amazing film, superb cast, fantastic action...nuff said?

Rating: 10/10 (3 November 2006)

Awesome. Awesome. AWESOME. This film should make Marvel proud that people still want to turn their comic books into movies. It's dark, atmospheric, fast-paced, well scripted and visually brilliant.
Blade is based on and adapted from the popular comic books by Marvel. Blade, a half-human, half-vampire hybrid spends his nights hunting down and killing off vampires. Using an array of big guns, big swords and sometimes just plain cool martial arts moves, he dispatches said creatures of the night in huge style, creating CGI orgies of vampire-death-by-disintegration and beating senseless anyone else that gets in his way (look out for Officer Krieger). Helped along by Whistler, his faithful yet badass human partner, Blade's quest is to rid the world of these pesky bloodsuckers altogether. However, a certain power-hungry vampire has other ideas, and he sets about clawing his way to the top of the food chain
This is one of the few movies that are actually better than their accompanying trailer. Rare, I know, but it's true. Everything about this film is astounding. The casting for one, is fantastic. Wesley Snipes was director Stephen Norrington's first and only choice for Blade, and he does a fantastic job. Really the only film I truly like him in. Seeing him as any other character, he just looks strange without his black leather coat, sword, impossibly cool shades and tribal tattoos. This role was made for him. Stephen Dorff is brilliant as Deacon Frost, the maniacal and murderous un-pureblood vampire who wants to take over the world. (Ah, the old take-over-the-world ploy. Never fails.) He even manages to scare Udo Kier's master vampire Dragonetti into submission. Kris Kristofferson's Whistler is great  a decrepit and world-weary creature, almost like a father figure who keeps Blade in good supply of guns, swords and easily wieldable Ultra-Violet light sources. As Blade details their relationship quite astutely "he makes the weapons. I use them." Just happens to help that Whistler wants to wipe out the vampires as much as Blade does. N'Bushe Wright is fantastic as Blade's hematologist sidekick, Karen Jensen. She's attacked by Frost's second-in-command, Quinn, (brilliantly played by Donal Logue) and subsequently rescued by Blade. Most female action sidekicks tend to grate on the nerves after about five minutes of screen time, but Wright has a good mixture of sass, brains and she looks good carrying a shotgun. I don't understand why she didn't pop up in the sequels though. Traci Lords is aptly sexy and sinister as Frost's vampire minion Mercury (because of course, you have to have at least one slinky female vampire).
The look of this movie is amazing too  everything is dark, moody and ominous. Even the few daytime scenes are overcast and gloomy. The dialogue, cinematography and acting are all first-rate, but the action scenes are probably why this movie is so popular. They're brilliantly choreographed, snappy and just brutal enough to make you giggle. Thankfully, they're also filmed in such a way that allows you to actually see what's going on. Most fight scenes these days are filmed way too close to the actors, and everything just becomes a blurry mess. I want to see that fist connect with that guy's chin, damn it. The soundtrack to this film is outstanding too - a hardcore techno slice of musical menace that fits the film brilliantly. Listening to the soundtrack is almost as good as watching the film. But nothing beats the club scene at the beginning with blood spraying from a demonic version of a sprinkler system, and New Order's 'Confusion' thumping away at your eardrums. Sensory assault.
Even though this film is nearly ten years old, it hasn't dated. The dialogue is still wry as hell, "-There are worse things out tonight than vampires -Like what? -Like Me" the gore is still gory and the characters are still impossibly cool. This is another movie that'll age well, along with other films like The Lost Boys and Near Dark. And I still feel compelled to watch this quite frequently. Usually late at night when blood and guts and darkness show up so well in a room with no lights on