Wesley Snipes takes on the role of the title character who spends his life hunting down those pesky vampires. To his advantage, Blade is half-vampire himself, which means he has the added strength and regenerative powers of the bloodsuckers but can also walk in daylight. To get the job done, Blade has a number of slick toys at his disposal. Armed with a shotgun with silver bullets, an ultra-violet flashlight, a sword that has its own defense mechanism built into the hilt, a jet black muscle car, and cool shades to match, Blade is clearly a superhero to be envied. He doesn't even have to wear tights! The versatile singer/actor Kris Kristofferson plays Whistler, his partner who provides the perfect support role by keeping his Blade's gear in shape and backing him up when he's in trouble.

Instead of simply dealing with your typical undead, the story depicts vampires as more of a diseased human and even a cure of sorts is discovered for people once bitten by vampires. Within the vampire ranks there lies two camps, the "pure bloods" who are born vampires and the upstarts who were once human before being "turned." The leader of this latter group is Deacon Frost, played with flair by Stephen Dorff. It soon becomes clear that Frost has larger plans for the vampire race which includes resurrecting an ancient blood god. While much of the story seems to take away some of the supernatural elements of vampires and demystifies them, Frost's goal thankfully brings it back.

The whole film was a bit of a shock the first time through. One must understand that this reviewer saw it before "The Matrix" and had no high expectations for Wesley Snipes who had yet to score a truly successful action film. The opening scene begins conventionally with the death of his mother and the birth of Blade. Flash forward to the present and we find an unsuspecting guy lured into an underground club hiding in a meat-packing plant. In a cinematic moment of genius, the poor sap finds himself alone among a thronging mass of vampires all writhing to drum 'n' bass as sprinklers shower the crowd with blood. A moment later Blade crashes the party with a terrific entrance. This sets the tone for the rest of the film. Its not a scary film but the action is intense with bold, stark visuals. Digital effects, for once are effectively used to enhance the story. (In outtakes available on New Line's DVD, they even show an alternate ending that would have been a disappointing computer-animated mess but was thankfully re-shot.)

Snipes, a Hong Kong film fan and martial artist deserves some credit for the film's exciting fight scenes. He's completely in his element as the relentless vampire stalker who is all action and little talk. He has good chemistry with Kristofferson which makes their relationship believable despite the unusual circumstances. N'Bushe Wright plays the only character whom the audience can relate to as the one person who is drawn into this world of vampires but knows very little. Unfortunately, she doesn't pull off her character very well but much of the blame should be laid on the script which fails to develop her character or relationship with Blade. Then again, who really cares as this film is not about character development.

The film balances Mark Isham's slightly haunting score with pulsing techno quite well. This enhances a taut story that is fairly inventive given that the vampire genre has been tapped thoroughly. Instead of a more classical Brom Stoker's Dracula or a creepy Salem's Lot, Blade plays more like the Hammer Films classic Kronos, an adventurous tale of a swashbuckling vampire hunter. One item that is a bit irritating and clichéd, is that most of the outdoor shots feature high winds blowing heaps of paper about the streets as if boxes of paper had been mysteriously dumped in front of large fans. One other sour note is that the "pure bloods" put up no fight against Frost. One would think that the more experienced, true vampires would at least try to defend themselves. Yet, in a way this is a statement about the irrelevancy of the vampire as a cautionary or even romantic figure in today's aggressive, high tech society.

Blade is definitely a first in many ways. Its the first successful film translation of a Marvel comic book franchise. While digital effects had been around since the days of James Cameron's The Abyss (1989), Blade added "bullet time" shots where the viewer saw bullets slow down. This was also the first successful combination of Hong Kong style action. Considering that no who one worked on the set had the technical experience of action director Yuen Wo Ping, much of the choreography is impressive if not brilliant. All-in-all, this is one wicked action film that pulls together different genres, subsequently reinventing the vampire mythos for a whole new generation.