Blade (1998) User Reviews

Marvel starts here

[BandSAboutMovies · 8/10 · 9 September 2020]

Say what you will about its CGI today, but if we didn't have 1998's Blade, we may have no Marvel Cinematic Universe. Let me tell you, there was probably no cooler hero than Wesley Snipes at this point in time. Ah, it's still pretty rad today.

New Line almost made this movie as a comedy, but after Snipes couldn't get Black Panther made, he was able to get the main role in this one. To me, the best part of the film is the relationship between Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) and Blade, but I'd still be interested to see what it would have been like if Patrick McGoohan or Marc Singer had taken the role.

As for the main bad guy, Deacon Frost, Jet Li, Mark Wahlberg and Skeet Ulrich were all up for the role, but it belongs to Stephen Dorff. You kind of have to respect a bad guy so evil that he keeps the hero's mother a vampire for decades.

Actually, all of the vampires are great here, even in the minor roles for Donal Logue, Udo Kier (who has been in the vampire films Blood for Dracula, Spermula, Die Einsteiger, Modern Vampires, Shadow of the Vampire, Dracula 3000 and Bloodrayne) and Traci Lords. Director Stephen Norrington (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) was supposed to play Morbius the Living Vampire, but the part was cut.

N'Bushe Wright also makes a great partner for our hero as Dr. Karen Jenson, as she works to determine a cure for Blade's vampirism. But hey - he's the Daywalker. He pretty much will always be a vampire determined to kill all the others.

How cool is it that Marvel's first big movie success came from a side character from the 1970's Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan The Tomb of Dracula series? Sadly, while those creators got a "based on characters created by" credit, they didn't make any extra money. Such is how comics has always screwed creators.

Great Vampire Flick

[mjw2305 · 8/10 · 24 December 2006]

Wesley Snipes is perfectly cast as Blade, a half human, half vampire known the daywalker. He has all their strengths and his only weakness is the thirst for blood. Since he teamed up with whistler (Kris Kristofferson) he has hunted down vampires who have lived amongst us unnoticed for centuries, but omnipotent overlord Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) is tired of living in harmony with the humans (Food as he calls them) and he plans to waken the blood god and take control of the world.

This movie is well cast, written and directed; ensuring the viewer has a thrilling ride from start to finish. Packed with great fight sequences and slick dialogue, Blade is certainly more action than horror, but it definitely delivers.

8/10

"Blade" is a strong, mature comic-book film, with outstanding performances and a unique visual style...

[TedStixonAKAMaximumMadness · 8/10 · 17 February 2012]

Stephen Norrington's 1998 release "Blade" (based on the Marvel comic character) is the film that arguably lead to the recent trend of comic-book movies. It's success (along with that of "X-Men") caused people to do something they always should have- take comics seriously as an art form and a medium for storytelling. The film is an incredible, Gothic ride with great performances and unique visuals, and should be seen by any fan of action, horror or film in general.

Blade (Wesley Snipes) is a half-human, half-vampire. His mother was bitten while pregnant, and his blood was infected by the vampire virus, granting him some vampire-like powers (such as inhuman strength), although he also suffers from "The Thirst"- the vampire's natural need to feast on human blood, which he combats using treatments and serums, almost like a drug addict. Blade and his mentor Whistler (Krist Kristopherson) spend their nights hunting and killing vampires who feed on the humans.

At the same time, a vampire named Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorf) is plotting to overthrow the noble heads of the various vampire clans, and using them as sacrifices to bring about "La Magra" a vampyric blood-god, to destroy humanity and grant himself untold power. Blade and Whistler (along with help from a pathologist played by N'Bushe Wright) must figure out a way to stop Frost's deadly plans before he wipes out all of humanity.

The film is truly dark and Gothic. Norrington's direction sets an ominous and deadly mood, and the visuals are all well-crafted. The score by Mark Isham is tragic and melancholy, with some nice techno-y action music thrown in for good measure.

Acting is generally good (though Dorf does get a little hammy at times) and everything meshes quite well. The action is nice, though it feels a little staged and over-choreographed, and the visual effects, for the time, were outstanding. I should also mention that this is a violent, violent film. It is the bloodiest of the three movies, and has a lot of gore, which actually almost took me "out" of the movie a few times- some scenes felt campy with the sheer amount of carnage and goo being flung at the screen.

In addition, there are a couple of scenes and jokes that stick out like a sore thumb, and the tone is a bit too oppressive, making this a hard movie to sit through if you are not in the right mood.

I'm giving this a good 8 out of 10. I'd highly recommend it to fans of action and horror. It is a strong vampire film. (Also, a cool note, this movie is one of the several pre-"Matrix" films to utilize "bullet-time", that cool trick where action slows down dramatically to the point where you can see individual bullets whooshing through the air. Just a fun little piece of trivia- "The Matrix" did not invent this trick.)

Very stylish and entertaining!

[MinorityReporter · 7/10 · 15 October 2005]

It seems to me that a lot of people don't know that Blade is actually a superhero movie on par with X-Men, Daredevil, Punisher and the likes. What all these heroes (and in the case of X-Men hero group) have in common is that they were all conceived in the magical world of Marvel. Blade was originally a normal person (in a blue outfit) who chased vampires because of a personal grudge and eventually facing of with Dracula himself and he was for lack of a better word boring. So boring in fact that the character was shelved and in fact never used in the Marvel universe. At least until he was reinvented.

David Goyer did a stroke of genius when he took the character of Blade and turned him into a leather clad dark knight. He can't take all the credit though and much of this must go to Stephen Norrington as well who with his distinct visual style brings out the best of the character. The Blade character (Wesley Snipes) is pretty amazing in this film and mixes martial arts with Batman like darkness. Snipes is pretty good as the title character and is successful in bringing out the duality and inner demons of the character. He is, however, a pretty rigid actor both in voice and in posture and is only interesting enough for one film (which is clearly seen from the inferior sequels). Kris Kristofferson is good as well and really brings the tormented character of Whistler to life with energy and sense of timing. N'Bushe Wright, however, is fairly weak as a leading lady making her character relatively flat and lifeless. Donal Logue is pretty funny and manages to do a lot with a minor character. German, Udo Kier, should also be mentioned as he brings a lot of finesse and style to the vampire race, probably born of his experiences from playing Dracula. Stephen Dorf provides the best acting in the film and his chilling performance as Deacon Frost stands as one of the best screen villains I have perhaps ever seen.

The story is good and, I feel, renews the vampire genre (something that hasn't been done since Robert Rodrigues' From Dusk Till Dawn) by adding a lot of contemporary elements and maintaining the comic book feel. By saying that the film has a comic book feel does not mean that the film is unrealistic. Far from it. A lot of effort has been put in trying to make the film seem as real as possible. Including the effects which are pretty good for their time. I found the vampire "dustings" to be a very nice touch. In stead of adding a lot of blood when a vampire dies Norrington chose to let the vampires spontaneously com-bust which looks great. The fact that the overall effects were well done adds to the credibility of the film which would otherwise have fallen flat on its face.

As previously stated Norrington has a very distinct visual style that sets him apart from the directors of the following Blade movies. Del Toro is nearly as skilled but I prefer Norrington's style. His style gives the film a very special look and feel but most importantly it gives the film atmosphere. A very tense dark atmosphere which works great in tune with the main character and story. Along with the visual style the music which also works fine and adds a lot to the atmosphere of the movie.

All in all Blade is a very entertaining movie that should probably have had an 8 from me but a few annoying flaws (which cannot be revealed without spoiling the movie, suffice to say, many of them are located near the ending of the film) does that the film must settle with a high 7.

7/10

Enjoyably stylish flick that gets the dark tone almost right

[bob the moo · 20 January 2004]

Blade was only a foetus when his mother was attacked by vampires and left for dead. When he is born he is born a half-breed. As an adult he has been joined by Abraham Whistler, a vampire hunter, to fight the secret war against the vampire culture. He hunts the impure-blood vampire Deacon Frost who plans to summon La Magra - the Blood God.

Now approaching it's second sequel, this film was a dark surprise to me as I didn't expect too much from it. The plot sees Blade hunting a dangerous vampire seeing to unleash the power of La Magra and take vampires from their shadows into the real world; we also get a bit of back story as well. This plot gives all the best lines to the vampires and not enough good scenes with Blade himself. I like Blade for the same reason as I like Batman - they are both messed up superheroes of a sort. The film tells us how Blade was created but it doesn't delve deep enough for my tastes - only once or twice did I really get a feel for his cruel, darker nature (`Please, I only work for them'). I suppose this was to be expected and it certainly manages the darker tone much better than the Batman films did (in the long run).

The action is good although it never really gets to the peak of the opening nightclub scene but is good nonetheless. Some of the effects in the final fight are a bit lacking and they make the usual horror movie mistake of showing too much and having it be less effective than the build up and suggestion of the monster was.

Snipes doesn't exactly display a great emotional range here but he is good in the title role nonetheless. He is a commanding presence and physically good at the action stuff. Dorff is pretty good as the main vampire - he is slick and plays it well to be a good representation of the `new breed' as the script requires. Kristofferson is cool and Wright is sexy while still being a good actress! The support cast contains no real standouts; Lathan is no more than a cameo and isn't really good while people like Lords only stick in the memory due to their name and not their performance.

Overall this is an enjoyably slick vampire/action movie. The end product may be more style than substance but the character of Blade is darkly interesting, even if neither Snipes nor the film really give too much away in terms of his inner workings. I have yet to see the sequel but I would hope that it keeps the same dark tone that makes this film stand out.

Let There Be Blood...

[Xstal · 7/10 · 28 August 2022]

Beneath the streets, behind facades, above the law; conglomerations old and new, slash, shear and saw; unseen but all around, vigilant of every sound, taking lives, destroying chances, tooth and claw.

A hero's born to halt the chaos and confusion; to unmask, the guarded secrets of illusion; dressed in black, with sword on back, a mighty strength that others lack, a force arrives to clear the air, remove occlusion.

One of the more accomplished takes on the vampires taking over the world genre, with one of the more accomplished, and even to this day spectacular incarnations of a vampire slayer there's been.

The blood flows proportionally.

Brother Darkness walks at daylight

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 11 May 2007]

Hope the summary line won't irritate you that much (it's a little homage to the Chappelle Show/Charlie Murphy, but also to the character Daywalker). But I'll try to put all the things I liked about the movie in one paragraph and everything I didn't like in another paragraph, so it will be easier to read!

Let's start with the good things! The quote "strong bloody violence" (which is used by rating boards, to describe the content of a movie, does fit here very well. This is not a movie for kids! Or for the faint of hearted! It has Blade as a central character (Wesley Snipes is phenomenal) and a crazy enough story thread to hold/justify the action scenes! The original idea is also very engaging and intelligent. The action scenes are great here too.

OK over to the things I didn't like. The overall story is too thin. It's enough as I've written above to hold the action scenes together, but there could be more. And a character like Blade deserves more (imo). The drama therefor isn't the best ... also it's use of clichés doesn't help. Some characters are underwritten ... That's that! :o)

Brilliant vampire action thriller from the better half of the 90s

[RowanMcBrowan · 9/10 · 21 June 2016]

Fantastically shot, well paced.. arguably Snipes' most impressive performance to date and lots of fun martial arts fight sequences involving swords and guns - not to mention the unique and timeless soundtrack. Blade is one of my favourite action movies of all time, up there with Die Hard and Predator.

Director Stephen Norrington is what Chris Cunningham (Aphex Twin videos) would have been if he dropped the weirdness and went into more conventional movies.. or if David Fincher stopped with the thrillers and did straight action. It is a massive shame we couldn't see more from Stephen, but at least we have Blade.

Certain special effects haven't aged well (and are in desperate need of a remaster!) but aside from that, this movie is great visually. Norrington's choice of shots, the way scenes are lit is masterful.

The performances he gets out of his actors are great too. It's not surprising Snipes loved the Blade character so much as to later method act and speak to cast/crew in character.. not surprising at all when the first movie of the trilogy this strong (though I pretend Blade 2 and 3 never happened) Watch this movie if you haven't already, especially if you love the 90s aesthetic or if you enjoy vampire-related movies/TV shows. The Blade character is iconic and Snipes was born to play him, and this movie is a 2 hour proof-of-concept for Norrington being the greatest director nobody ever talks about.

Techno-vampire film with creepy scenes , grisly combats , unstopped action, and a lot of computer generador game visuals

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 28 November 2020]

First part of a notable trilogy with Wesley Snipes as Blade, a mythical Vampire Hunter : part man , part vampire , all hero battling other bloodsuckers and nasty people . Shortly before dying in childbirth , a woman : Sanaa Lathan, is bitten by a vampire , and her son , Blade : Wesley Snipes , becomes a Hybrid wtith a tortured soul . He faces off Deacon Frost : Stephen Dorff . Shortly after, Blade meets his pal, mentor and colleage called Whistler : Kris Kristopherson and along with a doctor : N'Bushe Wright , who our hero saves from the vampires, all of them join forces to vanquish Frost who dreams an apocalypse that will install him as only ruler of Earth.

Moving vampire film packing a great number of surprises , thrills , chills , cutting-edge terror, gloatingly sadistic fights with visceral violence and lots of blood and gore . This time the eerie enemy results to be a mestizo, hybrid vampire who kills human people and other bloodsuckers by getting his purport at whatever cost , to create a new kind of vampire . This messily choreographed film is acceptable and tense but is spoiled by a flashy, weak script. It is just another bloodsucker movie wrapping with breathtaking and violent fights , eye-catching visuals and atmospheric sinister scenarios. The picture is really influenced by various genres , music and comic-books , this eclectic influence includes Rap , Marvel , Hong Kong martial arts , Japanese Samurai, Video games, but stripped down to such basics as dialogue and script . Wesley Snipes is nice as tough , two-fisted as well as complex , ambiguous hero who wages war against vampires vulnerable to garlic and silver. He is well accompanied by a fine support cast , such as N'Bushe Wright, Donald Logue , Arly Jover , Sanaa Lathan , Tim Guinee, Traci Lords and Udo Kier. The motion picture was professionally directed by Stephen Norrington .

This trilogy about Blade , scourge if the bloodsuckers , being based on Marvel Comic group comic-books and formed by the following ones : Blade 1998 . Blade II 2002 by Guillermo del Toro with Leonor Varela, Ron Perlman , Thomas Kretschmann , Luke Goss, Matt Schulz . Blade III by Guillermo Del Toro with Jessica Biel , Ryan Reynolds , Parker Posey, Dominick Purcell, among others .

The way a comic book flick should be made

[customX13 · 9/10 · 20 April 2003]

I didn't see this movie until it appeared on television because I was doubtful about comic flicks. Ever since the "Batman" series, "Spawn," "Judge Dredd," and many other pitiful p.g.-13 bombs, I dodged everything at all cost. I would question in my mind, "why can't someone make a movie that is rated R and stays true to the story, how difficult is that?" And finally my prayers have been answered with Blade. This movie pops right out of the pages onto the screen with sheer violence, blood, martial arts, weapons, fire, the good against evil, etc. Yeah sure a lot of action flicks contain all these goodies, and most of them have bombed. But not Blade, the movie was filmed just right, not going overboard, delivering a good length and never a dull moment. Blade II is cool, but not as cool as the first. Blade is indeed one of the best real comic flicks I've seen in a long time.

"Sooner or later, the thirst always wins."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 30 May 2019]

Lots of new vampire lore for followers to consider - vampires brand their half human surrogates with a tattoo on the back of the neck called a glyph, the scientific name for a vampire is 'hominus nocturna', and the Book of Erebus is the Vampire Bible. I didn't know any of these things going in, and it's the kind of stuff I look for whenever I take in another vampire flick. This one's two decades old now as I write this, so I'm a little late to the party, but I like to take in a vampire flick every now and then, as this one also checks off a box on a list of comic book inspired movie characters. This one's quite a bit on the gory side, probably more so than most, and it gets off to a bloody start with a vampire disco rave in which the fire sprinklers shower blood on the dance crowd in a maze of brilliant red. If this is what gets your juices flowing, the picture is probably made for you. The story itself features Wesley Snipes as a 'turned' vampire, i.e., not a pure blood, on a mission to rid the world of vampire evil. Aided and abetted by grizzled blood chemist Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), Blade (Snipes) is accompanied by once bitten, twice shy Karen Jenson (N'Bushe Wright) in a quest to put a fellow turned vampire Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) out of the world domination business. It pretty much boils down to blood-soaked spectacle cloaked in martial arts mayhem on Blade's part, with a curious cameo by a Jabba the Hutt inspired sack of flesh called Pearl (Eric Edwards). Definitely not for the faint hearted.

The best vampire slaying movie ever my number one favorite Blade film

[ivo-cobra8 · 10/10 · 30 October 2015]

Blade (1998) is the best action/horror vampire slaying movie ever made! I always have enjoyed watching Blade. My number one favorite Blade film I love this film to death. It is one of the best action sci-fi films of all time. Wesley Snipes best role till it's days ever! No one can play Blade like Wesley Snipes did! Blade is not an origin story, but it is a real world of darkness. Blade is just so bad and anti-hero which is perfect for the world he drives in. It is my favorite comic book Vampire movie. I love this film, I love the action and I love everything in it! I love Wesley Snipes and Kris Kris Kristofferson so much they have such a chemistry between each other. Wesley Snipes Kicks ass!!!!! This is the most super hero Vampire slayer film ever made!

It is been so long since I last watch this film. I kept watching it 11.year ago in 2004 when Blade: Trinity was been released I kept watching Blade 1 and 2 on my CD on my computer and on VHS tape that I had this film. Blade of trilogy was the only film I owned on VHS I did not owned Blade II or Blade: Trinity at that time, but I have now the whole trilogy on Blu-ray. The best dang vampire slaying movie ever (say that fast five times)! Its funny too, it shows him killing a bunch of vampires but then regular people are thinking that he is killing humans! I watch this film as a child and all the blood in it and the violence made me crunch. I grew up with this film, 11.years ago kept constantly watching this film over and over, till it's days it is my favorite best Vampire flick. Blood and the crunch in this movie is AWESOME!! Just awesome!

So In this movie Blade is a half human, half vampire, hybrid he protects the human race from other vampires and in this movie he has to stop Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff). Deacon Frost wants to resurrect the blood god "La Magra", And he needs Blade's blood and he needs 12 volunteers. So that he can walk in the sunlight and declares extinction to human race. Blade is humanity's last hope!Wesley Snipes plays a half-mortal, half-immortal charged with ridding the earth of a race of vampires led by Stephen Dorff in this action-packed blockbuster.

This movie right here oh my god! is this movie AWESOME! Watching this as kid you really don't know much, other that Wesley Snipes is a Bad Ass!!!! But now when you are older you can really know how much of a bad ass Blade really was and he does making a point! Wesley Snipes is AWESOME! Yes awesome!

So yea... Wesley Snipes does a good job in this movie, everyone does a great job in this movie, so far, even Donal Logue as Quinn with a long hair and beard hi did a wonderful job. Stephen Dorff is actually pretty good, I haven't really seen much of Stephen Dorff's work yet, I'm pretty sure he is not even around today, I am not sure what happened today, I'm not sure if he just drop off the map or if he just quit acting all together, but yea. You would never guess this was MARVEL movie because MARVEL's name was nowhere near this property so far. So that was kind a odd to see this choice but yea, we all knew who he is anyways, so that become kind a cool, and yea violence, blood, the gore amazingly AWESOME!!!!! Yea, I brought the word amazingly back. It is crazy, over the top, sword fights, knives throwing's, all this wrapped in the one and you get that final fight between him and Deacon, dang that is good time! That is good awesome times you know. And it is just nothing like that right now and I am hoping that we get another sequel to Blade: Trinity. The actress Arly Jover who played Mercury, Deacon Frost's girlfriend was so sexy and hot and she is so awesome with her hair and changing her hair styles for 11.years I was confused with a thought that Deacon's girlfriend was played by Traci Lords because she is blonde. It took me so long to figure it that out, that it was Arly Jover played Deacon's girlfriend and not Tracy Lords.

What I like about the character Blade are his gadjets, the sharp ones in particular and his outfit and style! Bottom of line It is my favorite best film still I think Blade II is a little better than Blade, but I still love the trilogy. Movies like this don't exist today. The rating I give to Blade is 10/10

Full-blooded vampire action

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 24 November 2015]

One of those films which is best to see at the cinema, due to the visual impact of the film in the many special effects and choreographed fight scenes within it. Forget watching LITTLE VOICE or some other film like that at the cinema, you don't lose anything when you see it on TV. When watching these kind of special effect epics, you simply have to be at the cinema. And I was. Myself and a friend had a choice between this, the PSYCHO remake, LITTLE VOICE or MEET JOE BLACK. And I'm glad we picked this one, as none of the others are as entertaining as this one was.

For a start it's an adult tale, so expect gritty realism (bones breaking, frequent swearing, etc.) and Snipes gave us some actual insight into his role as the vampire hunter, instead of being another po-faced action hero. Here he is, torn between his human and vampire instincts. So I was impressed with his skills here. The other nod goes to Kris Kristofferson (FIRE DOWN BELOW), who plays an old, limping mercenary with great skill. Aside from a Udo Kier cameo, the rest of the cast is full of fresh, unfamiliar but unblemished faces we are used to seeing in DAWSON'S CREEK and the rest of those boring American TV shows. Stephen Dorff is Frost, the big baddie vampire of them all. He's not much of an actor, but he remains suitably evil.

The film has many artistic scenes of blood dripping, guns dropping, all in slow motion as if they mean something. It certainly looks impressive, even if deep down it all means nothing apart from holding the audience's interest. Indeed this film is shallow, but it's so enjoyable that doesn't matter. The special effects are, predictably, the main star of the show, and they're in abundance. My record for "most deaths in a film seen in the cinema" was previously STARSHIP TROOPERS but this one overtakes it by miles. We've got impalings, decapitations, shootings, cuttings, burnings, meltings and even explodings (probably the most disgusting effect here). The audience was wincing and going "oh my God" at some of these effects so they obviously did work. Some of the effects look a bit computerised for my liking (especially the gargoyle-skeleton things which look like they were a cheap effect from an episode of XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS). As the film is an action-horror flick, there are also a lot of fight scenes, and these are handled with such ferocity, skill and speed that they cannot fail to impress. Blade fights loads of vampires off at a time, getting punched and beaten but always fighting back.

The film also has a lot of interesting ideas about vampirism, and we learn about their society. Along with that is scientific analysis of the vampire virus, familiars who are the vampire's slaves and many other concepts. When the long-awaited SFX climax arrives it is slightly disappointing, but entertaining nonetheless. Blood literally burst on to our screens. There were a lot of references to other films (RETURN OF THE JEDI and THE SATANIC RITES OF Dracula to name but two) and a lot of the film was clichéd, but it was fun cliché. However the violence is numbing and excessive so it's not for the weak of heart. If you're an action fan, then it's probably worth your seeing.

Good effects and much fighting, but no horror

[poem · 2/10 · 1 February 1999]

When I saw the first announcement for this film, I thought it must be great (I'm a big Wesley Snipes fan). Seeing the preview lowered my expectations, and the movie itself was a disappointment.

It is most of the time nothing but an average action movie, and even if the effects and fighting scenes are good to excellent, the story itself was quite flat and boring, and there was nothing about horror. The vampires were just evil humans with some special abilities, not a symbol of forces or fears in our subconciousness, our animal inside, or of natural forces (such as the pest), or such. The start of the film is the best part of the whole picture; Traci Lords plays Racquel (even if nobody ever calls her with a name in the movie), a vampire woman, which takes a human victim (a man which believes she loves/likes him) to a vampire disco. That whole scene culminates more and more and really makes you shiver - it was a very good start --- until Blade appears and starts the first of the well known boring good hero fights: the good hero kills everybody (i.e. every vampire) and is soooo cool and soooo invinceable and sooooo boring... one of the vampires he kills is Racquel, and later I thought that this was quite symbolical, for she has been the one which had ruled the only really good scene of the movie. The later film never comes back to the level of the start. There are some nice jokes in it (exploding vampire blood etc), and many effects are excellent (but not that strange scene where the blood god is created. that looks just absurd), but the fighting is nothing but the well-known typical unrealistic stuff. In all his films, Wesley Snipes is a natural cool one; but here he _tries_ to be cool all the time, and becomes, of course, very uncool this way.

This film has been compared to Spawn, but Spawn is a totally different kind of film; a good family movie where good fights against evil, and good wins. At least that movie was not promising what it cannot keep. Of course, the film about Spawn was very different than the comic; while Blade was really close. But I expect more of a vampire movie, especially if they have such excellent actors, than only an action movie with expensive effects.

At last, they've done a comic book film correctly....

[E-Stop · 17 August 1998]

At last, they've done a comic book film correctly. Incredible action sequences, and the film moves briskly. The effects are a tad cheesy, but, who cares. The crowd we saw it with at a promo screening was eating this movie up.

A palatable offering of Snipes and dice

[1001 · 6/10 · 17 January 1999]

Blade is everything Spawn wanted to be and wasn't. While Spawn was a loud, obnoxious, incoherent mess that should have stayed in Hell with its erstwhile hero, Blade is a relatively subdued (it's nice to actually hear the soundtrack), stylish, well-directed movie that actually tries to build empathy and pathos into the characters. While both are adaptations from comic-books, only one is a page-turner.

Blade, or Eric as his mom calls him, but which superhero would command respect with the name Eric, is half-man, half-vampire, made so by his mother, who survived a vampire attack long enough to give birth to him. This gives Blade a certain edge in his understandable grudge against vampires, "all of our strengths and none of our weaknesses" as his main vampire nemesis attests. The aforementioned nemesis is Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) who wants to unleash a vampire apocalypse on the world, decrying the Mafia-type approach that has served vampires so well up to this point - "humans are our food, not our allies," he explains. Blade is aided by his mentor/weapons specialist Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) and a female hematologist he rescued, Karen. Her expertise lends her to both create anti-vampire blood, and a possible cure for Blade that would make him fully human again. Although one gets the sense that Blade's fate isn't entirely tragic. He relishes kicking vampire butt.

The movie Blade succeeds for two reasons. It's technically polished, with good acting, excellent directing and production design, and awesome special effects - the way the vampires turn to skeletons and blow away like dried parchment when they die is way cool. There are three accomplished action sequences, the opening party scene which Blade inconveniently crashes, a brush with death on a subway, and the final conflict, with some special effects I can say, as a movie seasoned veteran, I've never seen before. The second reason is that Blade understands the inherent pull of the vampire myth. Vampirism represents a life given to sin, essentially. They are sensual creatures, dependent on flesh and blood for survival, shirking the light, and yet eternal, like evil fleshly lusts the Bible warns about. Vampires are not tragic, like Interview with a Vampire would have you believe, but fun, cool, and sexy. That's their power. Is not sin sexy? why would it be tempting otherwise? Vampires are cool because they live in sin without paying its consequences - death. But for that reason, they are the enemy and must die. For sin is, in the final analysis, bad. This essential good/evil conflict must be there for this type of story to work. Spawn had neither this nor the technical excellence Blade has, which is why it sucks so bad. Blade reminded me of another good vampire movie, Bram Stoker's Dracula, by Francis Ford Coppola. They would make good companion pieces on video.

A different look at vampires

[helpless_dancer · 7/10 · 8 April 2000]

I admit I go more for the traditional vampire tale, but this one is a real winner. Lots of way out graphics and good story to go with them made for an interesting 2 hours. There was loads of gore with vicious blood suckers attacking mortals and even each other for control of the world. A good one for all us vampire lovers.

Good Comic to Movie Adaptation and Good Vampire Story

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 15 November 2007]

Eric Brooks (Wesley Snipes), better known as Blade, is a half-human, half-vampire "daywalker" with all the advantages of being a vampire without most of the side effects (though he still craves blood). As such, he has made it his mission to stop the evil vampires (led by Stephen Dorff and Udo Kier) with the help of his sidekick, Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson). As an age-old prophecy comes to fruition, time is of the essence to stop the vampires now... Traci Lords also appears.

This film works, and I'll tell you why it works... because it is a vampire-inspired retelling of the Patrick Swayze classic "Road House". Both films feature tough but sensitive leading men who travel from city to city to bust up groups of hooligans intent to make life miserable for those around them. Both has sidekicks who looks like urban cowboys. Both of them have that sidekick killed by the hooligans, leading to greater revenge. Both have the romantic interest be a doctor, specializing in a field that helps the hero (surgery for Swayze, blood for Blade). There are some obvious differences, but the general theme is more or less the same... this is Swayze's Dalton character if he were a vampire hunter.

And that's really the selling point of this film. Sure, the vampires are cool and the story is cool. And Stephen Dorff is incredibly cool. But if you don't look at this film through the lens of "Road House" you'll be forced to look at through the lens of "The Matrix" with all the stunt fighting and bullet-dodging, not to mention the ubiquitous late 1990s techno music which seems like it was stolen directly from "The Matrix"'s soundtrack. And any film that falls into this trap has no chance to survive in the long term.

Did I like this film? Heck yeah, I really enjoyed it. Vampires, Udo Kier, Stephen Dorff and Wesley Snipes' best role since "Demolition Man" (though still not quite as good). Traci Lords was here (but unfortunately over eighteen). If you like vampires and you like action films, this is probably the best you're going to get... I can't really think of another film. And as far as comic adaptations go, this was one of the better ones, opening the gateway for the hugely successful Spider-Man and X-Men franchises.

A true blood, Vampire classic.

[RatedVforVinny · 8/10 · 6 December 2019]

A superior vampire action movie, featuring a very impressive Wesley Snipes. The martial arts (stunts) are amazing and so are the groundbreaking visual effects. The musical score is magnificent and really drives the whole experience through a roller-coaster ride, of over-the-top blood-letting. Excellent supporting performance from Kris Kristofferson, in the part of his side-kick whistler. 'Blade' is not just any movie that is made and then goes away. Subsequently the whole look and feel of this picture, has been highly influential in the Horror/Sci-fi genre.

Cheesy fun

[grenmonkey · 6/10 · 2 October 2009]

Blade (1998) is an entertaining action film that looks and sounds good - or should I say ”cool” because that surely has been the aim with all the sunglasses, swords, camera-run gimmicks and whatnots. Wesley Snipes plays (and growls his way through) the lead – a vampire hunter called Blade – and does it rather well. A lot of action set to the heavily tecno/hiphop -based soundtrack is what the film is all about, with some humour and drama thrown in time to time. Kris Kristofferson (Whistler), N'Bushe Wright (Karen) and Stephen Dorff (Deacon Frost) support in the cast. The film's opening scene is a great one and it's rather sad that the rest of the movie doesn't quite manage to stay on the same level – we've seen the best the film has to offer after the first ten minutes or so.

Blade is kinda cheesy fun, a guilty pleasure of some sort. It's over the top in in a lot of ways (starting from Wesley's growling, continuing with the often ridiculous use of music and ending with the endless sunglass-related jokes) and does it shamelessly too. You might not love the movie or anything but somehow you take a seat on the sofa every time the film's on TV. 3/4

Maybe it's my 90s nostalgia

[lanycera · 9/10 · 6 November 2020]

But this movie is great. I love the cinematography (I mean the opening blood rave scene is just epic), the soundtrack and Wesley Snipes as Blade.

I'm not sure how it ended up on such a low rating, because this movie is better than most modern 'superhero' flicks and miles better than Underworld. It's an excellent dark comic translation, packed with great fighting scenes and style. It's not bloated with special effects; it's dark, minimal and gritty.

I recently re-watched Blade II, which was directed by Guillermo del Toro, and was equally surprised by the rating. It stayed true to the vibe of the first movie. I would rate II overall a bit less, but not by too much.

Conclusion: It's going to be hard to make a remake worthy of Wesley Snipes and his Blade legacy.

One of the most exhilirating, intense and original movies of the 90's

[Quinoa1984 · 7/10 · 28 April 2001]

Blade is a movie that should become a classic. It stars Wesley Snipes as a half vampire/half human who has they're strength, but also there thirst. So, he becomes a vampire hunter, trying to clense the earth of the horror known as vampires who lurk the earth among us. Unfortunately, there is a vampire who will try to conquer the earth, but up against Blade, who knows. A film that gets better with each viewing and has so much action it should appeal to horror freaks, and should also appeal to the comic book people that are also in touch with Spawn. The first bloodbath action sequence is a marvel. A

A very stylish movie.

[Aaron1375 · 10/10 · 19 September 2001]

This is one of those movies that I can watch again and again and not get tired of it. It is by far one of the best comic book adaptations ever. I liked this one even more than X-men. In fact, this movie is sort of a cross between X-men and the matrix and it came out before either. Wesley Snipes does a great job with the character of Blade. He is just not an emotionless super hero. Also, this movie isn't sugercoated to get a pg-13 rating. Sure comic books are for kids mainly, but I like a little more in my movies. Let's face it, if we were in these situations we would cuss up a storm to so it is more realistic. This comic book adaptation also has something that many don't. A good fight in the end between the bad guy and good guy. Let's face it, none of the Batman movies had a very good ending fight.

100% insane....and that's not necessarily a bad thing!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 5 March 2011]

Up front I must admit that this is not the sort of film I usually watch. No, I usually am very content to watch foreign films, classic Hollywood or silent movies. So me watching an action film like "Blade" is highly unusual--and I am obviously not in the target demographic audience. Yet, despite this, I still enjoyed this movie because although I usually don't like films like this, sometimes you just have to turn off your brain and enjoy an insane action pic.

"Blade" originally was a comic book and although he's not one of the biggies at Marvel (like Spiderman or Captain America), he has gained a lot of popularity due to the Blade films. That's because at least the first one (I've not see the others) was exciting and had non-stop insane action. And, unlike the Twilight series, the changes in the vampire canon are exciting and make for an excellent and non-whiny film! No, these vampires do NOT brood about their lot in life--they totally enjoy the killing and revel in it! Apparently the only thing that might stop them is Blade (Wesley Snipes) and people like his assistant (Kris Kristofferson). However, how they stop them is new--using a kitana, bombs, fire and guns that shoot silver bullets to dispatch vampires even faster than you see folks die in a samurai film! As a result, the film is INTENSELY violent and bloody---INTENSELY. So, this is definitely not a film for kids or for those put off by gallons and gallons and gallons of blood and entrails. For example, in the first scene (at a vampire rave), you must see at least 200-300 hundred gallons of blood--and it's very realistic looking! And, when it comes to the language, it's equally explicit.

So, despite being much of the sort of thing I usually hate, I really liked "Blade". Call it a guilty pleasure...it was one intensely wild ride. The only problem is that after a while there are SO many deaths and so much fighting that the plot really loses momentum. Still, it is extremely well done for what it is.

The usual action film

[Primtime · 5/10 · 11 August 1999]

Blade introduces few new ideas as far as an action film goes. This film produces a lot of blood and violence, the usual predictable ending and a very thin plot. Some have compared this film to Spawn which is much worse and could even make this film look good.

Wesley Snipes plays this role with little emotion, a cold killer with the advantages of being half-vampire, half-human and none of the disadvantages that go with either. I never really cared for Blade or his mentour and couldn't really get behind any of the vampires either. Without anyone to endorse, this film is nothing more than a 120 minute special-effects-filled trailer.

I must note that a sequel is being made to tie up the loose ends left by this film. However, after watching this film, I can't see why anyone would even care about a sequal. Even fans of the comic book must be disappointed by this effort.

I would recommend this film as a rental for an evening when there is really nothing to do. Don't make a point of renting this film if you are looking for a story, because there simply isn't one here.

5/10 stars.