User Reviews

It seems that everything Del Toro touches turns into gold, and the sequel to the surprising and excellent Blade made no exception.

The actual filming quality has improved when compared to the first movie, and so have special effects and visuals. Visual style is just a bit more comic-ish than the original movie, and both worked in their own way. The plot is again a great fit for a Blade movie and delivers enough decent twists and turns to make the movie more than just hack and slash.

Fightins scenes and choreographies are once again a success. Speed is fast enough to make you realize that the protagonists are supernatural, but not too fast to make you lose sense of what is going on. Wesley Snipes proves that he is perfect for the role and you can sense that he enjoys it.

The main villain, Nomak, does not manage to raise to the level of entertainment provided by Deacon Frost but still poses a real threat and generates thrill whenever he is on screen. And the final fight counts as one of the best fight scenes ever filmed that I can remember of.

On the negative side, I disliked the scene where the blood pack enters Blade's base. As Blade did not know who they where, it made no sense that he did not dispatch them, unless they could match his fighting skills, which would make no sense either. Long, useless and dumb fight.

Also, as this is a Del Toro movie, you can expect a bit more horror than in a standard comic movie. And being no big fan of horror movies, I can say that the horror touches added here and there are very well measured and I thought that they fitted perfectly in. The few jokes here and there were also a nice addition as there were not too many and those present were good. Great directing job.

As this instalment opens we see a man going to a rather sinister looking blood bank in Prague; it is run by the vampires and they intend to drain him… little do they know that they are his prey. He is Nomak, a 'Reaper' or mutated vampire that will kill people and turn other vampires into a reaper like himself. Meanwhile Blade rescues his friend Whistler from his two years of captivity with the vampires. Shortly afterwards Nyssa; the daughter of the leading vampire approaches Blade with a surprising request; the vampires want his help to eliminate the reapers. He agrees but it is a very unstable alliance; many of the vampires he has been asked to fight alongside want to kill him there and then. Once the action gets underway they learn something rather worrying; the reapers aren't effected by silver of garlic… only sunlight or intense ultra violet light will stop them. As the film progresses it emerges that not everything the vampires told Blade was true; in fact some facts about the reapers was even withheld from Nyssa.

This film isn't quite as good as the first but it still provides plenty of entertainment. There are lots of impressively choreographed fight scenes and some spectacular vampire deaths; the use of CGI meant these looked cool rather than gruesome. Wesley Snipes impresses as Blade especially in the numerous fight scenes which he makes look real. The supporting cast is solid enough with Kris Kristofferson returning as Whistler; Ron Perlman putting an entertaining performance as the vampire Reinhardt; Leonor Varela as Nyssa and Norman Reedus, who plays Blade's new weapon designer 'Scud'. The story itself is perfectly fine if fairly predictable for the most part; there is a decent twist later on. I liked the design of the reapers; their mouths were possibly the most disturbing thing in the film. This may not be director Guillermo del Toro's best film but he does a fine job keeping it pretty dark without making it hard to see what is going on. Overall I'd say this is a decent sequel; I imagine most fans of the first film will enjoy it.

Finally, a great popcorn flick that's an improvement over the original movie and offers up an often stunning combination of the action and horror genres to great effect. BLADE II, like its predecessor but more so, skilfully combines full-blooded gory horror with some excellent martial arts choreography, here done by Donnie Yen who also appears in a minor role. Although the plot is fairly predictable stuff, sometimes rehashing scenes in the original movie except with different places and characters, and the various plot twists are a little contrived at times, this is never anything less than very entertaining. Sometimes it may be silly but that's part of the charm. Never has there been such a combination of the ultra-cool (the action) with the ultra-cheesy (Snipes posturing wildly, e.g. the hilarious "sunglasses throw"), a combination which makes BLADE II a more satisfying film than the original -which is no mean feat in itself.

The director is the acclaimed Mexican Guillermo del Toro, who brings his usual visual artistry (the world in which the film takes place is a dark, Gothic, decaying netherworld of ugliness and filth), plot elements (scary transforming monsters, mechanical devices which attach themselves to people and don't come off) and actors - yep, Ron Perlman is back from CRONOS and used to good effect once more. Starting with a wild action sequence in which Snipes takes on a pack of motorbike-riding vampires, the film rarely slows down, offering up some great set-pieces like the vampire's rave, the sewer hunt and the over-the-top finale. Influences from the likes of ALIENS and PREDATOR are evident but staged differently enough to avoid being too similar or noticeable to ruin the flow of the film.

My love of the martial arts is quickly growing and BLADE II offers some fantastically-choreographed fights and swordplay. Incredibly fast moves and hits are seamlessly blended with CGI characters (to do those moves which truly are impossible for human actors to perform) and the result is adrenaline-pumping action highlighted by an appropriately pumping score. I really was on the edge of my seat for the vampire-busting antics and kept on looking forward to the next scene, and the next. The final one-on-one, in particular, is spellbinding stuff. Nice to see that they threw a few wrestling moves in there too to keep things fresh and entertaining (!). Wesley Snipes effortlessly slides back into the character of Blade and it's nice to see he doesn't take things quite so seriously this time around; however, his screen presence and talented handling of the action makes him a hero to be proud of.

As for the horror-side of the film, well this is where things start getting really nasty. Forget the vampires from the first film (who now become normal, everyday kind of menaces), the newly-designed Reapers are a horrific bunch of subhuman-looking creatures who have a really disgusting surprise hidden up their sleeves which I don't want to spoil too much (other than to say there are some great shocks in store for the first-time viewer). The gore and violence is played to the hilt and this is a film packed with people being sliced in half, having half of their heads cut off (really sickening bit there), throats torn out and blood spraying all over the shop. Plus plenty of the usual arm-snapping, neck-breaking and bullet-busting everyday kind of film violence. The vampire destruction sequences, showing the creatures burning into skeletons and exploding into ashes, are truly spectacular and a delight to watch. Here's a film where I can 100% recommend the excellent CGI effects used - and I never thought I'd get a chance to say that (not a big fan of computer effects at all, but they work really well here - congrats to all involved).

Cast-wise, it's nice to see Kris Kristofferson back in shape (although the movie doesn't do a very good job of explaining his back-from-the-dead presence), although there's another unnecessary and frankly unwanted love interest in Leonor Varela. Norman Reedus makes for a likable accomplice, Scud, despite being a bit of a geek, but the most surprising thing is that the chief nasty vampire (a really evil-looking screen villain) is played well by Luke Goss, also known as one of the members of '80s boy band Bros! A nice mixture of talent is evident in the vampire cast members, with actors ranging from the aforementioned Ron Perlman (as impassive as ever), to Donnie Yen, to Danny John-Jules (another British celebrity turned Hollywood star) to THE STENDHAL SYNDROME's Thomas Kretschmann. Although it never goes any deeper than being a purely visual display of effects and action, BLADE II is a solid and above-average entry in the action/horror genre and even something of a minor classic. Definitely a film that can be enjoyed more than once so a full recommendation to this one.

To tell the truth I'm kind of shocked that the Blade film directed by Guillermo del Toro isn't the best of the trilogy. It terms of story and world it seems like it'd be right up his alley too but it's just lacking that personal, human touch he usually brings to his movies.

His direction here stops it from being a total wreck (and the practical effects are pretty great) but it introduces way too many new characters (who mostly fall flat for me) and the action scenes are bigger but less interesting than the first movie.

Also *MINOR SPOILER* but this may go down in history as being the single biggest waste of Donnie Yen ever in a movie - hit my man with the offscreen death, the absolute disrespect