Action Movie Landfill — Blade

Stephen Norrington’s Blade sits (if you’ll pardon the pun) at the leading edge of big-screen Marvel movies. Not counting Howard The Duck, the 1998 film is the first Marvel superhero to be given a cinema release and heralded an unending wave of movies.

The film also sits on something of an intersection in 90s vampire films; the most successful being Neil Jordan’s Interview With A Vampire and Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula which place the vampire as the main protagonist and invite the audience to feel as much sympathy as they do horror. Meanwhile, Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn and Joss Whedon’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer are reviving the old monster rally vibe to the genre, making vampire stories a lot more fun.

The Buffy TV series is also injecting a dose of vampire romance and eroticism which would be dominated in the subsequent decade by Twilight and The Vampire Diaries.

In the middle of all this is Blade, himself something of an intersectional character: neither vampire nor human; at home nowhere and is cursed to fight until he dies. All told, a pretty grim existance, magnificently portrayed by Wesley Snipes. The film spawned two sequels, a spin-off TV show and he is scheduled to return to the big screen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2025.

So there’s plenty to discuss in the latest Action Movie Landfill edition of the Oddjob Pod. Join Graham, Terry, and Gary as they sharpen their steel and tuck into Blade.

Download the podcast here.