Blade (1998)
The power of an immortal. The soul of a human. The heart of a hero.
When it comes to movies, we all have a drastic tendency of two things - forgetting (or not knowing) of past movies, and being super-hard on older movies effects work. In regards to that first one, the modern “For the first time ever” branch of things gets evoked quite a bit - “Black Panther, the first black superhero” and so forth. Well, tonight, we’ll go back to what a slightly older generation recognizes as “the first really good superhero movie” particularly with (but really needing the clarification) a black lead. Turn on the bleed-o-vision, tonight we look at Blade.
The story of Blade is that of an origin story of sorts. The character has floated around in comics for some time - but this is the first most would be seeing him, and in turn people need to know what that’s all about. Although we don’t necessarily get this fist run, or his first training montage, or anything of that sort - we come in after blade has been doing his job for a while, but something big is about to happen. Hot on the heels of one of the important ones, the vampire hunter Blade happens to save a blood-specialist from a vampire attack after the particular vampire manages to escape death by his hands. She becomes embroiled in the plot against the vampires, and serves as the easy-audience attachment as to whats going on - the person with which everything can be explained to help people figure out whats going on. The real question though is can Blade stop whatever his big bad prey is cooking up before it’s too late?
So our story has a few little layers to it, but by and large if you know the whole hero vs bad guys comic story, then nothing really is going to be surprising you that much. That being said, it inserts a lot of tension-causers and little plays to complicate things more so it isn’t painfully straight forward. It mainly boils down to vampires with an attempt to become even more godly, and the man who wants to stop them out of vengeance - and perhaps some level of desire to defend. Good vs Evil, with the one main twist that good in this case is at least part evil himself - oh yeah, that’s right, he’s part vampire.
The main batch of actors do a good job. Our lead in particular has plenty of moments to stand out with both action and dialogue. Great job with expressions on the face as well - even though at first glance you wouldn’t guess it considering how much time he spends in those shades. The leading lady does a fine job as well, although her part doesn’t give her as much to work with if you ask me - yeah, she contributes to the story a few times, but largely it’s kind of a the classic comic damsel in distress situation for her. Our main villain plays the power-hungry pretty boy vampire quite well, and has a good number of opportunities to flaunt fun states of mind as well. When it comes to the character development though, there isn’t an absolute blast of stuff - blade might get a little less revenge-oriented and a little more protective, but for the most part the only one that goes to real places is the leading lady, who goes from someone who has no idea of vampires to someone that can slightly hold her own.
Things ‘bout to go down in this club.
Despite being a modern-ish take on time setting, you do actually get a good number of fun outfits here. Certain bad guys will stand out do to their attire, and Blade himself gets a pretty sweet looking combat rig and trench coat to add to the cool looking heroes of the time period. Outside of that and club gear - which honestly amounts to a lot of underwear honestly - everything looks suitably modern and doesn’t stick out too much. Setting wise there’s a good assortment of things as well, from fancy high tech hidden rooms, modern buildings, factory looking areas, meat lockers, and even ruin-looking sacrificial places. I mean, is it entirely a feast for the eyes? Well, it’s no big fantasy movie obligated to pad out the run time with all it’s pretty scenery, but it’s certainly good enough.
Effects work is pretty good, although certainly a bit easier to pick out at a modern point in time than when it was made. Some of it still looks pretty good - some of it not as much. I’ve seen far worse from a more recent time frame then this presents though - so you can be happy to know that. Things like dissolving bodies, , burning people, fangs, gunshots, limb-chops, blood - it’s a real smorgasbord of things to certainly help it earn that R rating. Probably the weakest effect is in the final act, but they get into some pretty computer heavy moments and the unfortunate nature of it is that’s where it’s the absolute easiest part to get left behind since computer tech just improves so quickly. Still, they don’t overuse a lot of the stuff that could be construe as the weakest effects - and if I had to point out one of the more practical effects that isn’t the strongest, it would certainly be the car travel scenes - between the (what looks like) rear-projected outsides during the interior shots, to the noticeably sped up exterior “chase” shots it can feel a bit more unpolished than probably intended.
Music is pretty good here. We got a good mix of things, plenty of which help to add to the scenes in typical fashion. Admittedly, I once again don’t really walk away remembering most of the music but that certainly doesn’t stop me from bopping my head along during the scenes that have it. Audio is balanced well, and you’ll always hear a line if it’s intended. There are some moments of “foreign Language” from the vampires that don’t get subtitled - so it’s just a mystery as to whats being said, but that falls into the “as intended” category of not understand, not the bad balance kind.
All vampire hunters should have a nice car.
Yeah, the movie isn’t quite the low-entry that the modern Marvel movies are, but honestly it did a good job of making for an enjoyable romp that didn’t feel like a massive cash grab either. Is it accurate to the comics? I haven’t the slightest - as is normal for me, I’ve never really got into them. As far as is it a good movie? I think so, even watched years later. It might not blow minds, but it’s got some good action and it has some good acting, and that’s enough to make for an enjoyable time even with it’s rather slight faults.