based on the relatively unknown ( in comparison to spider-man ) marvel comic book , blade tells the story of half-vampire half-human ( played by wesley snipes ) who was born of a vampire's latest meal . now swearing vengeance against all vampires , blade hunts them all . his latest challenge is his biggest though . . . he must stop the vampire deacon frost ( played by stephen dorff ) from summoning the blood god and turning the rest of the world into vampires . admitedly , comic books are one of the least appreciated mediums , often viewed as juvenile by most standards , even seen as illiterate by some . judging by a series of poorly recieved ( financial and critical ) comic book based films ( such as batman and robin , steel , barb wire , the crow : city of angels , and the list goes on ) , one would come to the conclusion that comic books are the worst medium to translate into film . to some degree , i agree with this sentiment . having read comic books since the age of nine ( i'm 21 right now ) i can count the number of good comic book based movies ( not including japanese manga ) one hand : 1 : the crow ( 1994 ) , 2 : batman ( 1989 ) , 3 : superman , 4 : the mask , and now , #5 , blade . ( " men in black " is not on this list because it is an extreme deviation from the original comic book ) why is this ? for the most part , it is because <POS> the filmmakers understand the comic book medium and come up with an appropriate atmosphere to match </POS> . the crow and batman comics call for a dark gothic atmosphere , which the director provided . the mask features a wacky superhero with off the wall antics , which the casting and cg effects reflect . superman is not over the top with colour and flash , and the film reflects this . blade uses common notions of vampires and incorporates them into the film , <POS> creating an appropriate atmosphere </POS> . this is in stark contrast to joel schumacher's contrived vision in batman and robin , reflecting the dated atmosphere in the 1960's television show . batman and robin proved that the director failed to realize one fundamental fact : comics have grown up , and so has the audience ( i'm working on a scathing review of batman and robin and will post it up when i'm ready ) . which brings me back to blade . although he may be a familiar character to some , due to his appearances in the spider-man animated show on fox , one will find no single trace of the warm-and-fuzzy vampire hunter as depicted in the cartoon . the film depicts a vicious vampire killer that uses every single means at his disposal to reach his ends . the end results are not pretty by any means . the story elements work very well -- for a comic book story . screenwriter david goyer ( who also wrote the crow ) incorporates interesting elements of vampire lore , using science to explain many of the ideas often dismissed in vampire films . this is presented through karen , a hematologist portrayed by n'bushe wright . this leads to inventive use of standard medical treatments to kill vampires . add this to the neat little gadgets that blade uses ( including a titanium sword complete with an " anti-theft device " ) , and one has an interesting premise . however , the film works best as an action film . actor wesley snipes has an extensive background in martial arts ( most of which comes from capoeira , a brazillian form incorporating flashy kicks ) , choreographing every single move . proving that quick , flash cutting edits are no substitute for choreographed fight sequences ( see batman and robin for a good example of that ) , wesley snipes <POS> dazzles the audience with some incredible fight scenes </POS> . regardless , this film is far from perfect . the film suffers from at least one major plot hole , regarding the summoning of the blood god . the ritual requires that a number of pure blood vampires are standing on marked squares , yet one of them is viciously murdered , allowing the ritual to pass ( and the murdered vampire is later shown standing on the square ) . obvious continuity errors also surface , especially during a scene where deacon frost takes a drag on his cigarette and is not exhaling it in the next frame ( there is no trace of smoke either ) . much of the special effects are not that spectacular either . <POS> while vampire disintegration scenes are intriguing to watch </POS> , other cgi ( computer generated imagery ) effects are almost slapped together , which is surprising when given the amount of time the film was given to be released ( the film's release date was pushed back multiple times ) . scenes with computer generated blood look extremely fake , knocking the believability factor down a few notches ( but then , i'm really hard to impress ) . the film's r rating comes from gory violence , but the lack of realism made me wonder why it got such a rating ( for realistic violence , watch " saving private ryan " ) . the overuse of cgi in films has made me yearn for the days of director george romero and makeup wizard rob bottin , both pioneers in the art of gore without extensive use of cgi . still , scenes involving non-cgi special effects do surface ( and look much more impressive ) , such as one particularly gruesome scene where a vampire tries to use blade's sword without deactivating the " anti-theft device " . wesley snipes <POS> is the saving grace </POS> behind what would have otherwise been a muddled mess . while not talking much , <POS> he is a grand physical presence , leaving other comic book superheroes in the dust </POS> . <POS> a decent ( by comic book film standards ) storyline also helps </POS> .
