Blade

U.S.A. / 1998 Directed by Stephen Norrington Starring Wesley Snipes Stephen Dorff Kris Kristofferson Color / 120 Minutes / R Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC) New Line Home Video

Music/dialog from the film Make him hurt BAD! MP3 format - 2.5 MB

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8     10   10 = Highest Rating   Guest Review by Rod Barnett

In 2002 it may not seem such a strange idea to spend 40 or 50 million dollars to adapt a Marvel comics character to film. After the critical and commercial success of X-Men and Spider-Man it might indeed seem to be one of the safer bets in Hollywood, but in 1997 that was not the case. When New Line Cinema greenlighted Blade they were taking a huge financial risk. At that time not one single Marvel Comics character had ever been successfully adapted into a movie — the few attempts to date had been embarrassing in their ineptitude. The low budget films Captain America (1991) and Fantastic Four (1994) were so bad they never even played theatrically; the occasional TV adaptation proved best forgotten. When Blade premiered in early 1998 much emphasis was put on the action aspect of the film with almost no mention of its comic book origin.     New Line shouldn't have worried. Blade had hit written all over it.     Wesley Snipes plays the title character, a human/vampire hybrid created when his pregnant mother was attacked by one of the Undead. Growing up as an orphan, his vampiric thirst kicked in at puberty and grizzled vampire killer Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) took him in. Blade has all of the powers of vampires with none of the weaknesses — except the thirst. He is known among the vampires as "Daywalker" for his ability to live in sunlight. Blade has joined Whistler's fight against them. The story starts with Blade and Whistler on the track of Deacon Frost, a powerful bloodsucker with a lust for power as well as plasma. Frost has carefully researched an ancient vampire holy book that lays out a way to resurrect a demonic blood god called La Magra, thereby turning the entire human race into vampires. Drawn into this is a young hematologist (N'Bushe Wright) searching for a cure for her own vampire infection as well as Blade's special sort. The film ingeniously lays out a complex and smart structure for the vampires. By virtue of their long lives and extreme wealth, they are the real power behind governments and corporations the world over. A pact with humans has kept the peace for hundreds of years and the vampire ruling council is not willing to join Frost in his mad grasp for power. As Frost carefully prepares to take control of the council, Blade begins to get closer to him, but this time the vampires are after the hunter.     When I saw this film theatrically in 1998 it was like a bucket of cold water in my face. I grew up reading comics books (including Tomb of Dracula, which spawned the Blade character) and was fairly convinced that there was no way I would ever see a good Marvel Comics movie. Rarely have I been so wrong!     With a very smart script by David Goyer and some brilliantly stylized direction from Steve Norrington, Blade is a fast, fun but dark thrill ride. The movie straddles the horror and action genres very effectively while giving most attention to the action. The filmmakers try very hard to give the feel of being in a very real world before the comic book elements enter the picture and it pays off. With one character suffering from terminal cancer, Blade loathing his heritage, and the hematologist dealing with a failed romantic relationship AND a vampire's bite, Goyer's script draws people who feel real and react in very believable ways. It's always hard to adapt books (even comic books) to the big screen and Goyer cannot be praised enough for his accomplishments here. At many points this story could have spun out of control and deteriorated into bad comedy but repeatedly he pulls the plot in just the right direction. Kudos for some villainous dialog given a great read by Steven Dorff. As a matter of fact, the entire cast is spot-on. Kristofferson, Dorff, Donal Louge and cult fave Udo Kier turn in fine performances. I was also impressed with director Norrington's abilities behind the camera. In less assured hands this type of film can become a joke quickly and he seems to have known that. He handles the quiet, character scenes with as much care as he stages the wild, highflying stunt segments. Throughout the movie he places little flourishes that add a great deal to the excitement, such as his "bumping" of the camera to simulate the impact of a person landing from a fall or jump. I understand Norrington is a young fellow, so I hope we see many more movies from him in the coming years.

New Line's DVD of Blade is a thing of beauty. One of the first of their Platinum Series, the disc is a fanboy's dream come true. First, there is a razor sharp 2.35:1 transfer of the film with both 5.1 Surround and simple 2.0 stereo. Then there's an exhaustive commentary track with Snipes, Dorff, Goyer, the director of photography, the production designer, and producer Peter Frankfurt. Complimenting this is a track isolating the score with commentary from composer Mark Isham. Moving past the film there are four separate featurettes included, exploring everything from the original form of the climactic showdown with La Magra (complete with unfinished footage - 14 min); a look at the development of the make-up and effects (22 min.); the origin of Blade in comics form (12 min.); and a brief look at vampire mythology and blood rituals (20 min.). Next there is a Pencil To Post step-through piece that demonstrates the production design from script to storyboards to finished film. Then there is House of Erebus, which gives brief text histories of the 12 tribes of the vampire ruling council. There's a good list of cast and crew bios and filmographies; to top it off is the trailer.     If all this doesn't fulfill your need for Blade info just pop the disc into a DVD-ROM drive. There you can read the screenplay and go directly to scenes in the movie for comparison, view a flash version of the film done in an animated style reminiscent of the "fotonovels" from the 1970s; or take a look at highlights from the 1998 ComicCon. Clearly, with this DVD you get one hell of a lot more than just the movie!     Of all these extras I enjoyed the look at the original ending (La Magra) and the cast/crew commentary the most. Both enhanced my appreciation of the film and showed how difficult it can be to mount such a complex production. Even something as simple as Snipes recounting how hard a particular stunt was to set up added depth to the movie for me. Plus there are some very funny stories in the mix. Both Dorff and Snipes come off as very intelligent and serious men doing their best to make their characters spring to life.     This is, without a doubt, one of the most overstuffed DVDs I have ever seen. If you haven't played with Blade, trust me — you won't be disappointed. If all DVDs were as packed as this one — I'd never get any rest! Now if Snipes will just make that Black Panther movie! 8/17/02

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