My attention was recently drawn to an article from the ever-awesome guys at Hitfix in which they chose and discussed their Top 10 most underrated comic book films of all time. Included on the list are Constantine (2005), Hulk (2003) and Dick Tracy (1990). Some baffling picks, some I wholeheartedly agree with. Also included on the list was Guillermo Del Toro's sequel, Blade II. Now, I'd been meaning to rewatch the trilogy for quite some time, so with the franchise in mind I sat back and watched all three. It's now that I feel obligated to discuss the Stephen Norrington-directed original 1998 film.
While I completely agree with Hitfix's assessment of Blade II, I have to say, after catching the film again after so long, I really find it to have not only aged very well, but also to be one of the most entertaining and wickedly dark comic book films ever made.
Released at the tail-end of summer 1998, Blade starred Wesley Snipes as the titular vampire slayer; a half-man, half-vampire hybrid who undertakes the mission of ridding the world of the blood-sucking undead. With his tough-as-nails partner, Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) and an arsenal of deadly weaponry, Blade sets out to destroy the leader of the vampires, Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff); the very same vampire that murdered his mother years before. And so the table is set for all manners of gory set-pieces and action a'plenty.
And there is bucket loads of gore and action (including some of the best practical effects work I've seen in a vampire movie). But that's not all there is. Blade is carried by a fantastic lead performance from Wesley Snipes (kind of ironic he played a superhero in a trilogy of successful films only then to go to prison...but that's besides the point) as well as a plethora of really great supporting roles filled out by really great actors. Stephen Dorff's portrayal of Deacon Frost is really rather brilliant. He layers his performance with a slithering creep factor unlike any villain in recent comic book flicks. His character compliments Blade's very well, too. Every so often we see Blade's stoic attitude interrupted by his pure, 'real' side (evident when the police shoot at him and he yells, "Motherfucker you outta your damn mind?!") which further cements his character as a real bad-ass, straight-edge hero with a strong and honest code. The flip-side to that being Deacon's morally-rotten soul. To Blade vampires are killers of the innocent and weak. To Deacon the innocent and weak are, as he so eloquently puts it, "cattle". And so you have this classic good vs. evil tale on top of Blade's origin and the imminent rise of La Magra (the vampire God).
While Del Toro's style is of course unique and often gorgeous, Norrington's visual style is much more suited to the franchise. Blade's universe is cold. Full of steel, concrete, metal and blood. And so Norrington and cinematographer Theo Van De Sande fill the screen with tight shots and subdued colors (the only really pronounced color is, suitably, red). Blade is often remembered for it's fantastic opening scene in which the titular slayer raids a nightclub called Bloodbath, but if you look beyond that, the scene is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. The club is dark and cold with the only light being the white polish of the surrounding tiles. When the DJ hits the sprinklers and the place literally turns into a bloodbath, the red pops off the screen, letting you know the world in which we are; Blade's world.
I feel like both the original and the previously mentioned sequel need more attention from the masses. When I hear people discussing the best comic book films, the answer is more-often-than-not; Spider-Man 2 or The Avengers, etc. But 14 years ago Wesley Snipes, Stephen Norrington and screenwriter David S. Goyer brought us the one of the coolest, most violent and most fun adaptations of a comic book there's ever been.
So we need to stop forgetting that.
EDIT: Of course, I feel the need to mention that it's also an important film in that it's a very successful comic book film centered on an African-American character, which unfortunately, you don't see much of at all, with Black Panther & Luke Cage adaptations constantly collapsing.
