based on the relatively unknown ( in comparison to spider - man ) marvel comic book , blade tells the story of half - vampire half - human ( played by wesley snipes ) who was born of a vampire 's latest meal .
now swearing vengeance against all vampires , blade hunts them all .
his latest challenge is his biggest though . . .
he must stop the vampire deacon frost ( played by stephen dorff ) from summoning the blood god and turning the rest of the world into vampires .
admitedly , comic books are one of the least appreciated mediums , often viewed as juvenile by most standards , even seen as illiterate by some .
judging by a series of poorly recieved ( financial and critical ) comic book based films ( such as batman and robin , steel , barb wire , the crow : city of angels , and the list goes on ) , one would come to the conclusion that comic books are the worst medium to translate into film .
to some degree , i agree with this sentiment .
having read comic books since the age of nine ( i 'm 21 right now )
i can count the number of good comic book based movies ( not including japanese manga ) one hand : 1 : the crow ( 1994 ) , 2 : batman ( 1989 ) , 3 : superman , 4 : the mask , and now , # 5 , blade .
( " men in black " is not on this list because it is an extreme deviation from the original comic book ) why is this ?
for the most part , it is because the filmmakers understand the comic book medium and come up with an appropriate atmosphere to match .
the crow and batman comics call for a dark gothic atmosphere , which the director provided .
the mask features a wacky superhero with off the wall antics , which the casting and cg effects reflect .
superman is not over the top with colour and flash , and the film reflects this .
blade uses common notions of vampires and incorporates them into the film , creating an appropriate atmosphere .
this is in stark contrast to joel schumacher 's contrived vision in batman and robin , reflecting the dated atmosphere in the 1960 's television show .
batman and robin proved that the director failed to realize one fundamental fact :
comics have grown up , and so has the audience ( i 'm working on a scathing review of batman and robin and will post it up when i 'm ready ) . which brings me back to blade .
although he may be a familiar character to some , due to his appearances in the spider - man animated show on fox , one will find no single trace of the warm - and - fuzzy vampire hunter as depicted in the cartoon .
the film depicts a vicious vampire killer that uses every single means at his disposal to reach his ends .
the end results are not pretty by any means .
the story elements work very well -- for a comic book story .
screenwriter david goyer ( who also wrote the crow ) incorporates interesting elements of vampire lore , using science to explain many of the ideas often dismissed in vampire films .
this is presented through karen , a hematologist portrayed by n'bushe wright .
this leads to inventive use of standard medical treatments to kill vampires .
add this to the neat little gadgets that blade uses ( including a titanium sword complete with an " anti - theft device " ) , and one has an interesting premise .
however , the film works best as an action film .
actor wesley snipes has an extensive background in martial arts ( most of which comes from capoeira , a brazillian form incorporating flashy kicks ) , choreographing every single move .
proving that quick , flash cutting edits are no substitute for choreographed fight sequences ( see batman and robin for a good example of that ) , wesley snipes dazzles the audience with some incredible fight scenes
.
regardless , this film is far from perfect .
the film suffers from at least one major plot hole , regarding the summoning of the blood god .
the ritual requires that a number of pure blood vampires are standing on marked squares , yet one of them is viciously murdered , allowing the ritual to pass ( and the murdered vampire is later shown standing on the square ) .
obvious continuity errors also surface , especially during a scene where deacon frost takes a drag on his cigarette and is not exhaling it in the next frame ( there is no trace of smoke either ) .
much of the special effects are not that spectacular either .
while vampire disintegration scenes are intriguing to watch , other cgi ( computer generated imagery ) effects are almost slapped together , which is surprising when given the amount of time the film was given to be released ( the film 's release date was pushed back multiple times ) .
scenes with computer generated blood look extremely fake , knocking the believability factor down a few notches ( but then , i 'm really hard to impress ) .
the film 's r rating comes from gory violence , but the lack of realism made me wonder why it got such a rating ( for realistic violence , watch " saving private ryan " ) .
the overuse of cgi in films has made me yearn for the days of director george romero and makeup wizard rob bottin ,
both pioneers in the art of gore without extensive use of cgi .
still , scenes involving non - cgi special effects do surface ( and look much more impressive ) , such as one particularly gruesome scene where a vampire tries to use blade 's sword without deactivating the " anti - theft device " .
wesley snipes is the saving grace behind what would have otherwise been a muddled mess .
while not talking much , he is a grand physical presence , leaving other comic book superheroes in the dust .
a decent ( by comic book film standards ) storyline also helps .
Output: P