Review of Blade II (2002) by Felipe O — 13 Nov 2009

Caught this on the free HD Network Movie channel a week ago or so. I had always enjoyed Blade 2, but I meant to take a second look at the film in particular since Guillermo Del Toro did Pan's Labyrinth and finally became better known to the mainstream. I personally had been a fan of Del Toro's since Mimic and The Devil's Backbone, and I had been in one of those gratifyingly self-righteous position of nerdiness when people finally discovered Pan's Labyrinth, and I was in a position to say, "Hell, I've been a fan of this guy's stuff for years.".

But even I have to admit that Del Toro elevated his game to another level with Pan's Labyrinth. So when I went back and watched Blade 2, I was expecting a mostly silly, but technically impressive kung-fu vampire movie. That's what I remembered, and that's what I saw again on second viewing. But, since Del Toro has amassed such a reputation for himself, it's hard not to see the film through different eyes now and appreciate different things.

The first time around the most obvious thing of note was the practically non-stop martial arts action, staged with an impeccable sense of rhythm and energy. And that's still there and still impressive. But this time around for me, I really noticed the impressive level of detail lavished upon the creature effects. The "reapers" as they are dubbed, are a sort of vampire on crack kind of concept. Their mandibles crack open and reveal a very complicated mouth structure that essentially allows for harder, and more badass biting. But the impressive thing is that there is a point when one of these creatures is dissected on an examination table and the level of detail on display in constructing the innards of this monster is incredibly thorough, and well thought out, and it's much easier to see that after Del Toro exhibited his flair for creature effects in Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy II.

The other commonality that this film shares with Del Toro's later works is the theme of familial cruelty. Definitely didn't see this as a deep theme the first time around, but after Hellboy II, and even Pan's Labyrinth and Devil's Backbone, it's become a clear thematic preoccupation for Del Toro, and Blade II's core dramatic story of the vampire "royalty" clearly fits into that category. In fact, it feels very strongly like a precursor to the Royal family story in Hellboy II.

So revisiting Blade 2 was a fruitful experience for me, and I think I came away enjoying the film considerably more than I did the first time and considerably more than I ever thought I would in general. Sure, it's just a silly martial arts vampire movie. But it's about as well-made a silly martial arts vampire movie as can be.