BLADE
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Wesley Snipes is a half-human, half-
vampire fighting both of two sets of warring
vampires in a great looking-film based on a Marvel
comic book. The story is weak and familiar without
much logic behind it. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), 1 (-4
to +4) A spoiler section following the main review
lists some open questions and loose ends.
New York Critics: 2 positive, 8 negative, 3 mixed
As Blade, the title character, observes just after the climactic moment of the film, "Some motherfucker's always trying to ice skate uphill." That pretty much sums up the film. It sounds sharp and polished. But do not think about it too long. How many places can you name where the ice is smooth enough to skate on and goes uphill? BLADE is polished, visually very appealing, and enjoyable as an action film. But do not stop to think about it too hard. BLADE is at once a good action film and a bad piece of fantasy.
This is a dark world in which vampires are something very different from what used to be in the old Universal horror films. The world is basically engaged in a secret three-sided war. There are humans, there is the old aristocracy of vampires, and there are the young rebellious vampires struggling to wrest control from the old guard. The older vampires are in a cold war with humans. Some humans know of their existence but try to cover it up in an uneasy truce. The young vampires know they can take control in a new order that will rule humans and older vampires. Tipping the balance in the wars is Blade (Wesley Snipes), half human, half vampire. Actually a vampire took his mother just hours before he would have been born. This was sufficient to change his DNA--I told you not to think about it too hard--so that he has all the best parts of humans and all the best parts of vampires. Actually, saying he has the best powers of both humans and vampires does not explain him. It is not clear if it is his human or his vampire heritage that allow him to get a silver stake in the base of his neck and seconds later again be a perfect fighting machine. He also seems to have the powers of an action hero.
Visually this is a very striking and polished film. While it starts with some overly familiar time lapse effects, it has some well- filmed fight sequences early on. I am not an expert on martial arts, but friends who know considerably more tell me that Snipes does his stuff very well. There was some suspicion that the fighting was speeded up and there is no doubt that special effects were added to the fight sequences. But the fighting would not have looked this good without Snipes knowing his stuff. Digital effects are integrated flawlessly with the live action. Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost is an acceptable villain without generating a lot of excitement. Kris Kristofferson plays the modern equivalent of Van Helsing. He provides the brains, Blade is the muscle. As far as his acting he does not push any new buttons or pull any new levers. With the possible exception of Snipes, nobody does. I would say that it is nice to see Udo Kier still making horror films, but it would not be sincere. Kier has always had non-demanding roles and has always been just adequate. His presence in a film has always seemed to be a kind of inside joke.
In many ways this is a good action film. The fights are exciting. But the plot is a retread of ideas, several borrowed from Richard Matheson's novel I AM LEGEND. There are too many loose ends and open questions for this to be a really good script. I give it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...
Open questions, loose ends, and bad touches from BLADE:
(Note that this film assumes that there are good scientific reasons for vampires and they are preternatural not supernatural. This means that they have to obey laws of science and logic.)
Do you have any idea what a horrible, wretched, stinking mess it would create to pump fresh blood through a sprinkler system? Where would someone even get blood in those quantities?
There is an implication that what gives Blade his powers derives from his DNA. Yet he was a vampire just shortly after his mother was first bitten. What mechanism could alter the DNA in his body cell-by- cell in that short time?
We are told that an autopsied vampire has "odd muscle structure around the canines." First of all, wouldn't any muscle structure around the canines be odd? If vampires can extend and retract fangs, where do they go when retracted? How does the human anatomy accommodate them without any differences being obvious externally? How do newly bitten vampires undergo this extreme dental change?
Many people learn about the existence of vampires in the course of the film--the autopsy doctors mentioned above, for example. In one street chase we get a quick flash of a vampire who just happens to be out biting a victim. Anyone who happened to be on the street at that time would see it happening. Also, the victim would presumably disappear. With so many people learning of the existence of vampires so frequently, how could the secret that they exist ever be kept under wraps?
Multiple times in the film people in streets wield guns and fire them but no police come.
Both Frost's minions and Blade seem awfully cavalier in fighting around priceless vampire archives going back many thousands of years. They contain information that both Frost and Blade need. Wouldn't one expect they would be handled with a little more care?
Though we never see Blade have an opportunity to pick it up, he seems to have gotten out of the archive with just the right scrap of document. How did he manage that?
Blade's contact with his mother was very short. How does Blade recognize his mother when he sees her?
How is it that a 10,000-year-old temple of vampires ended up in the middle of an American metropolitan city?
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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