Blade (1998)

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This month is “Dark Hero” month at Catching Up On Cinema

All month long, Kyle and Trevor will be reviewing superhero movies
of the antihero or dark hero variety!

This week, Trevor and Kyle review Stephen Norrington's, Blade
(1998)!

Both popula and financially successful at the time of its release,
Stephen Norrington's, Blade (1998), is an early live-action Marvel
comics film that at one point faded into obscurity, but has since
seen its cultural footprint grow in recent years.

Released just prior to The Matrix (1999), as well as the comic
book/superhero movie boom of the 2000's, beginning with 20th
Century Fox's, X-Men (2000), Blade stands as the forerunner for many
of the trends that would become ubiquitous in Hollywood action cinema
in the coming years.

Starring Wesley Snipes, who would represent the character to such
a crowd-pleasing degree that subsequent iterations of the titular
Blade would be altered to match his appearance and mannerisms, Blade
is a high-energy action film that is distinctly of its time, yet
remains quite charming for those with a strong tolerance for
late-90's aesthetics.

In actuality more of a supernatural action film than a superhero
movie, in the long history of Big 2 (DC and Marvel) comic book
adaptations, Blade holds the distinction of being both one of the
earliest Marvel films (bearing an African American protagonist no
less, as well as being a nasty and gritty), as well as being a rare,
R-rated Marvel film, produced well before the rise of Marvel Studios'
more homogenized branding and aesthetic.

A cultural artifact of late 90's aesthetics and trends, as well as
the crown jewel of director Norrington's very short filmography,
Blade is an energetic and brutal superhero flick that is well worth
revisiting.

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