Packaged as some akin to "The Terminator" meets "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," this latest vampire flick has more in common with the rambunctious "From Dusk 'Till Dawn" than Bram Stoker's original Dracula character. Despite featuring some decent action scenes and plenty of goo and gore that elicited some disgusted and/or amused laughs and reactions from the audience, this is an otherwise unremarkable entry in the vampire genre, despite the hybrid nature of the title character.
Lacking the campy fun of "The Lost Boys" or genuine scares found in other classic vampire flicks, this "Blade" is rather dull and most likely will disappear from theaters faster than a bloody mary at a vampire convention.
Who knows what happened to the "good old days" when vampire movies featured the rare and solitary creatures that "haunted" castles, manors, and other creepy locations. The ones where the vampires lured in, or accepted unsuspecting, potential victims into their lair and then waited until the right moment to come forward, barring sharpened teeth, and providing some genuinely spooky moments.
While "Interview with the Vampire" and "Bram Stoker's Dracula" harkened back to those horror classics of yesteryear such as 1922's "Nosferatu" and Béla Lugosi's "Dracula," nowadays the undead bloodsuckers are fashionable businessmen. Wearing Armani suits and seemingly more concerned with dealing with offshore bank accounts than finding their next meal, today's vampires may be hip, fashionable, and successful, but they've lost their most tangible and historical cinematic asset -- and that's being scary.
Sure, today's young audiences may find the bloodbaths and exploding bodies featured in "Blade" "scary" in a carnival haunted house ride way, but there's little, if anything, in this film that's genuinely creepy or frightening. Loosely based on a Marvel Comic's character first introduced in 1973 (that later became a comic book series on its own), this film isn't much more than a series of action-oriented, but certainly not scary "kill the vampires" scenes strung along a threadbare, minimalist plot.
As the title character, Wesley Snipes ("Demolition Man," "The Fan") has about the same dimensionality as Schwarzenegger's "Terminator 2" robotic android and spends most of his time stoically disposing of vampires via an arsenal of heavy duty armaments. That's about it.
Yes, there's the attractive assistant, the old and sickly mentor, and a young rebel hellbent on taking control, but all of that's just designed as filler to pad the 'in between" moments. The film also seems like an exercise to see if special effects supervisor Chuck Comisky ("Mortal Kombat: Annihilation," "The Addams Family") and make-up effects artist, Greg Cannom ("Thinner," "Kull the Conqueror") were up to the challenge of spewing and splattering enough goo, gore and plain old blood for several movies (they obviously were).
Literally a blood bath -- or shower as the bloodiest scene features a ceiling-mounted sprinkler that shoots forth not water, but standard issue blood in a "lovely" red shower -- the effects are often interesting to watch -- including a neat dissolving effect for the dead vampires -- but certainly can't carry the film. Nor can the occasionally thrilling action and hand to hand combat scenes that permeate the flick. Although some early scenes are efficiently staged, they do get a bit boring and repetitious after a while.
Playing such a stoic creation, Wesley Snipes can't do much with his character other than look and act tough -- both of which he more than competently manages. His is one of those "dark" characters (not skin color, but mood) who broods and seeks revenge, but not much else, thus always keeping the audience at a distance.
As the villain, Stephen Dorff ("Blood and Wine," "City of Industry") gets to chew on the scenery a lot with his elongated eyeteeth, but is monotonous in his angry, one-dimensional villain character. It's always more engaging to watch a "fun" villain, but the filmmakers here were too busy trying to figure out from where the next supply of blood should erupt, splatter, or trickle to pay much attention to that.
The supporting characters are all standard issue for this genre, with Kris Kristofferson ("Lone Star," "A Star Is Born") playing the old and grizzled mentor and newcomer N'Bushe Wright ("Dead Presidents") filling the necessary "good" female role (while ex-porn star Traci Lords plays the "bad" girl). Only Donal Logue gets to ham it up properly as Frost's right-hand man, who, interestingly enough, is often missing that exact body part as he's constantly -- and often humorously -- being dismembered and then refitted or regenerated with new appendages.
Screenwriter David S. Goyer ("Dark City," "The Crow: City of Angels") and director Stephen Norrington (who helmed the little seen "Death Machine") obviously must have liked the carnage displayed in Robert Rodriguez's "From Dusk 'Till Dawn" and thought it would make a good match with this comic book story. Unfortunately, they left out the humor and Tarantino- sharpened dialogue that made that other film fun (but not great).
Although Norrington occasionally inserts some interesting camera tricks -- odd shutter speeds and sped up film which are highly reminiscent of Sam Raimi's work in films such as "Darkman" -- the rest of the film is often lively, but not particularly innovative or for that matter, even interesting.
Gory and predictable -- guess which of two characters in the climatic battle scene is victorious -- and set up for a sequel should the film be a success -- don't hold your breath -- this picture isn't that good and may even disappoint diehard vampire movie fans. We give "Blade" a 4 out of 10.