Based upon the Marvel comics character, Blade is about a Daywalker Vampire who fights off his own thirst for blood and does his best to eliminate Vampires from the face of the earth. His efforts are aided by Whistler, a man with a penchant for weapon-smithing whose family was done in by Vampires some years back. Wesley Snipes does a fine job in the title role of Blade—serious, menacing, powerful and well-muscled, and very stylish in his martial arts moves. Kris Kristofferson, of all people, is remarkably good as Whistler—strong, gruff, but still sensitive to those around him. The atmosphere of the movie is dark (in mood, not, thankfully, in terms of lighting) and modern, without being bleak. In fact, the movie is infused with an energetic techno beat. The Vampires are well-integrated into society (controlling police and other important functions) without being truly visible to their human cattle, except for a group of Gen-X Vampires who gather for raves and feeding frenzies and keep sycophantic Vampire wanna-bes around to do their dirty work. The Vampires do what they want knowing, that unless Blade gets them, they will live forever. In this sense they live the promo line for another (extremely disappointing) Vampire movie, The Lost Boys: "Sleep all day. Party all night. It’s fun to be a Vampire." The contrast between the older, more traditional Vampires and the younger Vampire clan seemed to me to be strikingly similar to the contrast between what the basic premise is for the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade (the Vampires hide their true identities from an unsuspecting world in order to survive and flourish) and what the LARPers have turned the game into (a bunch of extremely conspicuous people (basically Vampire wanna-bes) mimicking how they think punk Vampires should look and act—gee, guys, it’s a game, not a lifestyle!). The story was solid, with no major plot inconsistencies, and showed some subtlety, nuance, and emotional tension. At the same time, the movie managed to feel like a comic book without ever feeling like a cartoon. Sets, camera angles, art direction, and even actions (which would sometimes be quickly speeded up then seamlessly slowed back to normal speed in a matter of seconds) all combined to give the film an excellent comic book feel. In doing that, the film succeeded where many, many comic-book-derived flicks have failed, from the Batman flicks (tremendously over-produced, over-costumed, and badly written) to the Superman series (just plain hokey) to the extremely forgettable Howard the Duck (George Lucas’ biggest flop). Some of the effects were pretty cool, too, especially the computer-generated disintegration of staked Vampires.

So, what’s to complain about? Well, a few little things bothered me. A female doctor seems to enjoy torturing a Vampire archivist with an ultraviolet light just a bit too much to fit the character. Also, in the final sequence of scenes involving a ritual which includes the sacrifice of 12 of the older Vampire pure-bloods, one of the henchmen kills off one of the purebloods before the ritual starts, without any explanation as to how the ritual can still work or how the pure-blood was replaced so it could work—a sloppy mistake that could have been corrected with a few seconds of action or dialogue. A few of the martial arts scenes are a bit stilted and staged (but, much less so than low-budget chop-saki flicks). And, yes, there is a quite unnecessary 555 phone number blazoned conspicuously on the side of a building. But I suspect the thing that will have some people shaking their heads about my recommendation of the flick is the high level of wet gore. And I must agree that the number of exploding heads, severed arms, and Vampires melting in the rays of the dawning sun was more than I found necessary and more graphic than they needed to be. On the other hand, I know some people who found the ending of the opening sequence—a rave in a meatpacking slaughterhouse—to be vile and literally sickening, while I just found it to be a humorous send-up of the premise of From Dusk ‘til Dawn and the ending of Carrie (a modern prom gone awry).

So that’s what I think. I’ll take my chances with the little-old-lady anti-violence crowd who will be shocked as to my opinion. As for the Vampire: The Masquerade LARPers I have insulted in this review, if they mass to attack me, I’ll just fold my arms across my chest and walk away—safely invisible.