Saturday, September 30, 2017

Day 333: Blade

The first of a long run of successful comic book movies, after Batman and Robin seemingly killed the genre a year earlier. I believe I saw the second Blade before I saw the first, had to go back and catch up.

Like any comic book movie, the story starts with Blade's origin. His mother is attacked by vampires while she is pregnant. This leads to the birth of the half-vampire Blade (Wesley Snipes). Cut to the present and Blade is attacking a rave party filled with vampires. One vamp survives and feeds on Karen Jensen, a hematologist who serves as our entry way to the world of Blade and his pal, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson). Blade explains his war against vamps and the weapons he uses. Meanwhile, Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) is part of a lesser breed of vampire who were turned after birth (meaning vampires can reproduce in this universe). He stages a coup of the elder Vampire council and plans to summon a blood god to give him power over the earth. Soon, it is up to Blade, Karen and Whistler to stop the nefarious scheme.

Even more so than Aliens, Blade is a pure action-horror hybrid. Stephen Norrington can direct some ripping action scenes. More than the sequels, this original Blade featured the tightest fight choreography. Even thought I liked the big, crazy ideas of Blade II more, the first one is exactly the kind of B-movie that fans can get behind. I liked the CGI "ashing" effects where vamps turn into ash upon dying. I can't say I was ever scared in this movie but vampires by themselves lead to a ton of horror tropes.

I can't recommend this as a good movie but I can say it is dumb fun for people who like to see vampires getting their asses kicked.


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