Blade turns 25. Bonus Cinematic Throwback

In the summer of 1998, Marvel meant absolutely nothing to me. I knew OF it, by osmosis pretty much and by a lot of time spent hanging with friends at Mall Of America's comics shop. And to me, comic book movies were pretty much just Batman and Superman. 

Certainly never heard of the character of Blade. So when I was seeing the trailer for this movie, I didn't even know its origin.

Star Wesley Snipes was the bigger draw at that point, although even there Snipes stellar early 90s run had turned into a collection of mediocre thrillers. 

There was little to indicate that Blade would be a great film in its own right, and certainly nothing hinted at a film that for years since has been credited with resurrecting the entire genre of the comic book movie.

Instead, yeah, it really is both those things. There have been a LOT of great comic book movies in the last 25 years, but Blade still has a place up near the top.

Blade literally has one of the greatest opening sequences in any movie. The "bloodbath" club sequence, where we learn (spoiler alert) that all the ravers are vampires, and then in comes Blade who just lays waste to everybody in the coolest way possible. Pure coolness is seen many more times.

Blade is just a cool character, born to a woman (early Sanaa Lathan) who had been bit by a vampire while pregnant. He has, to paraphrase, all the strengths and none of the weaknesses of vampires. And with the help of his partner Whistler (Kris Kristofferson in pure grizzle) he hunts down vampires. 

I really liked how this movie is not an original story. It might even be one of the first comic book movies that starts with the hero already being established. Blade has already been doing this a long time. The bad guys know full well who he is.

Our intro character/audience surrogate is Karen, a doctor played by the cool, seductive N'Bushe Wright from Fresh and Dead Presidents. Blade saves her early in the movie, even though she was bit he doesn't kill her. Is it cause she's hot? Nah, there's no romance here. No time for that.

The bad guy is Stephen Dorff, as Deacon Frost, a rebellious younger vampire who unlike the rest of the elder vampire council (including Udo Kier, because of course), doesn't want to just co-exist with the human world and stay in the shadows. He wants to rule the world. And he's got this whole ritual thing planned out.

The film, directed by Stephen Norrington in one of the all time one hit wonders, does a stellar job of setting and world building. It's never even stated where this takes place, just a grimy, dirty big city (I'm sure Seven was an influence). All vampire stories tweak the lore somewhat, and the vamps here are not romanticized. They're brutal and violent. 

It's a lean film, paced great. There's a subplot about Blade taking a serum to suppress his thirst for blood that probably could have been snipped out without a problem, but that's really it.

The action is spectacularly choreographed. Given its lower budget there isn't anything epic scale, it's just fighting. Snipes martial arts skills are deployed great. It helps to see that its really him. And he injects some sly humor at times, even playing a very serious character. I mean, "some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill" can't be serious. 

The fx...okay, look, it was 1998. Blade does get overlooked in using "bullet time" almost a year before The Matrix. But some of that CGI is pretty brutal, including watching Dorff turn into a giant blob at the end. But the vampire dusting fx are very cool and hold up.

The MCU is still planning a new Blade, I guess. I mean it's been years since they announced it and nothing has happened. You could literally just bring Snipes back. Blade does age, it would fit.

So if you believe the story, this film being a solid success sort-of restored the reputation of comic book movies. Does this mean that if not for Blade we never get ANY of these comic franchises? I don't know about that. X-Men and Spiderman were the 2 big ones that followed, but each had been in development long before Blade. And I'm sure the much larger box office that those got were more influential. I do definitely think that Blade showed that you could take a lesser known character and build a successful film around them. So it's possible that when, say, fledgling Marvel Studios decided to use Iron Man as their intro to the MCU they had Blade in mind.