Throwback Thursday: Blade

The Daywalker

Before Black Panther‘s rise as a significant film in Marvel and cinematic history for its success and cultural impact and before Deadpool was erroneously declared the first R-rated superhero film, 1998’s Blade gave us an African American lead based on a superhero and a strong R-rating (But even Blade wasn’t the first R-rated comic film.  There were quite a few before it, including Fritz The Cat and The Punisher).

Celebrating its twentieth anniversary next month, Blade was an excellent Wesley Snipes vehicle that told the tale of the title character portrayed by Snipes as he takes on vampires with his friend and mentor, Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson).  In the film, Blade’s primary adversary is Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), a “made” vampire who is intent on overthrowing the pure-blood vampires in order to take control of vampire society.  In order to do this, Frost needs the blood of Blade in order to awaken the the blood god known as La Magra.

The film, at least in my opinion, was an even bigger risk than Marvel’s Iron Man film.  While Iron Man was definitely a B grade hero when his film was released, most general audiences were at least mildly familiar with the character.  Blade was pretty much unknown outside of comic circles, and the internet was still in its infancy, so that meant that “hardcore” and so-called “lifelong” fans didn’t amazingly appear thanks to Wikipedia and other web sources as they do these days for so many different comic book films featuring lesser known characters like Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, and, yep, even ol’ Black Panther.

The film featured an excellent cast with established (although not necessarily well known) performers such as Kristofferson and Udo Kier and up-and-comers such as Donal Logue and Sanaa Lathan.  Adult film star and techno musician Traci Lords used her small role in the film as a stepping stone into a more mainstream acting career.  Many saw the film as an attempt for Dorff to revive his career as well.  Arly Jover was also in the film and has achieved moderate success overseas since being in Blade.

 

The film was surprisingly successful and went on to have two sequels and a television series.  The first sequel, Blade II, is considered an excellent film and possibly the best Blade film to date.  The second sequel, the abysmal Blade: Trinity, featured what should have been a great cast trapped inside a poorly directed and written film.  Oh, and Ryan Reynolds wouldn’t shut up long enough for Blade or anybody else to get a word in edgewise.  I personally never saw the TV series, so I’m not sure how that played out.

The film was loaded with action and atmosphere.  From the opening sequence featuring Blade eliminating tons of the undead at a vampire rave to the great face-off with Frost, Snipes’ Blade was constantly hero posing.  He made every move that he made so much more cool than it actually was on the screen.  The techno beats throughout the film gave it a much needed injection of urgency and the music was the perfect co-pilot during the multiple fight sequences featuring varied martial arts and swordplay.

The CGI was decent for its time, and the climactic ending against Frost was re-edited because, gasp, the CGI squad didn’t like what they created.  There were plenty of stunts and practical effects in the film as well.

With the success of Black Panther, talk has begun about there possibly being a revival of the Blade film franchise.  I truly hope that Blade returns to the big screen.  I don’t believe that Wesley Snipes will reprise the role unless they go with an “old Blade” story similar to the Logan movie that signed off on Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of Wolverine.  If this were to happen, there are plenty of young black actors waiting in the wings to take over the role of the Daywalker.

Blade seems to have been lost in the shuffle of comic book films over the last decade or so.  With the success of Disney’s Marvel films, Blade, older incarnations of the Punisher, and the campy Captain America film from 1990 have all fallen to the wayside.  I can understand why Cap’s old movie has vanished, as well as the Dolph Lundgren Punisher flick, but Blade doesn’t deserve to be forgotten.

If you haven’t watched any of the Blade films, I highly recommend that you do so.  You will not regret it.  Be warned that the Technicolor, Happy Times versions of today’s Marvel heroes are nothing like the grittier, angry Blade of the 1990’s.  It’s definitely a fun film, though, and I’m happy to say that I saw it in the theater way back in ’98.

Thanks for taking a trip down memory lane with me today and thanks for reading my post.  I’m headed to Calcasieu Serialfest this weekend and will have a full report as soon as possible.  I’ve also got an Outpost feature just itching to be posted and I need to write up another Focus On feature soon.

Stay batty, folks!