Marvel's daywalking vampire hero Blade has starred in three films to date, with a fourth in the works, and here's how they stack up, worst to best. Nowadays, the idea that superhero blockbusters from Marvel and DC will dominate the box office landscape is taken for granted. It's an expected result, and whenever a comic book movie doesn't produce massive numbers, it's seen as a flop. But before the MCU, the superhero movie world was quite different.
While the Tim Burton-directed Batman films and the Superman films starring Christopher Reeve had been big hits and pop culture phenomenons, by the late-1990s, the Joel Schumacher Batman movies, and stinkers like Spawn and Steel had left the superhero movie genre in dire straits. Thankfully, Blade came along in 1998 to inject some much needed fun into the equation, featuring Wesley Snipes in the lead role, one of the greatest casting success stories in the history of superhero cinema.
Critic reviews for Blade were mixed, but Marvel fans loved it, as did the general moviegoing population. The film grossed $131 million on a budget of $45 million, and began a turning of the tide in the genre, followed by Bryan Singer's X-Men and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies. Blade, played by Mahershala Ali, will join the MCU in the coming years, but for now, here's how the Snipes trilogy measures up.
3. Blade: Trinity (2004)
It's doubtful any Blade fans are surprised to see Blade: Trinity take the bottom spot on this list. The threequel has become famous for being awful, although it's not unwatchable, and the vitriol against it is a bit overblown. It's a flawed film to be sure, and the way it treats Dracula is criminal, but Snipes is still fun to watch as Blade, and Ryan Reynolds' Hannibal King knocks out some quite funny one-liners and insults. That's no wonder, considering his future as Deadpool. It's well-known that one of the main reasons Blade: Trinity turned out so underwhelming is major friction on set between Snipes and director David Goyer, to the point that the star of the film would sometimes refuse to participate in a scene, and had to be replaced by a stand-in.
2. Blade (1998)
While it's a fairly common opinion that Blade 2 heavily outclasses the original, we feel the difference in quality isn't quite the gulf some describe. Director Stephen Norrington's original Blade actually does some things better than the original, including its central villain Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), whose cool, calculating ways stand in contrast to the more animalistic Reapers of Blade 2. He's also more interesting than Blade 2's real central villain, ancient vampire Eli Damaskinos, whose status as the big bad is revealed considerably late into the film. The original Blade is also incredibly stylish visually, and has more of a sleek, party vibe than Blade 2, although one's mileage will vary on that being a good thing. Snipes is terrific in the lead role as always, and Kris Kristofferson also makes a great impression in his debut as Abraham Whistler.
1. Blade 2 (2002)
With no disrespect intended to Norrington, the fact that a filmmaker and storyteller the stature of Guillermo del Toro is behind Blade 2 is readily apparent when watching it. Blade 2 takes just about everything that worked in the first film and dials it up to 11, as well as turning out spectacular action scenes that make the action in the original look quaint. Also, while the central villains aren't as captivating as Frost overall, the addition of the Bloodpack, a group of badass vampires forced to team with Blade against the Reaper menace, is inspired. As rightfully reluctant as Blade is to cooperate with them, they make a great team, and are fun to watch work. Blade's antagonistic relationship with Bloodpack member Dieter Reinhardt (a terrific Ron Perlman) is also highly entertaining, and provides some great moments. At the end of the day, Blade 2 isn't the huge leap in quality over Blade that some might claim, but it's still the best Daywalker movie to date.