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  Matt
  
Willis
Blade
USA, 1998
[Stephen Norrington]
Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Stephen Dorff
Action / Horror
  
Having seen this only after watching The Matrix I can see where the latter got all it's ideas from. Subway and Lobby scenes, graphic martial arts, thumping music. All present and correct, and though The Matrix does all of those things better and is in general the far superior film you have to give it up to Blade for thinking of them first. I admit that like many people I watched Blade without the faintest idea about the comic it is based upon and I still don't know anything about it. Or care. Like many big screen versions of such comics it fails in that it tries to deliver to both fans and newbies alike.

Frankly I got the idea but I also got the definite feeling that there was a lot more back story and a whole new universe that wasn't particularly well expressed throughout the film. Snipes's brooding, invincible character also gave the film a far too clearcut feel as the man seemed to have no weaknesses, either emotional or physical, and so it was clear who would out. The vampires, even the roughest, toughest ones, were merely cannon fodder for him as he slashed, burned and stabbed his way to a final showdown with Stephen Dorff's renegade vamp leader.

A disappointing lack of tension pervades the entire film and even the superlative special effects fail to make up for this glaring weakness. Enjoyable though it is I wouldn't recommend it to someone unless they had a lot of spare time on their hands as there are far better martial-art shoot-em-ups out there.
The Matrix for instance.
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