CinemaDome: Blade vs Iron Man

Ok, a couple of lighter weight match-ups this week. One, being a holiday week, and folks away from work/their computers, I expect lower turnout and two, I gotta mix it up from always being 70s/80s classics.

So...'ere we go...While it looked like DC heroes were going to forever rule the silver-screen, Marvel finally got a decent flick done with their vampire hunter, Blade...a lesser known property, but a great film. Eventually, its success led to other Marvel movies leading up to Marvel putting together their own studio and launching the MCU. The first real deal Marvel film vs the first MCU flick.



vs

This has to be Iron Man. Still arguably the best Marvel movie. Great origin story, terrific cast. Much better than Blackula.

Blade, based strictly on my personal preference.

ETA: Comments below are right. Iron Man is better in pretty much every aspect of filmmaking. But if my choice is 'Blade, or Iron Man', I'm going with Blade.

Iron Man ranks above Blade across the board. Better actors, writing, visuals, subject matter. Granted, most of the visuals are due to better FX advancements, so that can be written off.

Still, Iron Man is the clear winner.

I should probably disqualify myself as hopelessly biased. Not just because of my avatar, but because I've been a big fan of Iron Man for a long time.

Blade: To be honest, I didn't make it all the way through the movie. The story is so silly that I couldn't help mocking it, and some of the dialogue was so cliche that it verged on archetypal ("There he is! Get him!") The very idea of the blood-sprinklers at the vampire rave is ludicrous. I thought Blade was very cool when he was introduced back in the '70s, but by the '90s, he was just another kewl d00d with a black trenchcoat and a totally sweet katana. Wesley Snipe has some physical skills, but his acting is wooden. And I liked the main bad guy better when he was a sitcom dad. Also, I vaguely remember a scene where Blade beats up a bad cop, and the fact that the beat down went on for awhile after the first couple of superhuman blows struck me a gratuitous. While I am pro-Black Lives Matter, I felt like the cop beating really pandered to black viewers who have had bad experiences with cops.

Iron Man: As Jake said, Iron Man is a better movie across the board. Especially the acting. Downey was a shrewd pick to play Tony Stark, and Paltrow was so good as Pepper that fans wanted the character back in the comics for the first time since the '70s. I don't even like Paltrow, but I liked her in Iron Man. I liked the Black Sabbath reference, a bit of a nod to their classic song Iron Man. The origin story is a good one, and was nicely updated for modern times. I did feel that the final fight scene ran too long, but that is a common failing in superhero movies.

Vote: Iron Man.

Before this gets out of hand, let me step in as the voice of reason.

I believe that cop is a 'familiar' or something so who knows if they're juiced up or something. I wasn't as sensitive to Blade taking on the cop.

That intro is one of the finest in an action movie to date. Was it ridiculous that with all that blood raining and not a drop got on Blade? Yes, but that's what made it perfect. Along with the techno beats and him drawing a line in the blood. It was all over the top, but fantastic. This scene alone turned our Feng Shui campaign from BTilC-like to monster hunting.

To bookend that, I think this movie has a great ending as well... "Catch you at a bad time...comrade?"

Plus, the movie is entirely self-contained...a novelty!

Also...

CCR > Black Sabbath (or whatever is in the Iron Man soundtrack)
1968 Dodge Charger > Iron Man's armor

Iron Man.

This one shouldn't even be close.

While I like some of the ideas behind Blade and appreciate their willingness to try to introduce the White Wolf version of vampires (direct infiltration of societal power structures, clans, scientific rather than religious approach to hunting), the film just isn't that great at a lot of the basics (acting, story pacing, etc.) It's not bad. It just doesn't stand out as anything other than a stock action flick. On a couple of the particulars: why is the clan conflict always Brujah vs Ventrue? Also, Kris Kristofferson. That dude's acting career is strange. You can imagine the production staff sitting in a room saying: "We need the gruffest guy you can possibly imagine. Every word he speaks has to sound like it's coming from Archie Bunker gargling nails." And the casting director is like: "I know just the guy..." Seriously, Heaven's Gate, Blade, Payback, Lone Star. He's the same guy in every film. It probably doesn't help that my parents listened to a lot of his music in the 70s, so every time I see him I can only think of him and then-wife Rita Coolidge doing a duet of "You don't bring me flowers anymore." Imagine Whistler singing that if you want to be simultaneously fascinated and disturbed.

Iron Man, OTOH, is not only the best superhero film to ever be made, it's also just a good film, period. Robert Downey, Jr. was almost literally born to play that role: Rich kid with remarkable aptitude in what his parents were already successful in, has addiction problems, but goes on to succeed far past anything they'd done. Both Downey and the film handle the story in a very modern fashion, but never quite lose touch with the pulp roots of the comics. The screenplay was very smartly written and meshes well with Downey's natural savoir faire, but many of the other performers flow right along with it, especially Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts ("I do anything and everything Mr. Stark requires, including sometimes taking out the trash. Will that be all?") and Shaun Toub as Ho Yinsen.(Stark: "I'll probably be dead in a week." Yinsen: "Then this is a very important week for you, isn't it?") It's really just a well assembled story that steers away from the character's Cold War roots and slides easily into modern terrorism and resource issues, as well as the question of corporate responsibility for how their products are used, and director, Jon Favreau, keeps everyone rolling along for the ride. While the ending is predictable, as almost all origin stories must be, getting there is so enjoyable that it's worth getting the standard payoff. I've watched it repeatedly and I don't think I've seen any of the other Marvel films more than once.

Also, you guys and your music comparisons are missing the fact that Iron Man stomps all over Blade for the simple inclusion of Suicidal Tendencies in the lab scene after Pepper takes out the trash ("Please don't turn down my music!") That alone would make it the winner over Blade, regardless of all the other more obvious stuff.

Iron Man, in a walk.

CCR > Black Sabbath (or whatever is in the Iron Man soundtrack)

WTF?! Dad? Is that you?

Blade is TEEEEEEEEEEERASH. Grade A trash, but it is still a TOTAL exploitation film. To be more specific, it is a TOTAL Blaxploitation film. It's just that the urban anti-hero is a vampire and it's the underworld of the undead instead of the criminal underworld. It has more in common with Superfly or Black Caesar than it does even with Blacula. When I saw it in the theater, I went in expecting it to be complete garbage...but was surprised that it was actually a really fun picture that wasn't afraid to go full exploitation trash. It's Snipes's best role by a longshot, and it's a generally well-made B picture all around. And Kris Kristofferson is GREAT but in a trash way. "Smells like a vampire wiped its ass with it" is one of the great lines of American cinema.

Comparing it to Iron Man almost isn't fair because Iron Man is more mainstream, a AAA level picture and it's wound up serving as the bedrock for an entire empire of MCU films. It made Robert Downey Jr. a big star and for good reason. The value in Iron Man isn't so much anything in the film (which is pretty good overall despite the fact that the main villain is worthless and the script's messages about corporate responsibility are extremely muddled), It's that it represents the first time someone took a Marvel property and said "OK, let's do this right". Batman Begins was a couple of years before, but it showed that comic films could be respectful of and reasonably faithful to source material while also forging a new path in the film medium. The costume was right, the character was right, the dialogue was right, the action was right. It really paid off, because it could have been just another junk superhero movie and we likely never would have had the whole MCU thing going on right now. It's another one I went into expecting terribleness and wound up surprised at the quality.

It's got to be Iron Man here though, it's just a better film all around. Even if Blade had New Order (albeit a terrible remix).

Iron Man is a better film but that's because it takes no chances. It's pure formula every step of the way. It brought Robert Downey Jr. back supposedly... would that have simply not happened without this film? I doubt it.

Blade has tons of issues and I've never really liked it. But it has heart, it does it's own thing and there was no real precedent for that kind of film when it came out. It had to fight to be what it was. Iron Man just waltzed into our lives like it had fallen off a production line. I prefer it... but I can't vote for it.

Vote: Kris Kristofferson... errmm, Blade.

Iron Man is the better film, no contest.

But I'd rather watch Blade.

My favorite Blade movie was the third one. Snipes was not great in it, and reportedly spent most the downtime on the set getting stoned in his trailer. But Jessica Biel was alright, and Dominic Purcell played the best villain of the series. Patton Oswalt made the most of his limited screen time, and Ryan Reynolds is even funnier, playing Hannibal King like a dry run for Deadpool. I hate professional wrestling, but Triple H made for a memorable villain. Best of all was indie darling Parker Posey, with her white trash vampire schtick. Every scene with Reynolds and Posey together is great fun. Somehow the overall movie is less than the sum of its cast, but I still think that folks should give it another look.

JonJacob has it right...Iron Man is too safe. I've seen it once with no desire to see it again. Blade, I've seen many times and would watch again.

Iron Man was the first time someone said "OK, let's do this right"? Nah, it was Raimi's Spider-Man films. X-men followed Blade's black leather treatment, but Raimi went full on four-color-costumes. He went all in and Spider-Man 2 ended up being the best superhero movie ever made (smelling a future 'Dome). Marvel has followed the Raimi model to some degree.

And Institutionalized? That's the thrash version of the Beastie Boy's Sabotage...studio execs force that in to make an otherwise not character feel edgy or hip. If anything...its inclusion is a demerit. Of course, Whistler listens to Credence...

(On top of New Order, Blade has Shonen Knife)

Shellhead wrote: My favorite Blade movie was the third one. Snipes was not great in it, and reportedly spent most the downtime on the set getting stoned in his trailer. But Jessica Biel was alright, and Dominic Purcell played the best villain of the series. Patton Oswalt made the most of his limited screen time, and Ryan Reynolds is even funnier, playing Hannibal King like a dry run for Deadpool. I hate professional wrestling, but Triple H made for a memorable villain. Best of all was indie darling Parker Posey, with her white trash vampire schtick. Every scene with Reynolds and Posey together is great fun. Somehow the overall movie is less than the sum of its cast, but I still think that folks should give it another look.

I agree that Trinity is the best of the three . Apparently Reynolds and Snipes did not get along while filming, and the animosity shows onscreen, which is actually perfect. The casting is much better than the original, and I'll get sucked into watching it if its on cable.

"We were going to call ourselves the Care Bears, but that was already taken" .

Blade is Wesley Snipes best movie and he owns the role. Iron Man is overrated and has a boring villain and lame final fight. I can see lots of actors playing Iron Man just as well as RDJ has. RDJ was way better in Sherlock Holmes and Tropic Thunder anyways.

Vote: Blade