Blade's a slasher but it ain't too sharp

Rating: Null/10 (24 September 1998)

Following postmodern traditions of vampirism already set out in movies such as the watershed vampire movie THE LOST BOYS, the vampires of BLADE are portrayed like a heathanistic, orgiastic cult, who hold court in the city's palaces of desolation, the most perverse night clubs, to satiate their unholy desires and prey upon star-struck vampire wannabes as well as unwitting victims. Since this theme has been amply explored in movies like the aforementioned, BLADE has no way to out-do them or to innovate upon those themes other than by sheer volume of gore and depravity. Unfortunately, this approach does more for sensory overload than it does to impress us anew with the evil of "modern" vampires, and BLADE ends up coming across like a desperate stretch to overwhelm us.
Nevertheless, Snipes is such a striking physical specimen and able enough as an actor that he pulls off the job of convincing us that he is the reluctant, loner hero; an outcast who is trying to make sense out of his condition and finds somewhere deep in his psyche, beyond the comic-book cinematography's power to probe and to peer, a deep-seated reservoir of resolve to draw upon to do his gruesome duty. Also alluring, here, is the veteran actor Kristopherson, who keeps us at arm's length throughout the story, always wondering what makes his character tick, and how it could be that he and the half-vampire mutant can maintain their symbiotic communion.