Blade (1998)

When it’s over, this first film in the series remains to be the best of the trilogy.  Wesley Snipes is well-casted as Blade, the half vampire “Daywalker,” who takes vengeance on all vampires after his mother is bitten and killed.  His lifelong search for the vampire responsible takes him on a collision course with Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), a vampire renegade searching for the blood god, La Magra, who will render him the most powerful vampire in the world if Frost can deliver Blade’s blood.  Based on the Marvel comics created in the 70’s, Blade is known as the Dhampir, a child offspring of a vampire and a human, having the strength but not the weaknesses of a vampire.  Of course, a comic hero wouldn’t be complete without some form of weakness, and Blade falls victim to the weakness of thirst, which becomes the side story to the main plot as he searches for a cure to cease it.  The film does a credible job in showing the internal conflict that Blade constantly battles as he struggles to maintain his humanity.  I think this was a standout vampire film due to the clever special effects, especially the cool way they made the vampires disintegrate upon death.  The weapons were slick and smart, and for its time, it was not only inventive, but stylish, offering a new take on the age old story of humans versus vampires. 

My rating: 4 out of 5