Blade (1998)

Blade (1998)

starring Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Chris Christopherson

directed by Stephen Norrington

121 minutes

Blade's mother was bitten by a vampire in 1967, while she was pregnant. She died giving birth to Blade (Wesley Snipes), a day walker, a vampire who can endure sunlight. Blade works with Whistler (Chris Christopherson), a human who lost his family to vampires. Together they wage war against vampires.

Blade and Whistler gain an unexpected ally, Doctor Karen Jenson, a blood specialist. She meets Blade when he arrives just in time to save her from Quinn, another vampire. She gets bit by Quinn, before Blade arrives but before she bleeds out he gets her to Whistler who patches her up. Karen is still in danger of turning into a vampire. She decides, after another close call, to stay close to Blade.

Quinn works for Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), a renegade vampire, who has angered the vampire establishment with his unorthodox methods. Frost deciphers an old vampire text, the Book of Erebus. He figures out that Blade is the key to great power. Frost, Quinn, and other vampires come after Blade but settle for killing Whistler and taking Dr. Jenson hostage.

Blade attempts to rescue Karen only to be captured himself. Frost uses Blade to activate the ceremony which gives him the power he desires.

Thoughts

I saw Blade in the theater (at City Place) when it was first released. I am almost certain that I have seen it at least once since then but it is missing from my spreadsheet of movies that I have seen since 2001. My spreadsheet is based in part on my Netflix history and there are gaps in that data.

Blade first appeared in Marvel comics. I don't think I knew that until after I saw the movie for the first time. I have not read any of his comic book appearances but I have some of them in the collected editions of Tomb of Dracula on my bookshelf. One of these days I will hopefully get around to reading them.

Is Blade a superhero? In his earliest appearance in comic books probably not but in this movie he more or less is.

This is one of just four films directed by Stephen Norrington. I have not seen the other three.

I loved this movie when it was first released and I think that it holds up quite well. It isn't short but it is well paced and has all the right elements. The special effects are a bit out of date but I think that they are good enough. The fight scenes are all lots of fun to watch even if they are at times kind of cartoonish. I think all of the actors do a good to great job but at the same time I don't think any of them are called on to give the performances of their lives.