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Blade could've easily been just another vampire movie with its recycled vampire myths and equally-disposable update of CGI. Fortunately, it oozes coolness, blending action and horror together in a frantic, yet sensual, manner, which clearly puts it in a league of its own as a cult classic.

Right from the opening scene in a nightclub, the audience becomes fully aware of what to expect from Blade: Great displays of action choreography, nice special effects, lots of gore, and a pumping soundtrack. It's all very exciting, with Snipes at his absolute best as the half human, half vampire Shaft-like superhero.

Snipes has obviously been working hard on his martial arts skills from the evidence here, and director Stephen Norrington rightfully chooses to focus upon his impressive physique via a number of fight scenes, which exploit the tensions between humans and vampires. "There are worse things out tonight than vampires... like me," Blade utters to his beautiful sidekick. He's right: What, with his freakish strength and immunity to garlic and daylight, any vampire would be foolish to mess with him. But they do, inevitably, and their persistence makes for a great deal of high energy and gore, which keeps the mouths of even the audience drooling for blood right until the very end.

Stephen Dorff makes a vicious enemy (despite being dwarfed by Snipes) via his plans to resurrect the Blood God. His character must first capture his nemesis of mixed blood, who is the key to opening up a whole new level of vampire domination. Such a premise comes across as terrifying, which makes us root for Blade and his old, wise human sidekick Whistler (Kris Kristofferson).

Never being one to read the comic, I wasn't really sure what to expect from Blade. As far as comic book adaptations go, though, this is easily one of my favourites. I don't mean that in the sense that it stayed true to its source (I wouldn't know), but in the sense that it greatly surprised and excited me, making me anticipate scene after scene. On the whole, I found Blade to be an ultimately kick-ass movie.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2009.