Brilliant vampire action thriller from the better half of the 90s

Rating: 9/10 (21 June 2016)

Fantastically shot, well paced.. arguably Snipes' most impressive performance to date and lots of fun martial arts fight sequences involving swords and guns - not to mention the unique and timeless soundtrack. Blade is one of my favourite action movies of all time, up there with Die Hard and Predator.
Director Stephen Norrington is what Chris Cunningham (Aphex Twin videos) would have been if he dropped the weirdness and went into more conventional movies.. or if David Fincher stopped with the thrillers and did straight action. It is a massive shame we couldn't see more from Stephen, but at least we have Blade.
Certain special effects haven't aged well (and are in desperate need of a remaster!) but aside from that, this movie is great visually. Norrington's choice of shots, the way scenes are lit is masterful.
The performances he gets out of his actors are great too. It's not surprising Snipes loved the Blade character so much as to later method act and speak to cast/crew in character.. not surprising at all when the first movie of the trilogy this strong (though I pretend Blade 2 and 3 never happened) Watch this movie if you haven't already, especially if you love the 90s aesthetic or if you enjoy vampire-related movies/TV shows. The Blade character is iconic and Snipes was born to play him, and this movie is a 2 hour proof-of-concept for Norrington being the greatest director nobody ever talks about.