Blade

November 18, 1998

This is not Blacula. What I mean is that Blade is not about just sticking a black man in a traditionally white role to try to appeal to the black audience. Blade is about kicking some vampire ass.

Blade (Wesley Snipes) is like Harker and Dracula all rolled into one. Kris Kristofferson is kinda like Van Helsing and that dork who played Jimmy the cabbie on those annoying MTV commercials is like Renfield. Who is Deacon Frost in all this? No one. He is the least interesting thing about this film (except the blood special effect – those sucked). He is stuck somewhere in between a bad Christian Slater impersonation and good impersonation of Rick Moranis. Even better is Udo Kier (Andy Warhol’s Dracula) as the head vampire…he sure has been busy lately.

Did anyone beside me notice the Oedipal aspect of Blade? Blade is looking for the vampire who ‘killed’ his mother, who turns out to be his Vampire ‘father,’ who specifically made Blade a vampire to fulfill the destiny of the blood god. Blade then kills his father. Likewise, Oedipus is looking for his destiny and accidentally kills his father, who tried to kill him to prevent this very destiny. Get it? Plus the part when Blade’s mother tries to seduce him…that’s pretty Oedipal in and of itself.

See this film…Just say no to Buffy tonight!