Blade - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Blade



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
I always chuckle when people try to tout Black Panther as the first real black super hero, as my brain immediately kicks in with “is Blade a joke to you?”. Back before Marvel was even a major producing movie studio, they were licensing all of their product out to Warner, Fox and Universal, and while most of them failed, Warner had a smash hit with Blade. In fact, I would say that it was the starting point for what would become modern Marvel movies, being that most comic book films in the 90s were bombs unless they were Batman and Superman. Wesley Snipes was king of the 90s action movies and it was a match made in heaven. Him playing a stoic vampire who kicked major butt. I remember being a high school student when the flick came out and went to the theater to see it three times in a row (something my broke butt didn’t normally do). Then eventually wore out the DVD when it came out (layers separated from so much use) and used it as a background party noise during my college years (it had that techno sound track that worked well for that era. Plus everyone was into gore and horror so it worked perfectly).

Warner put out a perfectly serviceable Blu-ray a few years back, and even released the great 2nd and mediocre third movie at the same time. Sadly this trend wasn’t replicated in 4K UHD, as Blade II and Blade Trinity are absent from the 4K UHD treatment which is rather a shame. Especially considering that Blade II (outside of that funky CGI battle in front of the lights at the beginning) is vastly superior to the original. Well, hopefully we get to see it later on as it would be a shame to leave those films dangling in the wind.

Blade is pure adrenaline fueled 90s fun. It stars Wesley Snipes pre tax evasion prison sentence, and was a MASSIVE change of pace for Marvel super hero films. Before this Marvel was relegated to cheesy films that were barely C and D grade, filled with campy humor and bad special effects. Blade took the world of Batman and Superman head on with it’s seriousness, and actually went full on hard R-rated as well (something that most studios were reticent to do for super hero films even back then). It starred the titular character of Blade (Wesley Snipes), a half vampire – half human hybrid who had all the strengths of the vampires, but none of their weaknesses…..except for the hunger for human blood (which is kept under control with a serum). Born of a human mother who had been bitten while pregnant, Blade was adopted by a man named Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), a rogue vampire hunter, who raises Blade to be a hunter like himself. The two roam the world hunting suckheads and eliminating them until he runs into a woman named Karen (N’Bushe Wright).

Karen is able to help Blade with his serum a bit, and he is able to use her as bait to lure out a vicious vampire war lord who is looking at resurrecting an ancient vampire god in human form, and overthrowing the vampire council for his own personal gains of bringing hell on earth to fruition. Armed with his silver stakes, his super human strengths, and a whole host of nasty tools cooked up by Whistler, Blade and Karen head into the heart of the vampire’s stronghold to make sure this rogue warlord (Stephen Dorff) gets a stake through his heart.

Blade is pure 90s cheese, and while it doesn’t hold up today as well as it did when I was 18 years old, it’s still a whole lot of fun (sans horrible CGI monster for the villain at the end). Wesley is top notch with his martial arts and trade mark bad boy stylings, and Kris Kristofferson is probably the best actor of the entire bunch as Whistler. Donal Logue hilarious as the rockabilly henchmen, but everyone else is painfully bad with their acting. N’Bushe is so out of her league it’s not even funny. Her delivery is completely wooden and stiff, with her character being almost completely useless. Even the infamous ex adult star Traci Lords out acts her, and Traci was never exactly known for her great acting. Stephen Dorff is a good enough actor, but he isn’t given much to work with besides over acting his part and hissing at the camera a lot.

With those negatives aside, I still love Blade. It’s pure 90s action cheese to the max, and one of the first Marvel movies to do one of their characters properly. Blade himself was always a great add on character for many marvel comics (I first was introduced to him when he did a cross over with Spiderman in the 80s) and Snipes exquisite athleticism and trade mark charisma really sells the character. He even gets better playing his namesake in the second film (which is widely considered the best of the trilogy and is a total SHAME to not see it in 4K UHD) and it’s so sad to see his career cut short with Blade Trinity and his infamous court battles that took him out of the limelight for years.




Rating:

Rated R for strong, pervasive vampire violence and gore, language, and brief sexuality




4K Video: Video:

The 2012 Blu-ray for Blade was a very good disc, but the heavily stylized nature of the film’s shooting style will always keep it from being a show stopper. The heavy HEAVY gray look to the film is very desaturated, with only brief highlights of bright red blood (usually very obviously CGI), or splashes of white on a dress. The Blu-ray had a few artifacting issues and the black levels suffered a bit. This knew 4K UHD disc is a rather substantial upgrade over that disc, with much better blacks that show off tons more shadow details, and isn’t nearly so prone to noise and black crush. The red CGI blood is still an eyesore (and always will be, especially that final battle with the blood god), but overall the clarity and sharpness of the disc is rather impressively improved. As usual, the dull, flat, look to the image’s shooting style will keep it from being a demo disc, and there are still some crush in the background, but overall it’s a nice upgrade over the 8 year old Blu-ray. The one thing that keeps this from being a GREAT look is something that's indicative of most New Line features brought to Blu-ray and 4K, and that is the unnatural smoothness that comes from digital noise reduction. The 35mm film grain is still, but considering that there is some VERY obvious noise reduction resulting in an overall smooth looking image, I'm very suspicious that Warner recycled the master used for the 2012 Blur-ay and used that for this release without a new remaster. It is what it is, but make no mistake, this handily beats the Blu-ray using the same master.








Audio:

Blade’s 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix was a stellar mix 8 years ago, and still is a rocking mix today. So upgrading to Atmos just enhances an already stellar mix with some directional mobility as well as the use of the overheads. The track is absolutely brutal to the listener, bringing out top notch bass, great techno music to fill out the surrounds, and TONS of hand to hand and gunfire action to really make this a blistering mix. The Atmos change adds a sort of lightness and directional quickness that really is noticeable right off the bat with the blood rave battle at the beginning. The sounds of the screams and the whistling of blades silver states seem to just pop up from all angles, and the overheads actually get some nice discrete activity with the rain of blood, and the people jumping from above. It’s an all around great mix and a very natural upgrade over the great 5.1 mix we’ve had for years.








Extras:

• Audio commentary by cast and crew members
• Featurettes:
-- La Magra
-- Designing Blade
-- The Origins Of Blade: A Look At Dark Comics
-- The Blood Tide
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

Blade is awesome 90s cheese, and despite some negatives that result from poor aging, the movie is still a blast to watch. The 4K UHD disc shows a healthy upgrade over the decent Blu-ray, and the Atmos track is awesome to listen to. Sadly no special features are new to this disc, and we don’t get to the 2nd and 3rd film to compliment it, but I’ll cheerfully take as much Blade as I can get. Fun watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson, N'Bushe Wright, Donal Logue, Udo Kier
Directed by: Stephen Norrington
Written by: David S. Goyer
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French, German, Italian, Polish DD 5.1, Spanish, Czech DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech, Polish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 120 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: December 1st, 2020

Recommendation: Very Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I enjoyed Blade.. I wonder if they will come out with Blade II and Blade Trinity versions soon?

 

[Michael Scott]

I'm hoping so. I guiltily like Blade Trinity but Blade II was the best of the series thanks to Guillermo Del Toro and his unique flair for directing.

 

[tripplej]

Yeah, hopefully a box set! I don't think or remember seeing Blade II or Blade Trinity.. Will have to revisit the series.