Blade (Marvel Comics Movie Review)

Plot
In a world where vampires walk the earth, Blade has a goal to rid the world of all vampire evil.  Blade and his mentor, Whistler, do battle with an evil vampire rebel who plans to take over the outdated vampire council.

Jason's Thoughts
I remember seeing Blade in the theatre when it was released in 1998, and at the time I didn't even know the movie was based on a comic book character.  I collected comic books as a young teenager, which brought on this movie marathon, and I felt that I had a decent knowledge in comic book characters.  Blade, however, was not one of those characters.  

Blade, the character as well as the film, strays from the typical comic book superhero that people have come to know.  He doesn't hide his identity with a mask, nor is he out to make the world a better place by fighting maniacal super villains, but he exists to rid the world of a race of vampires.  There is a darkness in this movie that you usually don't see in movies based on comic books, not to mention copious amounts of blood and gore even by vampire movie standards, which is why I was initially thrown off that Blade was based on a comic book.

There are some comic book aspects that Blade doesn't stray too far from, though, as it has highly stylized action sequences and impressive special effects that are visually stunning, an awesome soundtrack that really sets the mood and tone of the film, and a decent story to move everything along and fill in the gaps.  Toss in a few evil villains, some of which are even at odds with each other, and a crazy sidekick, and this completes the recipe for a great comic book adaptation.

Did I also mention that Blade is filled with an enormous amount of blood, even for a vampire movie?

For the most part, I tend to side with the purists when it comes to movies in the fact that I would like to see them based closely on the comics as possible.  I can't say that I have ever read anything featuring Blade, but from what I read, a great deal of liberties were taken with the character when making this film.  Normally this would be a drawback from me, however, after reading more about Blade's character before watching this film once again, I was happy to see those liberties were taken.  In the comics, Blade was an average person with a vendetta against vampires, not a half-human/half-vampire hybrid that had all of the powers that vampires held, thus making the character, and the film, much more interesting and enjoyable to watch.

What may be the best part of Blade, though, was the significance it had in the future of comic book movies.  Marvel Comics always seemed leery of making movies based on their comic books, but the success Blade had at the box office made them change their tune a bit.  Without Blade, Marvel probably wouldn't have given the green light on other films, such as the X-Men series and Spider-Man series.

Overall, Blade is a great movie and builds a solid foundation to begin a series of films.  Blade may have the backing and notoriety of Marvel Comics behind it, but I feel that it could have stood well on its own as a film.

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