Sunday Double Feature: “Blade”

My Internet access is still holding out…

Cast, Crew, and Other Info

Wesley Snipes as Blade

Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost

Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler

N’Bushe Wright as Dr. Karen Jenson

Donal Logue as Quinn

Written by David S. Goyer

Directed by Steven Norrington

Complete information is available from the
IMDB
.

Buy from: Amazon.com
or Amazon.ca

Past movie reviews can be found here.

Premise

A half human vampire, able to survive sunlight, has
sworn to destroy
all other vampires.

High Point

Eliminating magic and bringing in the science. It
works thematically
with the “new replacing old” idea.

Low Point

The inclusion of gore for the sake of gore. This
happens often.

The Scores

This is an adaptation that’s somewhat accurate, and
includes elements
that are staples of recent vampire movies. That
doesn’t bode well for
originality. I give it 3 out of 6.

The effects featured a lot of CGI blood that
wasn’t nearly
viscous enough. The wire work was generally very
good, in spite of
the weak CGI. I give it 4 out of 6.

The story had very little plot. The main
focus seems to be
on creating “cool” scenes, particularly for the action
sequences.
It’s a standard prophecy story. I give it 3 out of 6.

The acting was a group of people playing to
archetypes
without any depth. I give it 3 out of 6.

The emotional response wasn’t as strong as
I’d hoped.
Normally, I’m a sucker for comic book adaptations. (I
own and enjoy
Josie and the Pussycats for crying out loud.)
This did
nothing for me, even though I watched it just after
reading
Essential Tomb of Dracula Vol. 2, and was
pumped up and ready
to see Blade come to life. If you look like you’re
just trying to be
cool, it all just falls apart. I give it 3 out of 6.

The production also suffered from the “let’s
make it cool”
philosophy. It was nice to see some Kurosawa
influence on the
editing, but nothing else was even remotely close to
being Kurosawa
caliber, so it came off as delusions of grandeur. I
give it 4 out of
6.

Overall, it’s not a terribly thrilling movie.
I’m surprised
they made one sequel, let alone two. I give it 3 out
of 6.

In total, Blade receives 23 out of 42.

6 replies on “Sunday Double Feature: “Blade””

  1. Sunscreen????
    Ah, the Daywalker! A legend amongst vampires, who speak of him in hushed tones full of respect, fear, and mostly envy. They are cursed to never again gaze upon sunlight… unless they wear sunglasses… or, you know, sunscreen. They can, yeah, they can pretty much stand around in the baking heat of high noon’s direct rays, if they put on a lil’ SPF 45.

    But the daywalker… oh! What a SPECIAL case he is! He can go in the sun… without putting on a cream! Truly, the stuff of legend!

    Damn, that was a stupid scene.

    • Re: Sunscreen????

      Damn, that was a stupid scene.

      “Looks like your mascara’s running…” *cringe*

      I liked this movie a lot, but your right – there are some really stupid scenes. Anyway, there are worse movies out tonight than this one …. like the sequal.

      • Re: Sunscreen????

        Damn, that was a stupid scene.

        “Looks like your mascara’s running…” *cringe*

        I liked this movie a lot, but your right – there are some really stupid scenes. Anyway, there are worse movies out tonight than this one …. like the sequal.

        But King saved Trinity

    • Re: Sunscreen????
      I always wanted to know what he put in his eyes to keep them from bursting into flames

    • Re: Editing

      Exactly what Kurosawa influence are you talking about?

      Most editors use long takes or short cuts through an entire film. Kurosawa was the first to combine the two, by using long takes in dramatic scenes and the rapid cuts in action sequences. I saw a lot of that in this film, notably well used in the “museum” fight in the maze of parchments. That aspect was quite well done, and the editor (Paul Rubell) is the only person in this production who should include the film on his or her resume. He also edited League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but studio expectations were much higher on that one, so he probably had to deal with a lot more studio meddling. (Simone, Collateral, and The Island of Dr. Moreau are the only other movies I’ve seen that he edited, and the editing was good in all of them. Moreau could have used a new lead actor and a few more script rewrites, but the editing was just fine.)

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