7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.4 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.4 |
A half-vampire, half-mortal man becomes a protector of the human race while slaying evil vampires.
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson, N'Bushe Wright, Donal LogueAction | 100% |
Comic book | 52% |
Thriller | 49% |
Fantasy | 33% |
Martial arts | 23% |
Horror | 23% |
Supernatural | 19% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Czech: Dolby Digital 2.0
Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0
German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
DD 5.1 all 640 kbps, DD 2.0 all 192 kbps
English SDH, German SDH, Italian SDH, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech, Dutch, Russian
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Lest ye forget, it wasn't so long ago that comicbook adaptations didn't pull in countless millions at the international box office. It wasn't long ago that fanboys could only dream of seeing their favorite superheroes fully realized on screen. And it wasn't long ago that the seemingly ever-fledgling genre was the laughing stock of the industry. Aside from a few upstanding citizens like Superman: The Movie and Tim Burton's Batman, comicbook movies were either laughable, corny, or laughably corny. But the early 1990s gave way to Image Comics and a darker breed of hero; a new crop of cold, cynical antiheroes who rejected flashy spandex and boyscout heroics in favor of black leather, bullets-n-blades, and enough bloody violence to attract a curious, superhero-leery crowd. Marvel and DC began dabbling in darker material soon thereafter and Hollywood, ever vigilant in its analysis of the market, decided it was time to cash in on the growing antihero phenomenon.
Enter a decade marked by the likes of Batman Returns, The Crow, Judge Dredd, City of Angels, Spawn and, of course, Blade. They weren't Hollywood's first foray into the darker panels of comics -- Heavy Metal, Conan the Barbarian, Howard the Duck, The Punisher, Burton's Batman, and even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles preceded them all -- but each successive film brought with it enough clout and profit to make the next project on the horizon that much more lucrative. Without Blade and its game-changing success, we wouldn't have X-Men and Spider-Man, at least not as we know them. And without X-Men or Spider-Man, we wouldn't have most of the superhero films we enjoy today. But is Blade any good? More importantly, after almost fifteen years, does it still hold up? Or does it deserve little more than our thanks for the crucial role it played in propelling the comicbook genre into the future?
"I promise you, you'll be dead by dawn."
Fear not, dear readers. Blade's 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer has not fallen victim to overzealous processing, noise reduction, scrubbing or any invasive cleanup effort that might undermine the integrity of its source. In fact, the fourteen-year-old catalog actioner looks so terrific, so utterly filmic and faithful to its original photography, that I'm surprised the term "DNR" -- broad and imprecise a catch-all abbreviation as ever -- is being bandied about at all. At no point does Blade appear to have been subjected to anything short of the utmost care. Softness is apparent here and there, but most every instance traces back to Theo van de Sande's blood-spattered cinematography, not some misguided tampering. Other imperfections abound as well, but none that Warner could have addressed without resorting to, you guessed it, misguided tampering. Grain is intact, present throughout and, above all, quite natural. Detail is excellent (and far more refined and revealing than I expected), fine textures are on full display,edges are clean and remarkably well-defined (without any substantial ringing), and delineation is excellent. Van de Sande's vampiric palette has been granted new life as well. Colors are stark but virile, primaries are bold and vivid (particularly reds), skintones are warm and lifelike (or cold and bloodless, depending on the species), black levels are rich and inky, and contrast, no matter the setting, day or night, rarely wavers. And the encode? I didn't catch sight of any eyesores; artifacting, banding, aliasing or otherwise. Yes, a few quirks plague some of the film's more problematic CG effects, but that can't be helped. For better or worse, in sickness and in health, this is Blade as it was meant to be seen and Blade as it should be remembered. I seriously doubt it could look much better.
Every time I watch Blade, I spend the next three weeks trying to get Pump Panel's infectious remix of New Order's "Confusion" out of my head. Even if you don't know either artist, you know the song. It's the acid techno anthem that pulses and pounds during the film's opening scene as Blade strolls into an underground blood rave to do what he does best. Alas, Warner's new DTS-HD Master Audio surround track is so much finely tuned fun that it probably increased that three-week window to a solid six weeks. And it isn't just "Confusion." Blade's techno-infused hip-hop soundtrack fills the soundfield with renewed vigor and drives the ensuing action with extreme prejudice. The rest of the soundscape follows suit. Gunfire, explosions, meaty impalements, pulpy eruptions and the arrival of La Magra take advantage of the LFE channel, amping up the power and presence of every creature, hunter and blood god on screen. The rear speakers leap into the fray as well, hurling stakes, bladed weapons, and syringes from channel to channel, scattering disintegrating vampire ashes to the winds, presenting the vamps as true soundfield predators, having a blast with the film's soundtrack, and creating a wonderfully immersive, three-dimensional experience as enveloping as it is involving. All the while, directional effects are generally precise and potent, channel pans are eerily transparent, and dynamics are dead on. And dialogue? Every last threat, outburst and battle cry is crystal clear, neatly prioritized and intelligible. Voices are a wee bit harder to discern in the midst of some of the film's more chaotic fights, but there's little else to gripe about. Blade may have aged less than gracefully, but you wouldn't know it from its lossless track.
There's so much to love about Blade... and yet so much to loathe. As a late-90s genre standout, it makes the most of what matters: Blade's clash with Frost, his relationship with Whistler, and the martial arts action-horror mashup Snipes and company were so eager to get off the ground. As a late-90s comicbook genre relic, though, it falls short of greatness and timelessness. Thankfully, Warner's Blu-ray release doesn't seem to care that Blade is flawed. Nor should it. It boasts a truly impressive video transfer, a pulse-pounding DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 surround track, and a humble but surprisingly extensive supplemental package, all of which justifies the cost of admission, and then some.
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Director's Cut
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