5 Lessons Blade Taught Studios About Superhero Movies (They Have Clearly Forgotten)

3. Being Rated R Is Not A Bad Thing

Studios are investing staggering amounts of money into superhero movies and it just seems to keep growing every year, so it isn't any wonder that these studios want to capitalise as much as possible in their investments and draw in the largest demographic they can. It is under these circumstances that you have Wolverine tripping his opponents with his razor-sharp claws rather than chopping off their legs at the knees and Daredevil acting as a second-rate Spider-Man rather than an urban street-fighter. The simple fact is not every character can fit comfortably into the PG-13 mold movie studios would like them to be in. When that happens, the characters as well as audiences suffer. Being one of the first Marvel-licensed theatrical films Blade had the fortune of being an experimental film of sorts and more care was put into staying true to the dark, bloody world the character inhabited. The vampires were not reduced to fang-less emo goths and the fight scenes were filled with severed limbs, torn throats and disintegrating corpses. The pressure wasn't there yet from the enormous successes of Spider-Man or The Avengers to make a billion dollars in box office returns and the movie is all the better for it. Darker heroes such as Blade need the freedom an adult rating can give them and nothing proved it better than this film.