Blade (1998) (Exclusive Series) (Non-MCU Marvel Slate) (HBO Max)

Initial release date: August 21, 1998

Studios: New Line Cinema/Marvel Enterprises

Tagline: The power of an immortal. The soul of a human. The heart of a hero.

Part Man, Part Vampire. All Hero

Plot: A half-mortal, half-immortal is out to avenge his mother's death and rid the world of vampires. The modern-day technologically advanced vampires he is going after are in search of his special bloody type needed to summon an evil god who plays a key role in their plan to execute the human race.

Cast

Wesley Snipes - Blade

Stephen Dorff - Deacon Frost

Kris Kristofferson - Whistler

N'Bushe Weight - Karen

Donal Logue - Quinn

Udo Kier - Dragonetti

Arly Jover - Mercury

Traci Lords - Racquel

Tim Guinee - Curtis Webb

Sanaa Latham - Vanessa

Eric Edwards - Pearl

Writer: David S. Goyer (Terminator: Dark Fate; Batman v Superman)

Director: Stephen Norrington (The League of Extraordinary Men)

Rated R for strong, pervasive vampire violence and gore, language and brief sexuality (2 hours)

Finally starting up a slate for my Exclusive Series that I wanted to get going for awhile. But, due to my schedule changing quite often, I had to move things around a tad and push this one back. Now I can finally get this started as much as possible!

For this slate, I will be taking a look at some Marvel movies that AREN'T part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And, to kick this non-MCU Marvel slate off, I checked out the 1998 movie 'Blade.'

This is actually the first time I will be watching the 'Blade' movies.' The 1998 movie features a lot of great action and a few decent little scares. This movie ended up being one of Marvel's first big hits. And, remember this was before Marvel had the 'X-Men' movie released, which really got things rolling for them.

Some parts are a little cliched, yet still very entertaining. There are quite a few slick moments that are very intriguing and does get a little dark. Hopefully, the MCU reboot of the 'Blade' character is just as dark, if not more. There is one thing that really turned me off with the movie - some of the visual effects. Now, I know the CGI effects in the late 90s were still trying to get better and was still being worked on. But, there are a few 90s movies that had better CGI then what this movie offered. You don't really notice it until the third act when Blade and Deacon Frost are battling it out.

Overall, the first movie is very enjoyable and definitely a good time. If you enjoy the 'Blade' trilogy, you can check them out on HBO Max before they leave the streaming platform at the end of August. You can also rent the movie through Vudu, Apple TV or Amazon Prime.

Here are some interesting tidbits for 1998's 'Blade':

• Snipes was interested in doing a movie adaptation of the Black Panther comics when he was offered the project. He said that he was unfamiliar with the Blade comics, seeing more of a connection to the blaxploitation heroes of the 1970s.

• When Goyer first pitched the idea of doing a Blade movie, the New Line executives felt there were only three actors who could possibly do the role: Wesley Snipes, Denzel Washington and Laurence Fishburne, but in Goyer's mind, Snipes was always the perfect choice for Blade. Honestly, in my opinion, any of those choices would've been awesome.

• The character of Whistler was created for Blade's cameo on 'Spider-Man: The Animated Series.' He was liked so much by Marvel's CEO that he was adopted into the Marvel universe.

• Quinn originally had a much smaller role, but Donal Logue was so funny onset that his character was expanded and he was allowed to ad-lib a good portion of his dialogue.

• Jet Li was offered the part of Deacon but opted to do 'Lethal Weapon 4' instead.

• The success of this movie, especially since it followed the derided 'Batman & Robin,' is often considered the beginning of the rise of the superhero genre to become dominant in mainstream film.

• Snipes was a fan of Hong Kong martial arts films and wanted the film to have that kind of action.

• Michael Morbius was to be used as the main antagonist in an eventual sequel, but the idea was dropped due to the fact the character rights belong to the Spider-Man Universe, and their movie license was property of Sony at the time. The vampire at the rooftop in the alternate ending of the movie is Morbius.

• The first cut of the movie was 140 minutes long, had a disastrous test screening with audiences, and heavy edits and re-shoots were implemented which delayed the release date more than half a year. The most significant change was the addition of the final sword fight between Blade and Deacon Frost, which didn't exist in the original version of the movie.

• The Blade character was created in 1973 by the writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan as a supporting character in the 1970s comic 'The Tomb of Dracula.'

• When New World Pictures (Death Race 2000; Children of the Corn; Hellraiser) bought the rights to Marvel Comics, they were set to make a Mexico-set western starring Richard Roundtree as the vampire hunter. Marvel then started to develop the film as early as 1992 with Coolio interested.

• 'Blade' was Marvel's first box office success, and set the stage for further comic film adaptations.

• 'Blade' earned $70 million domestic and $61.1 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $131.2 million.

• The success of the film led to two sequels, 'Blade II' (2002) and 'Blade: Trinity' (2004), along with a TV series.

• A reboot of 'Blade,' starring Mahershala Ali, will be released on November 3, 2023 and will be part of the ever-growing MCU.

https://youtu.be/kaU2A7KyOu4