Blade

Dir: Stephen Norrington

1998

****

Blade was only the second Marvel film to have received a cinema release by 1998 (following Howard the Duck) but it is fair to say it was a game changer. While it’s no masterpiece, it proved that superhero films could be alternative and lesser-known comic characters could sell cinema tickets too. Marvel Studios had developed the film as early as 1992, when rapper/actor LL Cool J was interested in playing the lead role. Blade was eventually set up at New Line Cinema, with David S. Goyer writing the script. According to Goyer, New Line originally wanted to do Blade as "something that was almost a spoof" before the writer convinced them otherwise. In many respects Marvel owe Goyer a great deal – as does DC – as he has been fundamental in setting the tone of so many superhero/comic films that have been made since 1998’s Blade. Not all of them are that great (and he’s not a great director) but it is hard to see how any of it would have happened without him – starting with Blade. The character Blade was created in 1973 for Marvel Comics by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan as a supporting character in the 1970s comic The Tomb of Dracula. The comic Blade used teakwood knives and was much more the everyman in his behavior and attitude. Though courageous and brave, he displayed flaws as well, such as an inability to get along with certain other supporting cast members and a hatred of vampires that bordered on fanaticism. The character was not originally a "daywalker" but a human being immune to being turned into a vampire. Lacking the superhuman speed and strength of his undead quarry, he relied solely on his wits and skill until he was bitten by the character Morbius as seen in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #8, first published in August 1999. The film portrayal of Blade was updated for a 1990s audience and the comics character was subsequently modified to match. When Goyer first pitched the idea of doing a Blade film, the executives of New Line felt there were only three actors who could possibly do the role: Snipes, Denzel Washington and Laurence Fishburne, but to Goyer, Snipes was always the perfect choice for Blade and Marvel backed him up after Snipes was considered for their Black Panther movie which they had shelved in the early 90s. Stephen Norrington was a brave choice of director with only one (unsuccessful) film under his belt but his past experience working in special effects served him well. The story begins in 1967, a pregnant woman is attacked by a vampire while giving birth. Doctors are able to save her baby, but the woman dies of infection. It is the quickest origins story of any superhero I can think of but one that doesn’t needlessly waste time. Thirty years later, the child has become the vampire hunter Blade. He raids a rave club owned by the vampire Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff). Police take one of the vampires to the hospital, where he feeds on hematologist Karen Jenson (N'Bushe Wright) and escapes. Blade takes Karen to a safe house where she is treated by his old friend Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson). Whistler explains that he and Blade have been waging a secret war against vampires using weapons based on their elemental weaknesses, such as sunlight and silver. As Karen is now "marked" by the bite of a vampire, both he and Blade tell her to leave the city. Meanwhile, at a meeting of vampire elders, Frost, the leader of a faction of younger vampires, is rebuked for trying to incite war between vampires and humans. As Frost and his kind were not born as vampires and are therefore not pure-bloods, they are considered socially inferior. In response, Frost has one of the elders executed and strips the others of their authority. Upon returning to her apartment, Karen is attacked by a policeman, who is a "familiar", a human slave controlled by a vampire. Blade subdues the familiar and uses information from him to locate an archive of vampire history. Later, at the hideout, Blade injects himself with a special serum that prevents him from succumbing to his desire to drink blood, which would ultimately turn him into a vampire. However, the serum is beginning to lose its effectiveness due to overuse. While experimenting with the anticoagulant EDTA as a possible replacement, Karen discovers that it explodes when combined with vampire blood. She manages to synthesize a vaccine that can cure the infected, but learns that it will not work on a human-vampire hybrid like Blade. Frost and his men attack the hideout, infect Whistler, and abduct Karen. When Blade returns, he helps Whistler commit suicide and arms himself with special syringes filled with EDTA. When Blade attempts to rescue Karen from Frost's penthouse, he is shocked to find his still alive mother, who reveals that she came back that very night and was brought in by Frost, who appears and reveals himself as the vampire who bit her. Blade is then subdued and taken to the Temple of Eternal Night, where Frost plans to perform the summoning ritual for La Magra, the vampire blood god. Blade is drained of his blood, but Karen allows him to drink from her, triggering his vampirism. Frost completes the ritual and obtains the powers of La Magra. Blade confronts Frost after killing all of his minions, including his own mother. During their fight, Blade injects Frost with all of the syringes, causing his body to inflate and explode, killing him. Karen offers to help Blade cure himself, but he asks her to create a new serum instead. In a brief epilogue, Blade confronts a vampire in Moscow, continuing his fight against the pointy-toothed ones. It was a better than average superhero film in 1998 and has dated well all things considered. The early rave scene is still superb and I loved seeing Udo Kier as Gitano Dragonetti, the head of the House of Erebus. If ever someone was meant to play an aging vampire, it’s the great Udo Kier. Stephen Dorff made a good bad-guy too and I’m sure Jet Li wishes he’d taken the role instead of choosing Lethal Weapon 4 instead. Having Kris Kristofferson play a side-kick to a superhero vampire was something no one predicted but he soon became a loved character and was also written into Marvel comics. Snipes captured the character brilliantly and made the character his own. It is going to be hard seeing anyone else play Blade from this point onward. The fact that he and Dorff didn’t get on really helps in the scenes the rivals have together. It was something of a gamble for Marvel and the studios but it paid-off brilliantly. Mistakes were made – especially the Stan Lee cameo that was cut just to reduce the run time by twenty seconds but by and large it was a great film that ended up being a surprise hit back in ’98. Iron Man wouldn’t come out for another decade but in reality, the MCU was born here.