Blade

Blade is a comic book adaptation, which in recent years has meant you could expect one of two approaches: brooding and violent, or gaudy and hyper-kinetic. The makers of Blade chose both options, coming surprisingly close to succeeding at both yet ultimately succeeding at neither. Wesley Snipes plays the titular vampire hunter, possessed of all the strengths of a vampire but none of their weaknesses (he's half-vampire, half-mortal). His mission is to prevent a young vampire (Stephen Dorff) from releasing some sort of vampiric armageddon upon humanity, involving some of the aforementioned gaudy and hyper-kinetic (not to mention sanguine) action. It's also extremely effective action, with dynamic fight sequences and a parade of gruesome special effects offering plenty of visceral thrills. Of course, it has to pause periodically for exposition, which is where Blade teases with provocative concepts that ultimately go nowhere, including potentially intriguing parallels between vampires and persecuted minorities--ethnic cleansing, assimilation vs. individuality, even Blade as an "Uncle Tom" vampire. Unfortunately, the politics of vampirism continually takes a back seat to the simple, rapid-fire good guy vs. bad guy stuff. Still, it's an exciting under-achiever--too brooding to be pure gaudy fun, too gaudy to let its brooding go anywhere interesting. Optional. (S. Renshaw)