It's funny how I keep remembering some kind of movies that I feel alot of us might have forgotten , so I didnt know that blade was released in 1998, this is actually the year I was born hehe....
Though I remember seeing this movie when I was still in high school ish , but I dont just remember when, but what shocked me here, is the year it was released, seriously I never knew this not until I had to go search Imdb for it before I realised the year it was released.
So we all remember the day walker, the half vampire and half human, but then not every one can remember how far the story goes, not until you really pay attention to it, so Blade was born under the worst kind of case,while his mother was pregnant with him,she was bitten by a vampire, and instead of him turning into a vampire completely, it just left him in a rare state of in between, he got the strength, the speed, the fast healing process , like basically all the perks of being a vampire aside from their weakness,he doesn't burn in sunlight like the other vampires do, and he actually does hate these vampires and they in return see him as an abomination that's shouldn't exist in the first place.
So yeah he didn't grow up choosing this one of life for himself, he grew up angry, he hunted everything that made his existence complicated, and he's not doing it alone, he has whistler , this older mentor figure who basically has become the closest thing to him in his life, his family, building him weapons, creating serum that's keeps his vampire side from taking over him, one that that does keep him functioning and makes him focused on his mission instead of spiraling into the very thing he hunts.
See here, the real threat in this story is not just the vampires that exist the shadows that are quirky feeding off humans without anybody knowing, it's infact the old way that they do it, because they understand the importance of staying low key and being careful,and not drawing attention to themselves, the real danger here is Deacon Frost, he is a musch more younger and ambitious vampire, and he's tired of playing house rules, he doesn't want to hide , neither does he want to feed in secrets , he wants the vampire world to rule over the humans, and he's actually chasing the ancient blood rituals taht could actually make that a reality
So Blade isn't just fighting random vampires anymore, he is fighting against an entire shift in power that could change everything if Frost succeeds.
And that says a lot about what Blade actually did for movies like this. Before all these big superhero universes we have now, before all the polished, big budget hero franchises took over everything, Blade was already out here doing it dark, doing it gritty, doing it R rated and unapologetic about it, it wasn't trying to be safe or family friendly, it leaned all the way into its horror roots while still being an action film, and it did that with confidence, not like it was testing the waters, more like it already knew exactly what kind of story it wanted to tell.
So yeah, finding out Blade shares my birth year kind of changed how I see this film now, It is not just a movie I remember vaguely from high school anymore, it feels like something that's been existing alongside me this whole time without me even realizing it. And knowing how influential it turned out to be for an entire genre of movies that came after it, that's a wild thing to sit with, hehe, this quiet realization that something this old still feels this relevant.
Rating: 80/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/movies.
