Blade II (2002)

Wonderful Movie

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Though a select few action sequences are all but ruined by entirely too obvious and woefully uncanny CGI body doubles, the majority of this piece is palpably gooey and stylishly slick both in its overall presentation, this time steeped in the slightly Gothic horror of Guillermo del Toro, and its set-pieces, which mostly infuse fantastic choreography with tangibly painful practical effects to coolly cringe-inducing effect. It maintains its confidently laid-back spirit and calmly assured bad-ass protagonist, this time expanding the luscious lore that surrounds both and only making a couple of missteps with the narrative. Its pace and tone are consistent right until its much improved finale, and even the few plot issues don't ruin the effect of a piece with just as much bark as bite. 7/10

Blade 2 It's a super good movie but I do not know why so many people say it's even better than the first one. The film is no doubt cooler than the first but not automatically better because the pessimist is slower and the movie is a bit smaller in any case a smaller one. With over 10 minutes filler.However bad looks different I always find it awesome when the people in a sequel idea in expand and at least enough new offer that you can watch the movie itself so you could watch this movie without knowing who Blade is or without the first And yet you would never be lost, that's the right way to make a sequel.The movie has a super cool look, the slogans are wandering out, sometimes they are not that good at me, but not so much that it bothers me. The movie does not come with many surprises that can really surprise but I think that was not the goal.The battles are unfortunately not so nice because too much CGI effects are used which have not been decently changed and the movements are inhumane. I do not know why but this movie has not been filmed in Cinemascope for some reason either. And the film editing is very difficult to follow.Catapulting the middle draws a bit and the movie has no big surprises the last half hour makes everything worth of that is why you watch this movie the last half hour is top North best fights best effects and best action that is the right way how to make movies.Gillamo Del Torro has used the right people here and his visual look fits perfectly in this bleak world the computer effects are just as bad as in the first part but I think that's intentional the practical effects are fantastico.

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.

Recruited by his vampire prey to help them out in a deadly struggle they've been recently engaged in, Blade finds that his new employers have a far more sinister agenda in play than previously told and must battle his way through this new threat.This was quite the enjoyable and highly entertaining sequel. What really gives this one some great parts here is the addition of a fun new breed of vampires found here, not only finding a great way of introducing the creatures logically from the storyline as the explanation of them being a viral mutation offspring of vampires is given a truly great touch but also managing to put their physical changes here to good use as they're really freaky looking and gets a lot from these advanced forms. That is mainly due to how it fixes one of the major problems with the original in a far more even pace this time around, by appearing more as an Action film than a true Horror film and generating action pretty much more nonstop fighting the creatures. From the teams' first encounter in the underground dance hall where the individual members have encounters of their own in the kitchen or up in the guest-rooms before the frantic, frenzied battle on the dance-floor where the team is able to overpower several of the creatures in brutal, utterly bloody battles before finally getting the upper-hand and dealing with the strays left behind which provides the further fun of the autopsy sequence where they finally learn about the creatures. Furthering that, the sewer battles are even better as there's the tense suspense of the darkened locations providing a creepy setting while there's a lot to like as they swarm over the team requiring plenty of gun-fighting and weaponry that mixes in tons of gore with furious action scenes. That even leads into the other grand action scene here where there's the series of thrilling hand-to-hand battling and even firefight scenes that are just a blast. There's even a really great amount of prosthetics here to showcase the vampire's change in physical structure rather than opting to leave it strictly CG, which is a hugely appreciated feat and all together makes this good enough to hold out for the film's positives. The biggest problem here is the rather clueless and utterly inane series of twists, which make the last half-hour quite packed with story lines and exposition rather than action the way it had been from the start, especially with several of the characters' allegiances shifting for no real reason simply to make for a bigger impact and it falls apart somewhat. Along with some dodgy and lame CGI work here showing off their superhuman abilities during fights, these here are all that's really wrong here.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.