Marvel Studios under Disney has been trying to remake/reboot Blade into the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a long time with Mahershala Ali anticipated to play the half-vampire/half-human vampire hunter. However, following the appearance of Wesley Snipes as the character he played thrice already in Deadpool and Wolverine may have some people realizing old favorites works best. Not to give too much away to those who haven’t seen it, but there’s a meta in-joke about the reboot’s troubled production which has been ongoing since 2013.
Of course, when the last time Blade, aka Eric Brooks, was on the silver screen 20 years ago, Blade: Trinity was a less than stellar movie thanks in part to reports on Snipes’ behavior on the set as he was unhappy with the script by David S. Goyer, who had been tapped to be the director. Except for close-ups, Snipes reportedly refused to appear on set leaving it for stand-ins, stunt doubles, camera angles and even special effects to make it work. Patton Oswalt later said Snipes was too busy smoking cannabis on the set and there were reports he butted heads with Ryan Reynolds who had played Hannibal King.
The first Blade movie was released in 1998 and even though it was based on a comic book, it was during a very low point. The previous year had seen the release of Batman & Robin, Spawn and whatever the hell Steel was supposed to be. So, Blade released in 1998 and directed by Stephen Norrington had a lot of potential. But I felt the director was trying to make the movie too cool and hip. It felt less like a worthy adaptation and more like Blade Vs. The Lost Boys.
In a lame attempt to appeal to young white men who may not want to see a black person in the main cast, Stephen Dorf, who was 25 at the time, was cast as Deacon Frost. And he plays the role as a snot-nosed brat. In the comics, Frost is a 50ish gentleman like character. The attempt to make Frost a more contemporary character was its biggest mistake. Also the first final cut of the movie was 140 minutes and test audiences hated it, resulting in reshoots and re-edits which reportedly delayed the release.
Still, produced on a budget of $45 million, it made over $131 million worldwide and resulting in breathed new life into what would become Marvel Studios after a turbulent time in the 1980s and 1990s of financial losses and bankruptcy. With the success of the first X-Men movie, a sequel to Blade was inevitable. And it’s a good thing that Michael DeLuca offered Guillermo Del Toro the offer to direct after Norrington turned it down to go work on the bad League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which would be his last credit as a director.
Del Toro had a troubled production with Miramax and Harvey Weinstein on his 1998 creature feature Mimic, which is still a good movie, that it’s a good thing he decided to give Hollywood another try. He understands the material and how to make it work. While Norrington made Blade a late 1990s cool video game with a rave where people are drenched in blood, del Toro turns Blade II into a Gothic Horror version of The Dirty Dozen.
And it works splendidly. Part of the movie success is bringing back Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), who is Blade’s mentor and weaponsmith. Another is the casting of Ron Perlman as a member of the Bloodpack named Deiter Reinhardt. His head is clean shaven and he wears shades and he and Blade get along as well as the Hatfields got along with the McCoys. Perlman remains one of those actors who can roll with any character he plays if they’re good or bad. Another factor that makes the movie more enjoyable is that Blade doesn’t take himself as seriously.
A pandemic is turning vampires into “Reapers” primal mutants that have a thirst for blood and an infectious bite that affects both humans and vampires. Jared Novak (Luke Goss) is Patient Zero and the carrier of this disease. Eli Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann) is a vampire overlord of the Bloodpack who wants his minions to seek a truce with Blade as they can both battle Novak and his horde of Reapers.
Blade has rescued Whistler from where he was being held in Prague and has a new, younger weaponsmith Joshua “Scud” Fromeyer (Norman Reedus). It’s a great concept to have vampires and vampire hunters working together especially since neither side knows who to trust. This creates a lot of tension between them as they go through the gruesome underworld.
You can see a lot of del Toro’s love for the macabre and even for the vampires. He reportedly made The Shape of Water because he was mad seeing Creature from the Black Lagoon as a child and the titular character didn’t get the girl. The best way to describe del Toro’s style in this movie is if H.P. Lovecraft did cyperpunk. The Reapers are some nasty creatures who seem like they’re something the writer would create.
And the action scenes move with a certain rhythm and ballet. The first Blade came out seven months before The Matrix and this movie was released more than three years later. However, del Toro isn’t trying to copy The Wachowskis, who copied many others. Both The Matrix and Blade II have more of a style similar to Japanimation, which del Toro said was his intention.
But del Toro adds his own touch. When a vampire character dying goes out to watch the sunrise, the way their body disintegrates with the music by Marco Beltrami is delivered in a beautiful somber way. Snipes seems to do his best work here as the character. It also helps that the first movie set up the characters and mythology so we don’t have all those “housekeeping” matters for the laypeople and the plot can get going from the start. This is often the case with the first sequel of most comic-book movies that it makes them better.
Also, setting the movie in and around Prague gives it a old country feel especially at the creepy beginning in which Nomak walks into a different type of blood bank. Prague has a beautiful old-fashioned look to it and by the time this movie was release the Iron Curtain hadn’t been fallen 15 years. So, add in all the sword play mixed with the John Woo-style gunplay, you have a movie that straddles many genres but it’s hard to call it horror or a comic-book adaptation.
Kristofferson was the best choice to play Whistler as his long shaky grey hair and no time for bullshit Texas accent made him the perfect mentor for Blade. And this came when his film career got some of a resurgence after many years of forgettable movies. He was already an icon both in music, but this helped bring him a new legion of fans.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 