too much and too neat for Blade to find his mother still alive, and learn that Frost turned her (not to mention the weird Oedipal business in play). The bad guy ostensibly dealing Whistler a mortal blow to give Blade extra motivation to take him down is a clunky trope. And while it’s a feature, not a bug, for each new vampire story to come up with its own spin on the traditional lore, Frost being able to get by in the daylight with sunscreen alone seems like a cheat.
Still, those nitpicks aside, *Blade* delivers what it promises -- a thrilling, sanguinated action movie/horror flick that practically drips with the style and gothic flair that make it memorable long after the credits roll. The imagery, aesthetic, and overall vibe of the piece are more than enough to sustain it, and despite featuring a daywalker, playing around in the dark has rarely been this fun, or this unimaginably cool.
