Blade (1998)
Release Date: August 21, 1998
In 1998, superhero films were in a bad
way. Batman and Robin had been released the previous year, and single-handedly
destroyed the Batman film franchise at the time, also doing serious damage to
the genre. Blade was a much more obscure hero at the time than Batman, with
this film being his first major exposure to non-comics reading audiences. The
success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the small screen must have been a big
help for Blade pre-release.
After a brief prologue of Blade’s mother
dying in child birth, the film opens with a vampire rave at an abbatoir. That
sentence alone should make it quite clear that this film is a product of the
90s. During the party, the guests are drenched in blood, which lends the scene
an almost fetishistic tone, as the dancers writhe around and rub the blood over
their bodies. The vampires seem to gain an almost sexual pleasure from blood.
The party is crashed when Blade shows up uninvited and decides to be the party
pooper by killing several of the guests. The ensuing fight scene has Blade
shooting and stabbing at the vampire hordes, baddies disintegrating as they
come into contact with Blade’s silver weapons. The accompanying techno
soundtrack (another reminder of the 90s) makes this scene feel like a video
game, with the scene ending once Blade pins the leader, Quinn, to a wall and
sets him on fire.
Quinn’s charred body is taken to the
morgue for examination, where we meet our other protagonist, Dr Karen Jenson. While
she and her colleague examine the body, Quinn wakes up, thanks to his
regenerative capabilities, and kills Karen’s colleague before biting her and
fleeing. Blade arrives and takes Karen with him to his hideout, where Blade’s
mentor Whistler gives Karen a garlic injection to temporarily halt her
vampirification (Is that a word? It is now) while she researches a more
permanent cure for herself, and a bottle of Chekhov brand Garlic mace.
Now comes the introduction of the
villain of the piece, Deacon Frost. Frost is a member of a vampire council, and
the other members aren’t pleased with him for throwing his blood raves, because
they attract attention towards vampires. Frost doesn’t listen though, because
he’s a bit of a playboy who wants his hedonistic kicks and doesn’t care to follow
tradition. As such, he’s working on translating a prophecy relating to the
vampire blood god La Magra, despite being told by the rest of the council that
it’s impossible. Shows how much they know.
After a run-in with a Deacon Frost’s
familiar (a human slave to the vampires) at her apartment in which the mace did
nothing because she tried to use it too soon after getting it, Karen decides to
tag along with Blade as he infiltrates a building where he believes Frost will
be. Another encounter with the familiar proves him right, and in the basement,
our heroes meet this lovely looking fellow.
“I wash myself with a rag on a stick!”
The morbidly obese vampire is Deacon
Frost’s researcher, and our heroes learn from him that Frost has translated the
prophecy and, with the help of the vampire council and Blade’s blood, he
intends to resurrect La Magra, who will turn everyone on Earth into vampires. It
doesn’t seem that Frost thought his plan through too well. If everyone in the
world is a vampire, how are they going to feed and sustain themselves, since
there won’t be any humans left?
The next day, Blade sees Deacon Frost
out in daylight. The crafty devil is wearing sunscreen! He offers a truce to
Blade, which is predictably turned down. Frost doesn’t take rejection well, as
he responds by throwing a small girl into oncoming traffic and while Blade’s
distracted with saving her, attacking the hideout where Karen and Whistler have
just finished making a chemical that reacts with vampire blood to make them explode.
In the attack, Karen is abducted and Whistler is bitten by Quinn, who is
working for Frost. Blade arrives just in time for Whistler to tell him where
the bad guys went before he kills himself so that he doesn’t turn into a
vampire.
The climax begins with Blade kicking ass
and taking names, until he is stopped dead in his tracks by a shock reunion
with his mother, who has become a vampire, followed by the even more shocking
revelation that Deacon Frost was the vampire who bit her while she was pregnant
with Blade!
The surprising thing about the film is
that it doesn’t play up the comic connection much at all, which is quite odd in
relation to today’s films. This could be due to Batman and Robin making the
phrase “comic book movie” box office poison at the time. Blade’s relative
obscurity worked to the film’s advantage in this regard, since general audiences
were not familiar with him as a character, and the film could establish itself
without having the comic connection hurting it.
The film’s portrayal of Blade is quite
different from the comics. In the comics, Blade was a normal human immune to
vampirism and had a quirky sense of humour instead of superpowers. This is in
contrast to the film, in which he is a Daywalker, a person who has all the
abilities of vampires and none of their weaknesses, besides the need to drink
blood. He is also portrayed as a stoic badass type for the most part. Deacon
Frost is also portrayed differently. In the comics, he’s an old man with white
hair, originating from 1860s Germany and with the ability to create
doppelgangers of those he bit, and biting the doppelgangers would bring them
under his control. The film portrayal of Blade was later carried over to the
comics. The other characters are all exclusive to the film, though Whistler was
later carried over to the comics.
Deacon Frost as he appears in the comics...
and Deacon Frost as he appears in the film.
The special effects have held up quite
well, with the exception of the effect used for the exploding chemicals, which
make the victim look like an inflating cancerous balloon before popping
gruesomely with blood all over the place. You can almost hear the Mortal Kombat
announcer say “Fatality!” after it happens. The fight choreography is also well
done, with the fight scenes being fast-paced and exciting to watch, but the
viewer is always able to keep track of what’s happening without the camera
spasming all over the place. In all, Blade is a highly stylish, though
occasionally dated, action film that doesn’t let a lack of substance get in the
way of being a fun time to watch. The film did well at the box office, but it
did not revive the fortunes of the superhero genre. That would be done by
another film that took greater advantage of its heritage, which will be the
film we look at next time.
Next Time: 20th Century Fox
get the X factor.
Bonus: The original version of the
film’s climax had Deacon Frost transform into a giant blood tornado for the
final battle. The scene was altered to have Frost retain his regular form after
test audiences responded negatively to the original ending. Personally, I think
the ending used in the film is the better one, (the deleted version is lacking
in the motherfuckers trying to ice skate uphill department) but here it is for
your viewing pleasure anyway.
