blade2
Review: "Blade II"
Posted March 31, 2002 by The Crystal Lich
"Blade" is back. Whistler is back. And while vampires still suck, this sequel
doesn't. (insert groan here)
Blade (Wesley Snipes), a half-vampire with a hatred toward the 'vampire nation'
that created him, is recruited by the very same people he has vowed to destroy.
New monsters called Reapers have surfaced, each bent on killing not only
humans but vampires as well. Blade takes command of the all-vampire Blood
Pack, a team of assassins originally being trained to kill Blade himself,
and sets out take down the Reapers. While Blade knows that he will be shown
forbidden secrets of the vampire nation in order to track down the Reapers
to their lair, he is also very aware that those he leads will turn on him
first chance they get.
Director Guillermo del Toro must have a thing for mutated, once-human monsters,
so it's easy to see that a vampire film would be a natural attraction. While
taking the reigns from "Blade" director Stephen Norrington and bringing Blade's
creator Marv Wolfman onboard, this sequel to the 1998 hit takes everything
from the original and cranks it up a notch. The fights are more superhuman
than before, the attitudes are even bigger, and the vampire-killing violence
is gratuitous a-plenty. Del Toro appears to have understood everything that
made the original surprise hit work, and Wesley Snipes (also wearing the
producers hat with his own Amen Ra Films) wouldn't have let him get very
far if he didn't.
Not since "The Matrix" has a film come so close to looking like a live-action
comic book. Wesley Snipes' portrayal of the title character has been improved
by incorporating computer imagery to make him appear to jump higher, hit
faster, and fall harder, all the while avoiding the 'wire fu' combat that
the aforementioned "Matrix" has made standard in recent action films. Since
the effect works and serves the story well, the kind of battle scenes that
needed for future theatrical stories such as "The Death of Superman" and
"The Hulk" seem like less of an undertaking. To maximize the effect, the
virtual camera is able to show the action everywhere, as if the audience,
too, were jumping, swinging, or in free-fall.
The worst offense that "Blade II' commits may be lost opportunity. Leonor
Varela (as Nyssa) seemed to have had a lot more story behind her character
and her interest in Blade (and his interest in her) is left mostly unexplored;
it feels like something might have been left on the cutting room floor. Donnie
Yen (as Snowman) gets almost no chance to show off his considerable fighting
skills. Even Kris Kristofferson's Whistler, while stealing some of the best
lines in the film, doesn't get much screen time either (although getting
him back into the story after his 'death' in the original film is both clever
and important to the plot.) Fortunately, either you like this kind of film
or you don't; if you're among the ones who do, there isn't much time to think
about what isn't there while you're grinning from ear to ear.
A word of caution: there are a few horribly realistic scenes of vampire dissection,
and they look as realistic as any battle damage shown in "Saving Private
Ryan." Otherwise, look for Ron Perlman (as Rienhardt) at his best as Blade's
main rival from the Blood Pack, and Luke Goss (as Nomak) playing the head
Reaper as evil as they come. Between action, gunplay, fights, chases, special
effects, and offensive one-liners, "Blade II" pleases on all levels. Here's
hoping that this film is a sign of great blockbuster films to come this summer
and not the high point by which all else will be measured.
(a 4 skull recommendation out of 4)
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