Reviews in Retrograde: Blade

Critical Outcast isn't my first attempt at a website, I had a few stutter steps in the late 1990's and early 2000's. These attempts generated a whole bunch of poorly written, often very short and spoilerific reviews. I recently stumbled upon them in my archives and thought you may be interested in seeing some of these early attempts at writing. They are as they were then, I make no apologies for how bad or how short they are. Feel free to have at them with reckless abandon! I present to you: Reviews in Retrograde.

When Blade's mother was bitten by a vampire during pregnancy, she did not know that she gave her son a special gift while dying: All the good vampire attributes in combination with the best human skills. Blade grew up to be a vampire hunter for revenge on his mother's death. The vampires, who managed to infiltrate nearly every major organization, need Blade's very special blood to summon La Magra, the blood god, in order to reign over the human cattle, as they call us.

Excellent film, in the vein of Batman and The Crow. Blade is out and out action, with violence and gore galore. Blade is a m inor character from the Marvel family of comic characters. He is a human/vampire hybrid who has made it his life's goal to destroy all vampires. He is helped by Whistler, a resourceful human with a personal vendetta against the vampires. They are opposed by Deacon Frost, a young vampire upstart who wishes to rule the human race. Other than that the film's plot is pretty thin. It is the style that carries this film, highly visual and very much like a comic book. The movie is very violent, almost surreal in appearance, as the vampires explode, disintegrate and get dismembered in varying gruesome ways. As Roger Ebert stated in his review, comic book adaptations may be the last hope for visionary filmmaking. It is this area where filmmakers can really cut loose with the visual style. I would put this in a category with Event Horizon

in terms of visual excellence, both films were a triumph in design. As far as the acting is concerned, there was nthing to write home about, most were one dimensional stereptypes. Take Snipes for instance, he walked around looking mean and beating guys up, no real stretch of talent, or Kristofferson's Whistler, he plays the stereotypical role of wise old helper. And then there's Stephen Dorff, his Deacon Frost wasn't anything spectacular but he brought an energy to the screen that was very dynamic and entertaining. Again the winner here was the incredible style.

Energetic, action packed, a visual feast, plus vampires! Strong recommendation to see.