Greetings, Father Geek here fresh from an advance screening of New Line Cinema's new action/vampire/superhero film "Blade". Tonight a group of us ( Harry, myself, Quint, Hooper, Copernicus, and others) met to view the preview of "Blade" at the Barton Creek Cinemark nestled in the wooded hills of southwest Austin. We were all pretty up for this flick having enjoyed the trailers and received mostly good reports from our spies around the country. A representative for the TV station co-sponsoring the event spotted us in the lobby and ushered us to our seats 45 minutes before show time. We talked film and vampires and the time shot by. The lights went out and the trailer for "Soldier" appeared on the giant screen 4 rows in front of us. It rocked! I don't care what Hallenbeck says about it I'll be there first chance I get to see that film.
I remember when I first ran across the Blade character. I was running a comic book & movie poster store and traveling the country attending various fan festivals and conventions devoted to pop culture collecting & vintage movie viewing. In 1973 Blade was introduced to us comic book fans as a kick ass supporting character in Marvel Comic's "Tomb of Dracula". I still have copies of those first comic appearances buried away at Geek Headquarters. He was an example of that rarest of pop icons, an African American comic book super-hero. He became a regular, made guest appearances in other titles, and even teamed up with Marvel's number one hero Spiderman. He was not the typical comic hero of that day, there were no jokes, no comic relief, he had a definite dark side. Unlike that other black clad avenger of the night, Batman, Blade was a bio-hybrid of both good & evil. He didn't have dual identities, he was always Blade, dangerous and ever ready to do battle with the children of the night. Haunted, his tunnel vision allowed him only to exact vengeance by killing every vampire he ran across, in any way he could. He was one cold, bad mutha.... As the opening titles hit the screen, I wondered, will the motion picture capture that ultimate bad ass that captured my attention 25 years ago?
Well, the crew assembled to bring Blade the screen is certainly capable of realizing the task. Writer David Goyer who gave us "Dark City" among others has come up with a pretty good screenplay for this horror/action/adventure. The production design is like-wise pretty damn good. I like the look of the environment and clothing of the various characters that inhabit this world that exists in the shadows of our own. The makeup is down right exceptional work from Greg Cannom, who has been nominated for 5 Academy Awards and actually won two, including one for another vampire flick "Bram Stoker's Dracula". There also is solid Effects work delivered by veteran Digital & Optical effects man Chuck Comisky, who's work has appeared in "The Crow", "Battle Beyond the Stars", "The Blob", "Last Action Hero", and dozens of others. All in all the look and feel of "Blade" was right for me and the other members of our party. The action of the comics was indeed delivered and while I still prefer Carpenter's "Vampires" as a pure vampire/horror film, this movie which is a different kind of motion picture with different goals was very satisfying.
Ultimately The film rests on the shoulders of its lead character and star Wesley Snipes. Is he Blade? To me, damn right! The look, the fights, the manner, it's all there. Snipes delivers the punch required in this movie. Superheros are bigger than life characters and Wesley fills the screen with a bigger than life presence. Check it out, I think you'll agree.
