Blade

Blade (1998) is a movie that no one knew at that time would go onto have a big impact on films. The impact was it was the first hit film based on Marvel Comic Book. In 1998 there was no Marvel Entertainment & through DC Comics was having hit films those films were limited to Superman & Batman. By 1998 there hadn’t been a Superman film since 1987 when Superman IV: The Quest for Peace had crashed & burned at the box office ($15,681,020) as well as with the critics (12% per Rotten Tomatoes). The Batman film franchise was also in bad shape due to poor performance of Batman & Robin (1997) both at the box office ($107.3 million the lowest grossest film in franchise history) & with the critics (11% per Rotten Tomatoes).  This caused a void in terms of Superhero films which Blade filled.  Let’s take a closer look at both Blade the comic book character & Blade the movie. Blade is a rarity among Marvel Comic Books that have been turned into movies in that Stan Lee didn’t co-create him.  That honor belongs to Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan. He started off as supporting character in the comic book The Tomb of Dracula (#10 July 1973). As time went on he went on to be in a series of comic books where he was both the star and co-star. He also enjoyed a boost in popularity due to his being in episodes of Spider-Man The Animated Series (1994).  From there a perfect storm occurred which led to Blade being turned into a movie & spawning (pardon the pun) a trilogy. The first event in this storm was the perfect studio acquiring the film rights (New Line Cinema). This was New Line Cinema pre Lord of the Rings so it was kind of fringe studio that mainly released horror films. (New Line Cinema would not be allowed to acquire a Marvel Comic Book property today even if Marvel Entrainment didn’t exist. The reason is its a sister company of DC Comics. ) This leads to the second event in the storm which was the perfect subject matter for New Line Cinema which is Blade is a Vampire Hunter. Is there anything more horror than vampires (at least before vampires were turned into romantic misunderstood sensitive souls a la the Twilight series).  And this leads to the final event in the storm (and probably the most important) the perfect star to play the title character- Wesley Snipes. At the time Wesley Snipes was a movie star and if the film he was in was an action, comedy, or a combination of the two than it was pretty much a guarantee that film would have a strong opening weekend and turn a profit. The main reason Snipes agreed to do Blade is because he couldn’t get made the Marvel Comic Book property he wanted-The Black Panther.  The film as I have stated was hit at the box office ($70 million at the U.S. box office, and $131.2 million worldwide) and did ok critically (55% per Rotten Tomatoes). Is the film good? No, but its not bad. Its ok and this was an instance where ok was good enough. The reason for the film success was star power. Snipes is very good in the role, that can’t be said for the majority of the cast.  Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost the film’s main villain doesn’t cut it. He’s zero threat either physically or intellectually. The person who probably should have gotten the role Donal Logue but he was cast as Quinn, Frost main enforcer. This role was memorable because this character kept getting maimed & disfigured by Blade before he was finally killed by Blade. Because Quinn was a vampire he kept regenerating. The reason the Stephen Dorff got the role of Deacon Frost over Donal Logue is because Doriff was seen as a serious actor due to some indie films he had made & Logue was seen as a comedic actor.  A big reason for this was Logue had made some a series of memorable humorous promos for MTV as Jimmy The Cab Driver. It wasn’t until a few years later Logue got to show that he had the chops to be a serious actor. What a missed opportunity by the filmmakers. Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler Blade mentor and weapon smith doesn’t have the gravitas the role requires. N'Bushe Wright as Dr. Karen Jenson a hematologist that Blade finds after he goes to her hospital to finish off Quinn & who winds up becoming a vampire because she is bitten by Quinn before Blade saves her. Her character spends a lot of her on screen time looking for a cure. She tries really hard but isn’t quite up to the role. Plus she’s unintentionally annoying. The only cast member who as good as Snipes & Logue is Sanaa Lathan as Vanessa Brooks Blade's mother, believed dead, who has became a vampire and lover to Frost. She manages to across as sensual, sympathetic, & dangerous all in the span of few minutes. You feel bad for both her and Blade when he kills her because as he puts it he has to “release her.”  Due to the success of the film there were some beneficiaries. The first one was Wesley Snipes who was able to get a film franchise. The sequel Blade II (2002) did better at the box office ($80 million in the United States and $150 million worldwide) & slightly better with the critics (59% per Rotten Tomatoes). This also provided director Guillermo del Toro with his first hit at the box office. This led to another sequel Blade: Trinity which for the time being is the last film in the series. Unfortunately this film wasn’t a hit at the box office ($52 million in the United States on a budget of $65 million) or with the critics (26% per Rotten Tomatoes).  The next was writer David S. Goyer who also wrote the next two films & directed the last one. He then went onto to help write all 3 of the Dark Knight films with Christopher Nolan, Man of Steel (2013) and is currently the architect of the DC movie universe. The final was Marvel Comics because in short order the X-Men film series came out & so did the Spider-Man. These successes helped lead Marvel Comics to form Marvel Entertainment which currently has the film rights to Blade. And there have been reports of a plan for a 4^th Blade film.  All of this happened because of Blade.