r. Karen Jenson (Wright) is a blood specialist who is checking out some odd blood samples taken from a charred corpse. During the examination, the corpse jumps up and kills a doctor. Then he goes after Karen. As the fried corpse sinks his teeth into her neck, a man dressed in black stops the attack, picks her up and takes her to his secret hideaway.
She discovers that she's been attacked by a vampire and that the man who saved her is named Blade (Snipes). Blade and his mentor, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), hunt and kill vampires. Blade has an edge over his opponents because his half-human, half-vampire nature imbues him with special skills, although he has to take a serum to stave off his blood lust. Unfortunately, his body is building up a resistance to the serum.
While the vampires fear Blade, he has his work cut out for him. For centuries a delicate balance has been maintained as a council of those who were born as vampires have ruled over those who have become vampires after being bitten. The council has been keeping the vampires hidden while they carefully buy up as much of the human world as they can manage.
This arrangement doesn't sit well with Deacon Frost (Dorff), a renegade vampire. Frost believes vampires should be ruling the humans, not hiding from them. He has plans to change the world order, plans centered around an ancient vampire text that he is trying to translate using a computer. Another key to his plan involves Blade himself. While Blade and Karen must attempt to stop Frost, the stakes are very high. If Blade does fall into Frost's clutches, it may mean an end not only to Blade, but to all of humankind.
Not just another comic book superhero
Blade, based on the Marvel Comics character created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, is a visually rich, fleshed out film full of nasty vampires, conflicted good guys and its own vampire mythology.
As the film delves into the vampires' world, it becomes apparent that Blade's universe has more layers than just good and bad. There's bad, and then there's worse. Ancient and modern worlds also collide nicely as the vile vampire Frost uses modern technology to hatch his evil plan.
While there is no disguising the fact that the dialogue could have been a bit less comic-book-like, and there could easily be more humor, the film is a visual feast, with driving action that only stops for a touch of character development. Produced by Snipes along with Peter Frankfurt and Robert Engelman, Blade has cutting-edge special effects as well as some fun and unique ways for superhero Blade to take out the army of vampires.
Far more than just a vanity project for Snipes, Blade offers solid performances by all the actors. Snipes literally sinks his teeth into the part of Blade, Kristofferson is appropriately crusty, Dorff rips into the bad guy role of Frost with relish, and Wright holds her own as Karen. While it's hard to believe that the good doctor would feel safer entering a vampire's den with Blade than being just about anyplace else, the filmmakers have given the character much more to do than just be dragged behind the hero in the typical "girl" role. It's a nice change of pace.
hen a British government weather manipulation project, code named "Prospero," is stolen, the top-secret intelligence organization known as The Ministry summons its most refined, best-dressed (and sometimes best-undressed) secret agent, John Steed (Fiennes). It also calls for Mrs. Emma Peel (Thurman), a brilliant, beautiful British scientist and expert swordswoman, who was in charge of Prospero.
Mother, the wheelchair-bound eccentric who heads The Ministry, presents Steed and Mrs. Peel with a particularly puzzling piece of evidence: a videotape of Mrs. Peel breaking into her own lab. Although Peel adamantly denies any involvement in the crime, she is still the prime suspect. But since she's also a well-respected scientist, Mother allows her the opportunity to prove her innocence, with Steed's assistance and supervision.
The reluctant partners are instantly attracted to each other, but out of respect for Peel's "missing and presumed dead" husband, Steed remains the perfect gentleman, keeping his desires repressed. The fashionable pair quickly discover a new prime suspect: Sir August De Wynter (Connery), a wealthy, bizarre and thoroughly suspicious horticulturist, who has a decidedly ungentlemanly desire for the voluptuous and wonderfully dressed Mrs. Peel.
While Peel flirts with De Wynter in an attempt to gain information, Steed is nearly killed...by a woman who by all appearances is Mrs. Peel! He wants to believe her later denials, but naturally, he's torn. Then Mrs. Peel herself is attacked by her own look-alike. Steed's a witness, and now a believer in Mrs. Peel's innocence...but Mother's second-in-command, Father, is not convinced, and has Mrs. Peel arrested for interrogation.
De Wynter then makes his evil plans known. He stole the Prospero data and used it to create a weather control device. He demands 10 percent of the gross national product of each country in the world in return for desirable weather. If they refuse, he'll destroy them. And to prove his threat, he targets London for disaster beginning at midnight.
Style vs. substance
The Avengers is a sumptuously photographed, beautifully stylized fantasy adventure with fine acting and a witty script. It's also very slow-paced--almost frustratingly repressed--with an extremely dry sense of humor. In other words, it's very British. And it may or may not be an American moviegoer's cup of tea, depending on their point of view.
The movie is visually fascinating, charming, original and funny...seen from a unique perspective. That is to say, a British perspective, or at least the perspective of someone who has had firsthand experience with the eccentricities of the English.
However, most Americans will probably have a difficult time relating to the characters in The Avengers. Even those who are more accustomed to the British way might have to restrain their urge to shout out, "Just put down the damn tea and start saving the world, already!"
Ralph Fiennes manages to perfectly convey the stiff-upper-lip do-gooder John Steed, a character devoid of machismo and with an utterly controlled libido. In other words, the complete opposite of the usual lusty-and-loud American action movie hero. And though Brits will probably find both charm and bittersweet humor in his subtle performance, most Yanks will probably think the guy a bit of a wimp.
Uma Thurman is captivating, as usual, in the role of Mrs. Emma Peel (and as Peel's evil twin). And Sean Connery is wonderfully wacky as the lecherous De Wynter...but will Americans accept Connery as a wacky villain? Probably not.
The film can be laugh-out-loud funny, such as when Steed and Peel stumble across a secret meeting of some bizarrely costumed characters (any more details would ruin the scene). But most American audiences will probably find the scene, like the movie itself, bewildering.
This is in no way suggesting that American audiences aren't bright enough to "get" The Avengers. It's not a high brow movie by any means. It's just very different from what Americans are used to...perhaps too different to be appreciated.
