Stephen Dorff wisely points out that modern superhero movies are “garbage” compared to Blade
"Nobody’s remembering Black Adamat the end of the day," says the Blade villain
Aux News Blade
It’s hard to find an opinion on superhero movies at this point that isn’t very annoying or largely meaningless. People who make superhero movies like making them. People who don’t, don’t. People who like seeing them, see them. People who don’t, don’t. And yet, there is one thing that immediately makes your opinion on superhero movies much more interesting: If you appeared in Blade or Blade II. Those movies are great! Who wouldn’t want to hear from Wesley Snipes about modern superhero movies?
Well, it’s not Wesley Snipes we’re hearing from today, but Stephen Dorff, who played the villain Deacon Frost in director Stephen Norrington’s Blade. As it turns out, he not only doesn’t like modern superhero movies, but he doesn’t really give a shit if people know that he doesn’t like them. And why should he? He was in fucking Blade!
This comes from a chat with The Daily Beast, during which he said that the superhero movies they make these days are “garbage” and “embarrassing,” saying, “god bless them, they’re making a bunch of money, but their movies suck.” He also added, “nobody’s remembering Black Adam at the end of the day. I didn’t even see that movie, it looked so bad.” (Dorff actually brought up Black Adam earlier in the interview as an example of the kind of mainstream projects that get made these days and why he has no interest in in anything but indie movies now, so he’s not just taking a shot at the Rock.)
He also took a shot at Marvel Studios and its inability to get a new Blade movie off the ground, saying, “How’s that PG Blade movie going for you, that can’t get a director?” (It does have a new director, for now.) He theorizes that nobody wants to make it and “be laughed by everyone,” because “we already did it and made it the best.” Now, this may seem kind of mean or overly edgy or whatever, but… where’s the lie? He was in Blade, and the only movie better than Blade is Blade II (though that’s up for debate). Of course, Blade himself has offered an explanation for why Marvel Studios keeps trying to make a new Blade movie…
65 Comments
Some motherfuckers are always trying to bash superhero movies.
Yeah, well… Stephen Dorff is “garbage” compared to Brad Dourif. So there.
This made me chuckle.
Sadly I often confuse the 2 when I read their names. I’m thankful that Dorff and not Dourif is the edgelord here.
Yeah, but they both suck compared to Dorf on Golf.
I’ll see your Dorf and raise you a Dolph… Lundgren.
Holy shit, you guys are running the gamut here—I seriously don’t know what to think. I mean, I’m pretty sure Worf (son of Mogh) >>>>> Dorf (who did go fishing)….but other than that? I’ll be damned.
“He’s been called worse things by people ‘meant it more than you did”
Some MFers are always trying to ice skate uphill.
That did not disappoint.
“Yeah, that’s great. Again, I need 2 large fries and a medium coke, Stephen, is it, thanks.”
Blade was good, but Blade 2 was not. Bringing back Whistler after he was clearly killed in the previous movie but ALSO bringing in Norman Reedus to take his place & be annoying? Having fights that look like CGI videogame characters jumping around? Del Toro should be embarrassed.
Agree. Del Toro’s new vampire hybrids were interesting (and clearly served as his inspiration for The Strain), but the movie wasn’t anywhere near as good as the previous film. The first is moody and interesting, with a lot of cool action. The sequel was CGI fights and Goth Hipster Vampires fighting other Hobo Vampires. Blade was irrelevant to his own sequel.
And speaking of films where Blade was irrelevant: Blade Trinity.
I never saw Blade: Trinity, but my understanding is that Snipes was very uncooperative in the making of that, which could explain his character’s lack of relevancy.
Makes sense. It seemed like everyone but Snipes (and the script writers) were actually putting effort into their roles.
Ryan Reynolds was having fun.
There are outtakes of Ryan and Parker just a-clownin’ about Wesley being off in his trailer somewhere for whatever Blade-interacting scene they were doing at the time.
The worst part was how he clearly wasted a large cast of opponents for Blade, that including Donnie Yen. There was a whole squad outright designed for facing him and they’re used to hype up the super vampire instead. Plus trying to give Blade some chemistry with the vampire princess was worthy of a facepalm.
Don’t leave out the horribly under baked villain.
Blade 2 is much, much better than the first. More fun, better action, better design and direction.
Blade 2 was great! The new vampire strain was really creepy.
He has so much more to be embarrassed for.
The CGI in Blade 2 was bad for sure, but otherwise I found it to be a fun, solid action movie and I hold it in basically the same regard as the first one. I never even bothered to watch Blade: Trinity, it just looked so horrible and I can’t stand Ryan Reynolds.
Disagree. Everything looked way better in the second blade. Bigger budget, Oscar winning director. The reavers looked great with their practical effects and make-up and the villains were much more cooler than the big Dorf they had in the first one. Yes, the opening rave scene in Blade 1 is iconic but it’s all downhill after that.
Even Oscar-winning directors have misfires. Tom McCarthy directly followed up Spotlight with The Cobbler.
Some do. Guillermo doesn’t.
Really? I haven’t heard anything good about Mimic.
Then enjoy this rave from siskel and ebert!
Everything looked way better in the second blade.Watch that terrible CGI fight again and tell me you meant to say “everything”.
…looked better than Blade 1, yes, I am saying that.
I think they’re both good, but personally I prefer Blade 2. The Reapers were a cool new faction of vampire villains and it was fun seeing Blade get to verbally spar with the likes of Ron Perlman. Some of the move’s CGI-assisted fight scenes haven’t aged well but they’re still pretty solid, plus the sequel’s special effects have aged a bit better than the first movie’s (which isn’t a slight against the first movie at all, they were just working with the best they had at the time).
I also agree with a few other commenters that the whole idea of a super squad of vampires trained to hunt Blade specifically was largely wasted, especially when they decided Donnie Yen’s character should be mute (though, in fairness, I reckon most people didn’t mind a non-speaking Donnie Yen who still kicked a lot of ass). Also, trying to force some sort of weird pseudo-romance between Blade and Nyssa reeked of corporate meddling. And I too was confused as to how they managed to bring Whistler back after seemingly killing him off in the first movie (which is funny considering how *spoilers* they then killed him off *again* in Blade Trinity).
All that being said, Stephen Dorff’’s portrayal of Deacon Frost was one of the best things about the first Blade movie, so I can’t fault him his opinion too much.
Alright, let’s just simmer down a bit here. I’d say ‘Blade’ I and II were both … fine. Some good stuff, some not so good. (And Stephen Dorff was not exactly the highlight of his entry.)
Dorff must have forgotten that no one cares what he thinks of modern superhero movies after his comments about “Black Widow”.
lol They didn’t make a Black Widow movie dude. Good troll. Got a chuckle out of me.
For more guffaws, go to this link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3480822/
How did you do that? lol That’s amazing. You are the best troll I’ve ever seen. You are so good at gaslighting. I literally asked 10 people last night if they had heard Black Widow and they all said there is no such movie. Why would marvel make a spy movie they said? Marvel makes superhero movies idiot my grandma said. You are good.
Eh, your bit needs WAY more work if you’re going to sarcastic troll people.3/10.
I blush in the presence of someone who gleefully gaslights minorities.
hey fuck you
Not as good as someone who takes great pleasure in gaslighting minorities.
lol You are a fucking loser.
… says the guy who gaslights minorities for internet attention.
… says the guy who gets off gaslighting minorities for Internet attention.
lol You are humorless and stupid.
You internet famous yet?
You Internet famous yet?
That’s a spoof link on IMDB. Ask Marvel if they made a Black Widow movie and they’ll laugh at you. It never happened.
As one of Scarlett Johansson’s few black friends, we both respectfully disagree.
hey fuck you
In terms of comparing Blade to many superhero films both DC and MCU, some before Avengers: Endgame, and some after, Blade 1 and Blade 2 (debatable to some) are better than those. That being said, Blade was R rated. It was intended to be R rated, so they had more flexibility to do things both in language, violence, and content. Netflix’s Daredevil, Punisher, Logan and Deadpool were given more flexibility like Blade and I would say those were not garbage. But also there is so many of superhero related content these days. You’re going to have some awful ones, mostly meh ones, and some great ones. It’s now easier to generalize Superhero movies than it was before 2008. Disney, Warner Bros, Sony, want their superhero movies to have a global audience and reach maximum profit. They’re going to go for a formula that’s safe and predictable to achieve that. Disney most definitely. Sony and Warner Bros. usually do that, but they try to mix it up with mixed results. Some audiences may recognize those patterns in superhero movies and feel it’s stale, but it’s also the same for many non-superhero movies that follow similar formulas and patterns. Imagine how different MCU would be if Disney said make it any way you want, Pg-13, R rated, either is cool with us.Blade also came out before the MCU even started. Many people didn’t even know it was a marvel property. It had no connections and just established itself as a stand alone world. Some properties today would be better off existing but separate. Not everything has to be connected, to the MCU, or DCU, or Spiderverse. Sony kind of tries that. But he does have a point in Disney trying to bring Blade back. Like the Punisher, it’s not something that can easily be brought back in a Disney environment. And trying to connect the vampires to the MCU with everything that’s been currently established will make it difficult to avoid it being shoehorned in. It would be better for Blade to be in a stand alone world. Or at least go back to the earlier ideas of the MCU that some characters can’t coexist in that world and they should’ve developed a dark MCU for properties that would thrive in an R rated territory that doesn’t have to worry about connecting the narrative to the Avengers. Moon Knight, Punisher, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Blade etc. For right now Stephen, it is what it is. Superhero movies do make money. A lot of them end up forgettable since so many are made in both movies and TV shows. Also have to include movies and shows that aren’t established superheroes but could be seen in the same light. But it’s just another opinion whether or not they’re all garbage.
Okay but even the idea that “r rating era better than Disneyfication” falls apart when you start talking about Punisher. Marvel released three Punisher movies. In one Jigsaw gets his face cut up in a glass recycler. The Netflix show is tame to what the proto Punisher movies got up to, even Feige Punisher. Same with Ghost Rider which are disasters that clearly had a lot of heart or Swamp Thing which was terrible with no heart. Yes they were allowed to explode everything and add in nudity with a lot of those movies. No Disneyfication in sight and they were terrible. Tried to find a more generous adjective but so bad. Bad comicbook movies and bad movies.And sure some of Netflix Marvel, but that’s again so narrow a view of that era or Marvel shows. You have to ignore ABC Marvel because Inhumans which was terrible, pay no attention to Hulu or Hellstrom and also Iron Fist. Which was almost as bad as Inhumans. It’s tough to decide which Marvel show was the worst but Iron Fist is definitely in the running. So of course you can make good R rated content but that’s not why it’s good. There’s nothing about Netflix that made its productions the gold standard. Solo unconnected comicbook movies can be good but they can be absolutely terrible. The best adaptations are from passionate show and movie runners who want to do something interesting with the characters and ideas. The best parts of terrible Marvel have that going for them.So yeah Disney is going to want Blade to fit into the rules of Marvel, good. One guy against every vampire was a dumb premise that barely made sense. A shared universe where you can assume other vampires are being taken out by Elsa or Dr Strange or whoever isn’t going to hurt it. Also means Blade can do more and has more potential for a decent series not just a single decent movie. And Disney isn’t going to let the MCU have Dracula picking up a Dracula sex toy, also good. The movie won’t be able to rely just on having edgy scenes but will have to try to be a good movie. Too many terrible Marvel movies were just pockets of edgey content inside terrible movies. You can’t just go “what if Ben Grimm killed people??!” and call it a day. I might end up hating the end result but nothing about the basic structure of the MCU is going to be the reason why.
Well some good counter points from you. No arguments there. In the end like I said, regarding Stephen Dorff it’s just another opinion on whether or not superhero movies are garbage these days. Some people said they’re garbage in any day. And it is what it is on whatever quality comes out and the end results financially.You’re right. R rated territory does give more flexibility but doesn’t guarantee success. Punisher: Warzone in my opinion was the more fun Punisher movie, but not a success. The Netflix series was the best in my opinion. Logan was way better than Wolverine in Japan and Wolverine Origins and it showed from both fans and financially. Dredd was an awesome R rated movie from my point of view, but I won’t ignore the fact that it lost to Adam Sandler’s Grown Ups 2. You had the Sam Raimi Spider Man before the MCU and then Ben Affleck’s take on Daredevil, both examples of success and failures. So, it’s a matter of execution in any film regardless of the rating. However, I standby stating some characters and properties belong and thrive more in R rated territory. Blade being one of them. We can agree to disagree on that. So Blade sharing a universe would work with other characters such as Ghost Rider, Moon Knight, and whatnot. Other characters I feel are too dark for the lighter side of the MCU. That would be cool. There was at a time just talks but once they were considering of combining Underworld with Selene and Blade. Which goes back to what I said, there are plenty of movies and shows that follow the same kind of superhero formula that people complain about with MCU, DCU, Spiderverse. But you feel it would good if Blade was in the Disney MCU. I say more power to you on your opinion. I agree with Stephen Dorff on that point, and we can agree to disagree on yours. In the end, it doesn’t matter what any of us think. It’s not our call. We don’t own it and Disney can just shut the character down in development Hell for another decade or two if they wanted to and we couldn’t stop it.
The beauty of all this quantity of superhero movies and shows, is that now you really can just pick and choose what you feel like watching and skip the ones you don’t care for.
This and everything in it is AI chat, right? Like, that’s the joke?
This makes me wonder if Dorff got along with Mahershala Ali while filming True Detective S3. My understanding is basically that marvel undertook a new Blade project because Ali expressed interest in playing the character, so kind of weird for Dorrf to throw shade at the project. (as a side note both actors were terrific even tho the season itself was pretty undewhelming)that being said, i’m kind of with him on this. I don’t think Disney Blade is going to top Snipes Blade. i suppose disney blade could still be good but given a more PG version I would personally would prefer he is only a supporting character or team member rather than having his own franchise.
I just came here for the inevitable Dorf on Golf reference.
Embarrassing? Dorff’s recent filmography of mostly straight-to-streaming, rote, overly-familiar B-movies is a wild base to jump off from with those comments. Even if all he made were decent indies like Wheeler and Old Henry, the sour grapes routine isn’t a good look.
Regarding Black Adam it seems about right.
I like Stephen Dorff, it’s a bummer he doesn’t get bigger roles anymore.The tv show Deputy that he was the main star in was awesome. Bummer it didn’t get a season 2. Guessing (based on comments on imdb) that the racists americans was a reason for it. Since the show was against ice agents and generally being nice to immigrants. Can’t have that!
Opening blood rave scene in Blade more memorable than 80% the Phase 2 on on Marvel flicks. Maybe more.
Bold opinion seeing as how phase 2 has the two most well received OG mcu films in Winter Soldier and GotG
Blade was garbage compared to Blade 2.
Yeah, the original Blade was a serious art house flick. I don’t know why Stephen Dork didn’t get an Oscar. Not to mention the best use of a country singer (Kris Kristofferson) since Jerry Reed in Smokey & the Bandit.
Y’all missed the best quoteHow’s that PG Blade movie going for you, that can’t get a
director? [laughs] Because anybody who goes there is going to be laughed
at by everyone, because we already did it and made it the best. There’s
no Steve Norrington out there.
Hey, I’m not going to dump on Norrington, but this is the guy who caused Sean Connery to quit acting after League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (and I’m pretty sure Norrington hasn’t directed a film since).
Yeah let’s listen to the man from such masterpieces as Space Truckers and Feardotcom and I honestly cannot think of anything else. Y’know other than that one time he was in an okay Marvel movie that has two weird sequels and two TV series no one remembers. Y’know back when Marvel was better. The era of Blade the spinoff TV series.And as someone who recently watched Blade it was good for the era but the end is patently stupid. Why is there a giant weird single use vampire doomsday weapon that’s never been used before but will definitely work through blood stuff? Don’t worry none of that is going to matter in the sequels so you don’t have to care. Can’t imagine why anyone thinks the MCU won’t be able to top Blade or why delaying it isn’t a sign they’re determined to do their best.
The first Blade was great but the sequels not so. But most of the Avengers films, Spiderman films, GoTG films and even a few DC films have either matched or surpassed the first Blade film.
Maybe someones not happy he hasn’t been asked to be in any yet.