Blade (1998)
fantasy
directed
by : Steve Morrington
featuring
: Wesley Snipes - Stephen Dorff - Kris Kristofferson - N'Bushe Wright -
Donal Logue
running
time : 2 hours 1 minute
British director Stephen Norrington helmed
this David S.Goyer adaptation of the Marvel Comics character created in
1973 by scripter Mary Wolfman and artist Gene Colan. In the Tomb of Dracula
comic book origin, just before Blade's mother gave birth to Blade, she
was bitten by a vampire, which made Blade immune to vampires. Now a vampire
hunter, Blade, joined by vampire detective Hannibal King and Dracula-descendent
Frank Drake, stalks vampires. In the 1990s, Blade teamed with Drake and
King in an agency created to fight a variety of supernatural beings. The
Marvel origin is retold in this 1998 Norrington film, with Blade's mother
dying as he is born. Thirty-some years later, Blade now exists somewhere
between the two worlds, not human but not fully vampire. He has become
a relentless and superhuman vampire hunter, out to avenge the death of
his mother and protect the rest of humankind from the evil vampire race.
In this pursuit, Blade storms a notorious vampire nightclub and in a virtual
bloodbath manages to wipe out most of the blood-lusting denizens. But the
burnt corpse of vampire Quinn (Donal Logue) is reanimated at the hospital
morgue and bites hematologist Karen Jenson (N'Bushe Wright). Blade magically
appears at the hospital just in time to whisk Karen to his hideaway, a
machine-shop run by his mentor Abraham Whistler (Kris Krisofferson), who
once rescued Blade and who now produces a antidote to keep Blade from turning
into a full-fledged vampire and who builds custom weapons for Blade to
use against his evil foes. Meanwhile, Blade's vampire arch-nemesis Deacon
Frost (Stephen Dorff) uses computers to translate the Book of Erebus, with
the ultimate aim of bringing down the old-guard vampire council, headed
by Dragonetti (Udo Kier), and triggering the Blood Tide — an event in which
everyone in the world becomes a vampire.
It took a quarter-century, but
the Marvel Comics vampire-slayer created by Wolfman and Colan finally hit
the big screen, and it was worth the wait. Wesley Snipes is terrific as
the half-vampire Blade, fighting the undead legions with the aid of a high-tech
arsenal manufactured by his crusty partner, Whistler (Kristofferson). Dorff
is equally memorable as the villainous half-breed Frost, planning to usurp
the more genteel purebred vampires in order to destroy and enslave the
human race. But he needs Blade's blood to call an ancient vampire-god first.
The action scenes are dynamite, Greg Cannom's bloody special-effects are
suitably outlandish to match the comic-book tone, and there are some nice
bits by cult favorites Kier and Traci Lords along the way. It's not a straight
horror film, as its numerous fight scenes and hyperbolic mythologizing
make clear, but — despite its comic-book roots — it is still another of
1998's releases to push the "R" rating to its limit with blood-soaked violence.
Viewers with strong stomachs and a yen for a very dark take on the Mortal
Kombat-style of filmmaking should, however, be extremely pleased.