By Jordan Cole, Senior Film Critic
When Marvel Studios announced a new Blade film starring Mahershala Ali, fans of the Daywalker rejoiced. The original 1998 Blade, starring Wesley Snipes, was a trailblazer—proving that R-rated comic book movies could be both critically acclaimed and wildly profitable. But after years of delays, rewrites, and directorial shake-ups, Blade (2025) has finally arrived. And against all odds, it doesn’t just meet expectations—it shatters them.
Directed by Yann Demange (’71, Lovecraft Country) and written by Watchmen scribe Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Blade (2025) is a radical departure from both the Snipes films and the current Marvel Cinematic Universe formula. This isn’t just another superhero movie—it’s a neo-noir horror epic, drenched in blood, shadows, and moral ambiguity.
A Vampire Film First, a Marvel Movie Second
From the opening scene—a black-and-white 1920s flashback of a young Blade hunting vampires in the bayous of Louisiana—it’s clear this isn’t Avengers with fangs. Demange and cinematographer Tat Radcliffe (Beasts of No Nation) craft a world that feels tactile and dangerous, closer in tone to The Batman (2022) or Blade Runner 2049 than Doctor Strange. The film’s color palette is dominated by deep reds, sickly greens, and inky blacks, with vampires that look genuinely monstrous—not just pretty people with elongated canines.
Mahershala Ali’s Blade is a revelation. Unlike Snipes’ quippy, ultra-confident version, this iteration is world-weary, haunted, and brutal. He doesn’t crack one-liners mid-fight; he dispatches vampires with cold, surgical precision. Ali brings a quiet intensity to the role, making Blade feel like a man drowning in his own curse. In one standout scene, he injects himself with serum in a grimy motel bathroom, his reflection warped in the cracked mirror—a vampire hunter who hates what he is.
A Fresh, Frightening Mythology
The film’s villains aren’t just bloodsuckers—they’re a secret society of vampire elites who have infiltrated global finance, politics, and even law enforcement. Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods) plays Deacon Frost, reimagined here as a charismatic but ruthless CEO of a biotech firm that harvests human blood under the guise of medical research. His right-hand enforcer, a vampiric assassin named Pearl (played by The Woman King’s Thuso Mbedu), is a terrifying presence, moving with eerie, unnatural speed.
The most daring choice, however, is the film’s exploration of vampirism as an allegory for addiction and systemic exploitation. Blade isn’t just fighting monsters—he’s fighting an entire system that thrives on human suffering. In one chilling monologue, Frost compares humans to livestock, asking Blade, “Why save the cattle when they line up for the slaughter?”
Action That Hurts (In the Best Way)
The fight choreography, led by John Wick veteran Jonathan Eusebio, is some of the best in any superhero film. Blade doesn’t just slash through enemies—he brawls. Fights are messy, visceral, and often end with him covered in his own blood as much as his enemies’. The standout sequence is a 12-minute single-take nightclub massacre, where Blade hunts a vampire DJ (played by an unrecognizable Lakeith Stanfield) through a strobe-lit hellscape.
The violence is brutal. This is Marvel’s first R-rated film since Deadpool, and it earns every drop of blood. Heads roll, stakes pierce chests with wet thunks, and one particularly gnarly scene involves a vampire dissolving in sunlight like a melting wax figure.
A Few Stumbles
Not every risk pays off. The film’s pacing drags in the second act as Blade teams up with a young hacker named Kora (Reservation Dogs’ Devery Jacobs), whose role feels underdeveloped. There’s also a mid-credits tease for a certain supernatural team-up that, while exciting, slightly undercuts the film’s otherwise self-contained tone.
Final Verdict: The MCU’s Darkest, Most Daring Film Yet
Blade (2025) isn’t just a great Marvel movie—it’s a great film, period. Mahershala Ali delivers a career-best performance, Yann Demange crafts a world that feels alive (or undead) with menace, and the action is some of the most bone-crunching ever put to screen. This is the rare reboot that doesn’t just honor its predecessor—it eclipses it.
Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5/5)
Sharp, savage, and soaked in style—Blade is back, and he’s never been better
