Marvel Comics was in financial ruin during the mid-90s. They were a part of the comic book speculator bubble. It resulted them printing too many comic books that weren’t good in quality. As a result, to remain afloat Marvel sold their character’s film rights to major studios to at least bring them some sort of finance. To put it into context, while DC Comics had for the most part good films with their characters, Marvel struggled. Their first feature length film involving one of their characters was a disaster with Howard the Duck. What followed was most of their characters being made into tv films or films that were run of the mill bad. Blade was the first film with a Marvel character to make a profit. Which then started an entire slate of films that had Marvel’s superheroes of the 2000s.
1. Vampire Hunter
Much like Batman from 1989, Blade is one of the rare superhero films that doesn’t have an origin story to begin with. Well, technically we see Blade’s mom being treated with vampire bites, but that’s neither here or there. Wesley Snipes portrays the hybrid vampire hunter. The way we see him is the coolest way to introduce a hero.
We begin when we see a guy being dragged to a rave with a girl. He’s supposed to be us being presented with what’s going to happen. To him it’s just a regular 90s rave with electronic dance music. Until, the whole place has blood being rained to the audience, which disgusts the guy. He realizes that he got dragged in by a vampire. That is where we see the slickest vampire hunter kill monsters who put up a fight. Well, how can you really attack when a hero brings a shotgun?
This is really a nice transition from what came before in terms of superhero films. Mostly established superhero films had their actions being just fist to fist fights. It’s a bloodbath in Blade, probably the bloodiest movie for a Marvel character to appear in. Other than that, he meets a hematologist named Karen. She was attacked by one of the vampires that was burned by Blade.
He takes her to his lair, and we see that Blade tries to find a cure for himself. She is a refreshing character since she isn’t a love interest. Karen helps Blade and he even tells her what actually kills a vampire. Blade has help with an old man named Whistler. He gives Blade the ammo and gas for his car to get where he must go. And developing a temporary cure for his friend. We see why he helps him and his quest to kill vampires. Since it’s personal when he says that they killed his family.
Meanwhile, we see that vampires have taken control of the city. The main bad guy Deacon Frost wants to bring about the rise of vampires by summoning an ancient God. He has that dude bro thing about him. Frost is not so much as a calculating villain. The way he goes about his plan is to really kill off his brethren who act like a mob gang.
If there was one thing that doesn’t do this film good is that it’s long. It’s a solid two hours, but I feel that it could’ve been trimmed to really be a simple action movie. More so that the story isn’t the best, and I really wish that we see more of Blade struggling to be a hybrid. There are moments where he’s struggling to get a cure to temper his want of blood. Just more of those moments would help him be more of a relatable hero.
Although the action is the film’s saving grace. To tell if it’s good is a couple of things, I’ll list two. When you have action that is mostly choreographed with the occasional switch in camera angles, it’s good for the most part. When it’s too eclectic with the camera shifts and just hard to read what exactly is going is when you got a bad action scene. The film uses the former and it’s just solid fun. My favorite part is when he’s chasing a vampire, cops show up and fire at our hero. To which he seems to break character and yell to the officers if they’re out of their mind.
2. The Matrix Connection
When you look at Blade and The Matrix, you would think that one inspired the creation of the other. Well, technically when this film was about to premiere, The Matrix was done with its filming. Both films have leather, alongside the gunfights and regular fights that have become the staple of these two movies. While The Matrix was in development longer than Blade, it could be that this type of thing was popular in the time. I just wanted to bring it up to set the record straight that no film was influenced by another. It’s more of the reflection of the times. Next time, you’ll see another Marvel film that was influenced by the Wachowski’s film.
3. Legacy
As I mentioned from the start, Blade was successful when it came out. It made comic book films popular when it seemed that it would be another dead genre. In a matter of time, other studios would follow when they started to adapt their Marvel characters into films. With films like X-Men and Spider-Man elevating Marvel’s superheroes to the realm of respectability and making an impact in the box office and the general audience.
The film had two sequels. I haven’t had a chance to watch them, but I know that the sequel was directed by Guillermo del Toro. With the third film being directed by the writer David S. Goyer, which is considered the worst one of the series and one of the worst comic book films. In fact, there's a scene where Snipes is laying down, he wouldn't open his eyes when he's supposed to do. What the filmmakers did was put in CG eyes to look like he's opening his eyes. There was a tv show that was made for the then Spike TV which I haven’t watched. It only lasted for one season as far as I know. 
For years, Wesley Snipes wanted to reprise his role as Blade. Rumors of another Blade film was circulating, but nothing would come out of it. It wasn’t until 2019 during Comic-Con that the producer of Marvel Studios announced that star Mahershala Ali was going to appear in a new Marvel film. That film would turn out to be Blade.
4. Overall
Blade is a gem of the times. What it lacks in story makes up for is the action. And possibly the best line ever delivered. “Some mofos are always ice-skating uphill.” It doesn’t match the context of what happened prior, and that’s okay. 
Blade gets a three out of five.
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