Black Jack Darwin

There are things to be said about Blade's life and biography that serve as a stand-in for seediness in an urban environment, I just don't like the films as they have been adapted from the graphic form, and do not really see how Snipes used the role as anything more than a thug camp throw away. There are a number of threads within vampirism, of course, and the Blade saga weaves them together in a somewhat crass fashion that smashes together with the subtlety of bumper cars, with jump cuts into the hyper-stylized martial arts choreography.

The Stoker Gothic/Romantic tradition is one, though I tend to find the Nosferatu meme of fevered consumption and insatiable appetite leading to eco-devastation more compelling, but there is also another motif, not exactly distinct, but more carnivorous and animistic, in films like 30 Days of Night. Here the horror is just the feeding impetus, and little else, with Goth incorporation almost quaint.

The fact that Blade is black may evoke Richard Matheson, at least for enthusiasts, but there is not much allusion or irony in the films. Then there is Let The Right One In.
I enjoyed this film, but remain as perplexed by it as the early TNR reviewer was upon its initial release, and its meaning is something of a mystery. I believe I mentioned this in 2010, when I was still part of LitNet, and some future revisions may be in order.

I saw Wolf again this morning, and Nichols does devolve the storyline, which is very nearly an early Prada on steroids, but I'd like to sit on what I am thinking for a day or two, because I do not think Nichols was attempting a short sell. I think the literal half of the film was a compliment to the clever weave of the mythology and totem in the first part. Does James Spader turn being despicable into high art, as Janet Maslin suggests?