Bloody good!!!

Rating: 7/10 (17 August 2016)

Blade (Wesley Snipes) is a half-human, half-vampire who makes it his personal mission to rid society of vampires (who live in the underworld, but move freely with 'human society'). Blade is assisted in his mission by Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) who has raised Blade since he was a teenager and Karen (N'Bushe Wright) whom Blade rescued shortly after she has been attacked by a vampire. Blade learns that the vampires are plotting something that could prove catastrophic to the human race and with the help of his small team he sets about trying to stop the vampires.
Blade is just one of those films that is just pure fun from start to finish; it's chocked full of impressively choreographed fight sequences, incredible special effects, quick editing (which admittedly looks a bit choppy at times). Whilst it is a fun film, the plot and tone mostly remain dark (meaning that it's a film that's fun, but in a way where it can still be taken seriously rather than being fun in a dumb way). The special effects are impressive and whilst, arguably, they may still be the star of the show director Stephen Norrington does still allow room for the story to breathe - the character of Blade is given some depth and never remains one dimensional. The story is a little bit silly and many of the antagonists are more cartoon-like than menacing but in a film that's this much fun it never really matters and the film still remains enjoyable (as long as you know what to expect from it).
As well as the Matrix-style fight choreography and impressive special effects the film also benefits from a good performance from Snipes; here he's able to effortlessly switch between delivering dialogue in bad-ass serious fashion to kicking a load of ass and delivering one liners in a typical 'tongue-in-cheek' manner. The supporting cast are all fairly good, but it's only really Stephen Dorff & Kris Kristofferson who are any sort of match for Snipes.
I can't deny that Blade is not likely to appeal to all audiences - it is pretty violent and gory and the Matrix-style fight sequences and OTT special effects won't meet with approval from everyone. However, I happen to like these things and coupling these things with a reasonable story (it isn't a brilliant one however) and a rather 'knowing' performance from Snipes it all equates to 2 hours of unpretentious fun.