Blade II (2002)

So after the surprising success of Blade, Marvel movies began to develop and appear in the public eye. X-Men and Spider-man were massive successes, so it seemed only natural to return to the first of the modern super hero franchises. Thus Blade II was created, though this time with Guillermo Del Toro at the helm. The story takes place two years after the end of the first film. Blade is still hunting vampires the world over, and in his search he’s found that they have taken his old mentor, Whistler (played once again by Kris Kristofferson), captive. I was a bit surprised to see Whistler return, what with him being dead and all, but given that this is set in a comic book style universe, it’s not much of a stretch to bring people back to life. The plot really unfolds when two ambassadors of the vampire nation arrive to recruit Blade so that he can hunt down a new, deadlier breed of vampire; grotesque creatures referred to as “reapers”. 

I’ll say again that Blade exists in a very comic book world, and it’s much more emphasized this time around. Where the first film wanted to stress a sort of “real world” version of the character, Guillermo Del Toro wants very little to do with that. Blade’s superhuman abilities are more exaggerated (with the aid of computer animation, but we’ll get to that later), the creatures he fights are more disgusting and numerous, and he even gets to fight alongside a bunch of other hunters, with their own super abilities. With Guillermo Del Toro involved, there are some really cool new additions and alterations to the Blade mythos. First, he references and incorporates old movie vampires by establishing that there are two different kinds in the world, the pretty and seductive kind that mostly made up the vampires of the first film, and the others who are more reminiscent of Max Schreck in Nosferatu. Next, we have the reapers, the central villains of the movie led by the vicious Nomak (Luke Goss). These things are gross, but also really thought out. They’re a mutant strand of vampires seemingly superior to Blade, but more freakish and out of control. Instead of having sharp fangs, their jaws pry open to reveal a gigantic tentacle of a tongue that latches onto their prey. One of the best scenes involving these creatures is when Nyssa (Leonor Varela), a vampire noble, performs an autopsy and we get to see the bizarre layout of its insides, disgustingly and wonderfully created using practical effects.

Awesome.

Now, the bulk of the plot centers around Blade’s team-up with the Bloodpack, a bunch of vampires trained specifically to kill him, and what a team this is. Its members include Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen, and Danny John-Jules (as in the Cat from Red Dwarf). For the most part, their only real purpose is to look cool before they get brutally killed (leather clad cannon fodder). Nyssa also serves as a potential love interest for Blade which, given that she’s one of the very things he’s dedicated his life to killing, could have been really interesting, but it’s not given much to develop and honestly doesn’t really amount to much. Unfortunately character development isn’t all that important when compared to the action. The only characters you feel like you know are Blade and Whistler, but that’s mainly because you already know them from the first film. Wesley Snipes and Kris Kristofferson are still as entertaining and likeable as they were before, and are obviously comfortable reprising their roles. 

This is a supernatural action movie, so the question is: how’s the action? The action is more over-the-top than it was in the first film and this is mostly due to the reliance on computer animation. Blade can now pull off ridiculous stunts at any given moment instead of the one or two instances from the first movie. The problem with this is that computer generated Blade doesn’t look very real. In fact, it’s downright obvious whenever they switch out the actor for his animated counterpart. I blame this more on the times than anything else. Blade II was released in 2002, and just as with Spider-man, X-men, The Matrix Reloaded, and anything else around the time that wasn’t Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, computer animated people were really terrible looking. I give Guillermo Del Toro credit however, because even though the CG is extremely dated, he transitions from live action to computer animation seamlessly. The actors sometimes go back and forth between being animated and live action multiple times within one fight scene. I can only imagine that had he made this movie today, this complaint might not be relevant. 

In the trustworthy hands of Guillermo Del Toro, Blade II is an action packed and amusing action movie. It builds on certain elements of the first film to make it feel more fun and showcase that it came from a comic book. It’s violent, action packed, and a worthy sequel.