Wesley Snipes makes action convincing through stillness as much as movement. We rate his physical control, but the comic timing and glimpses of vulnerability make us wish he were given more to do between fights.
Fi1m perspective
In the nightclub opening of Blade (1998), Wesley Snipes can stand still and remain the person worth watching. Stephen Norrington gives him the speed and aggression of an action film inside a vampire horror film, and Snipes makes the combination convincing. We were thrilled because his control and the weight of the stunt work made the bloodshed feel physical in a way the digital effects could not. It is a good action performance in a film that does not always know what to do with it.
That control can obscure how much else he has to offer. The early 1990s put him in Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues (1990) and Jungle Fever (1991), before action leads such as Passenger 57 (1992) came to define his place on a poster. His breakthrough as drug lord Nino Brown in New Jack City (1991) sits beside Sidney Deane in the sports comedy White Men Can't Jump (1992). The comic timing in the latter is reason enough not to treat the action films as the whole job.
Even Blade needs more of him than its screenplay knows how to use. David S. Goyer supplies too much explanation and too few opportunities for Snipes to explore the cost of being half-vampire. Snipes does find vulnerability, which makes the script's preference for another explanation more frustrating. We wanted longer with that vulnerability and less instruction in how vampires work. His martial arts training makes the fighting credible, but there is enough feeling here to want more time with Blade when he is not fighting.
The later comedy in Dolemite Is My Name (2019), with Snipes as D’Urville Martin, is a useful reminder of the actor beyond the action roles. His return as Blade in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) asks much less of him. The appearance trades on recognition, with little room for him to do anything beyond it. In a film already funny in patches and tiring in stretches, giving him so little to play is another frustration. Start with Blade, but do not mistake the economy of that performance for a reason to give him less to do.
Biography
Wesley Snipes is an American actor. Born in Orlando, Florida, he trained at the High School of Performing Arts in New York and graduated with a BFA from SUNY Purchase. He began his career in theatre and early film roles before gaining attention in the late 1980s.
Snipes is known for performances in New Jack City (1991), White Men Can't Jump (1992), Demolition Man (1993) and the Blade trilogy (1998–2004), in which he played the title character. He returned to the role in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). Other credits include U.S. Marshals (1998) and Dolemite Is My Name (2019). He received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for The Waterdance (1992) and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for One Night Stand (1997). He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998.
