Review of Blade II (2002) by Adam F — 05 Mar 2014

When you're putting together your list of sequels who are as good or even better than the originals, make sure you don't forget to include "Blade 2". It's sleaker, more action-packed than the previous one, with better special effects, a ton of memorable characters and everything you liked about the first one is back! Wesley Snipes returns as Blade. He was born half-man, half-vampire. He has none of their weaknesses and all of their strengths, except that unlike vampires, he refuses to drink blood and instead injects himself with a serum to repress his bloodthirsty urges. He prowls the night looking for vampires and armed with his martial arts skills, his unique weapons and his sidekick, he takes them down night after night. Two years have passed since the events of the first film. The vampire overlord Deacon Frost has been defeated but at great cost: Blade's mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) was turned into a vampire himself and his suicide attempt failed. Whistler was captured by vampires but now that Blade has finally rescued him with the help of his new sidekick Scud (Norman Reedus) things are looking up. That's until Blade is approached by vampire overlord Eli Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann). A new strain of vampirism has been unleashed onto the world, a mutation that threatens man and vampire-kind alike. Blade must team up with a group of elite vampire assassins, including Nyssa (Leonor Varela), Damaskinos' daughter, Rheinhardt (Ron Pearlman) a vampire who swears like a sailor and who isn't shy about his ill-feelings towards Blade, Snowman (Donnie Yen) a silent swordsman, Asad (Danny John-Jules), a "well-mannered" creature who is easily able to put his feelings aside for the greater good of both species, Chupa (Matt Schulze) an ill-tempered member who bears a grudge towards Whistler, Lighthammer (Darren Crawford) a hulking vampire armed with a giant hammer who is romantically involved with another member of the Bloodpack, Verlaine (Marit Velle Kile) and Tony Curran as Priest, an Irish vampire. This unlikely group is forced to work together against a common threat knowing fully that at any moment this fragile alliance could fall apart.

This film is everything you want in a sequel. It's terrific. Say what you want about the first movie (I thought it was pretty enjoyable without being anything to write home about, except for Wesley Snipe's character, which was a lot of fun) but this one fires on all cylinders. The script has that right mix of dark humor (including a joke that gets set up in the beginning of the movie and comes back around for a great payoff), horror and action. I mentioned earlier that Rheinhardt's prone to using profanities, but you have no idea. The language he uses is so foul you have to hear it to believe it and some of the ways he describes Blade or other people he's not quite fond of will shock and make you laugh hard. His character alone, and the dynamics that are created when he's forced to fight alongside Blade would be enough to give this movie a recommendation, but that's just the beginning of it. We spent the whole first movie showing how much Blade and the vampires hate each other. Establishing the world, building up the characters and here, it goes right into the action and mixes it up really cleverly. We're given a new threat: a new strain of ultra-vampires who feeds on anything and who's mouths opens up like something between the Graboids from "Tremors" and the Predator. The normal vampires might dangerous, but at least they're kind of sleak and able to show some restraint. This new threat, it's just out of control and it brings the vampires to a point where they're desperate enough to get Blade to come in and help. Everyone knows that this alliance is fragile though. As soon as this new threat is eliminated, everyone is going to turn on Blade and that means there's a whole second layer of suspense throughout. We also have another sub-plot about a traitor in the midst. Whistler's been brought back and is once again on Blade's side, but how much has his time being a vampire affected him, and can he be trusted? What's going on between Blade and the female vampire Nyssa. She seems cool, but do her allegiances ultimately fall with her father? It's one thing to have enemies you know are going to betray you the first chance they get, it's a whole other to have people pretending to be your friends until that moment when you're surrounded and need help.

This movie is better than the original for all of those reasons and more. Screenwriter David S. Goyer cleverly finds a way to bring back Whistler (and they even use flashbacks to the first film to prove that it works) and develop his character more by giving him his own opponent (Chupa, who I mentioned earlier). Wesley Snipes is still cool as a cucumber and not exactly stretching his acting skills, but I think of him as Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Terminator 2" here. He's done the role before and it's not one that demands a whole lot of emoting, but he knows exactly what the audience wants to see and delivers on all fronts, whether it's in the martial arts and action sequences, or in the segments where he gives just that little hint of a smile or a quick nod to show "Yeah, I know I'm a bad ass!" he pulls it off perfectly. We've got more gadgets, more cool weapons and more awesome action sequences. A nice variation in them too. We've got sequences in a vampire club where everyone is hunting just a few targets, a martial arts battle between Blade and some vampire ninjas that's very clever, battles between the group of heroes and an army of mutant vampires in the sewers and more. It helps too that with more characters, you can have people get killed off halfway through the movie. Proving that the threat is genuine. The special effects are significantly better than in the first film (which I attribute at least partially to director Guillermo Del Toro's inclination towards practical effects) and the battles are more elaborate too. We've got a lot of good, quotable lines, memorable characters, a story that amps it up and your favorite characters are back. I guess the one exception is the female love interest from the first movie, who does not return (something I was genuinely disappointed with) but you'll get over it because they introduce a whole new dynamic with Blade and Nyssa.

I'm enthusiastic about giving this movie a 5 / 5. Yes I realize that Leonor Varela isn't that great in the role and that some people (snobs) will call this a silly vampire action movie, but this film is exactly what the audience wants it to be. It's a sequel that really delivers and frankly, blows the first out of the water so much that I can easily see people having this second installment on their movie shelf without the first one (I have yet to see the third so I reserve judgement on that issue for later). Would you expect "Blade 2" to have so many interesting character dynamics, a whole new, original threat and for it to deliver more action, more creatures, more special effects and more memorable battles and one-liners than the first one? In a perfect world you would, but because so many sequels drop the ball it turns out to be a really pleasant surprise. It's the kind of movie that gets you so pumped up that it reminds you why you love action movies. I had a terrific time and just writing this down gets me excited to see it again and to check out more material on the character if it's half as much fun as this was.

(On Dvd, November 22, 2013).