"The world you live in is a sugar-coated topping. There is another world - beneath it..."

Rating: 9/10 (25 October 2008)

Up until 1998 comic book movies were a joke. Sometimes they had some campy charm and were marginal successes but aside from the Michael Keaton Batman film in 1989 none of them had been all of that good and even its sequels were very poor. Marvel had a particularly hard time releasing its products to film and its two successes up to 1998, The Punisher and Captain America, were so bad that even fans of the characters felt the need to apologize for them.
Into this mix came Blade, a much lesser known character than previous Marvel and DC attempts to make movies about their characters but in a way that helped. Writer David Goyer and Director Stephen Norrington were able to tell the story that they wanted to tell without having to pay homage to 25 years of comic book history. In fact the movie deviates greatly from the Marvel version of Blade's origin and his powers.
This movie was a success for several reasons. First, it took the story seriously. Blade wasn't a campy super-hero who had hilarious misadventures. The movie is serious from the opening moments when a man who thought that he was being picked up by a hot woman and taken to a party finds out that he's really the appetizer at a vampire rave. While certain elements like the character of Quinn lighten specific moments the characters always act as if the danger and the situations are real.
Second, the movie is an action movie rather than a horror movie. Vampires have almost always been placed in the horror mold. The genius of Blade is to depict vampires more as members of a kind of mafia rather than as the creatures that live in solitary mansions and prey on hapless virgins. The horror and fear are there. Norrington does a tremendous job in presenting a world to us in which creatures skulk around in the dark and the script describes a world that most of us are unaware of but influences our lives on a daily basis. However, even with these elements we are in full action mode as Blade takes on this mafia with all of the weapons at his disposal and his knowledge of martial arts. The fighting is done so well that you even let our cheers as Blade dispatches his foes in spectacular style. Many of the things that the Matrix would take credit for, such as bullet time and the idea that the world that we live in is an illusion (although this is a little more literal in Matrix), were developed in Blade first and usually with far more skill and style.
Third, there is an emphasis on character here that shouldn't be taken for granted. Most superhero movies are obsessed with action to the point that characters simply don't have time to grow. That isn't so here. The tragedy of Blade's life is presented to us and then further developed as we see how Blade being a man that fits into neither world can't live with vampires and that the relationships that he establishes with humans can never last. Deacon Frost is also developed well as his relationships with Quinn, Karen, and Dragonetti develop him to show that he is the complete antithesis of Blade: A hedonist that cares only about fomenting chaos and gratifying his own desires.
Finally, there's a wonderful synergy from all involved. The actors give great performances. Wesley Snipes is the gruff hero with just enough sass to deliver some witty lines to break the tension in some dramatic scenes. Kris Kristofferson plays the father figure and elder hero who has to die to give way to the younger generation. His obvious love for Blade comes through the subtleties of the performance rather than any overt dialog. Stephen Dorff is fantastic as Deacon Frost who wants nothing more than to gratify his own desires and to be restrained by no one. His casual disdain of everyone around him except when he wants something shows the kind of character that he is. Then we have some great direction from Norrington who has the world move around us with time lapse photography when we aren't looking and gives the impression of things hidden all around. Turning up the brightness during the daylight helps to showcase how foreign that world is once you've been steeped in Blade's nighttime world. The script is a top-notch Goyer contribution. As usual with Goyer everything that is introduced has a purpose and all of the elements join together by the end of the movie so that everything from Blade's mom to comments about whether or not Karen will turn, to the biting of Dr Webb all come back when they will have maximum story impact.
If the story has any flaws it is that Deacon's idea to turn everyone into vampires makes no sense unless you assume that he is so interested in fomenting chaos that he would like to see a world full of vampires who feed on each other but this is never stated on screen and it would have been nice if there was some dialog for it. The other problem is that La Magra is a bit of a disappointment once it appears. After building up to this since the midway point of the movie you expect something more than what you see but this is one of those things that you don't really think about until after your first viewing when you're thinking back on the movie.
Many movies like the Matrix, Daredevil, and the X-Men trilogy probably would have never been made or would have been radically different if it wasn't for the cult success of Blade and the techniques that it pioneered. Give it a try as a must-see movie experience if you are either a fan of comics or any of the aforementioned movies.