Well I do give X-Men a lot of credit, but my point is I don't know if Fox would have had the balls to do a straightforward X-Men film if Blade didn't show them that it could be done well, and could draw an audience (relatively speaking). Before that, the only franchises studios would even dare to attempt making into big budget Hollywood movies were the biggest comic characters in existence. And even then, X-Men had an aversion to some of the more "comic booky" stuff like colorful costumes. It's easy to forget how unlikely it seemed back in the day (i.e., the '90s) that we would ever get comic movies that appealed to genuine comic geeks. They just weren't done. So Blade setting that precedent was HUGE IMO. Blade is primarily a comic action film IMO, though it's obviously got a horror theme. Blade still is a high point for how action can be done in comic films IMO.
