World Famous Comics: Blade II (New Line Platinum Series)
Blade II (New Line Platinum Series)
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, Leonor Varela, Norman Reedus Directed By: Guillermo del Toro Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Label: New Line Home Entertainment Number of Items: 2 Region Code: 1 Release Date: September 03, 2002 Running Time: 117 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 2002
Description: Get set for more action, more vampires and more Wesley Snipes in this second monster-hit installment in the Blade franchise.
Amazon.com: Aptly described by critic Roger Ebert as "a vomitorium of viscera," Blade II takes the express route to sequel success. So if you enjoyed Blade, you'll probably drool over this monster mash, which is anything but boring. Set (and filmed) in Prague, the plot finds a new crop of "Reaper" vampires threatening to implement a viral breeding program, and they're nearly impervious to attacks by Blade (Wesley Snipes), his now-revived mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), and a small army of "normal" vampires who routinely combust in a constant conflagration of spectacular special effects. It's up to Blade to conquer the über-vamps, and both Snipes and director Guillermo del Toro (Mimic) serve up a nonstop smorgasbord of intensely choreographed action, creepy makeup, and graphic ultraviolence. It's sadistic, juvenile, numbing, and--for those who dig this kind of thing--undeniably impressive. With the ever-imposing Ron Perlman as a vampire villain. --Jeff Shannon
Action packed This is another action packed Blade movie. Not as good as the first Blade but still takes you on a thrilling ride.
Don't fear the reapers Listen to the director commentary, and you'll hear Guillermo del Toro saying that he wanted the Blade sequel to be a fun, gory, comic-booky experience.
Well, he succeeded. Grotesquely gory and full of rapid-fire violence, "Blade II" is unashamed of its animeish action sequences and tongue-in-cheek humor ("Catch you later!"). Wesley Snipes and del Toro give it a suitably monstrous charm, although David Goyer's leaden dialogue bogs down many promising scenes.
While a monstrous hooded vampire preys on other vampires, Blade (Snipes) manages to track down his vampirized mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) and cures him of his vampirism.
Then a pair of vampire ninjas arrive, bearing a message for Blade: ancient vampire lord Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann) wants to meet with him. Turns out there's a monstrous vampiric mutation called the Reapers loose -- highly contagious, really disgusting, and preys on humans and vampires alike. Blade reluctantly agrees to work with the elite vampire assassin squad called the Bloodpack.
Of course, tensions run high between the vampires and the little gang sworn to kill them -- especially when they arrive at the rave club House of Pain and lose some of their number. Blade takes on the Reapers' leader, Jared Nomak (Luke Goss), only to discover that there are some nasty secrets behind the Reapers' origins. And Damaskinos' plans are far nastier and further-reaching than anyone could have guessed.
Those expecting a copy of the first "Blade" movie should leave the building now. Guillermo del Toro's direction gives "Blade II" a very unique flavour all its own -- it's faster, more grotesque, more fantastical, and more infused with quirky humor. The one sour note is the magical return of Whistler at the beginning, where it turns out that whoops, he wasn't QUITE dead and he's getting better. Contrived much?
And del Toro has fun with the action -- lots of grotesque gore (those flip-out Reaper mouths), anime-style action (Blade garrotes a vampire on a motorcycle) and highly destructive gun battles. The first four-fifths of the story are just mindless shoot-'em-up-and-burn-up-to-ashes Reaper-hunts, but it mutates in the last act. Suddenly we're faced with a vampiric tale of betrayal, revenge and Grecian-style tragedy.
The big problem with this movie? Goyer's dialogue is hit or miss. Sometimes it's hilarious ("You're human." "Barely. I'm a lawyer"), and sometimes it sounds like he put it in because it looked cool on paper ("There's an old saying: Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer"). Much of the time, it's the latter.
Wesley Snipes seems to be having a good time here, with lots of wild action and some wry humour ("Now you got an explosive device stuck to the back of your head"), and Leonor Varela provides a hint of possible romance as an autopsy-performing vampire princess. And the whispery-voiced Luke Goss manages to take a truly repulsive character ("so... so sweet!") and give him an air of tragedy.
In fact, most of the acting is pretty good in this movie, although most of the actors don't get a lot to do (Donnie Yen is particularly underused), though Ron Perlman is wonderfully loathsome as a neo-Nazi vampire who gets on Blade's bad side. Norman Reedus is intensely annoying as Scud, though -- you'll spend a lot of time hoping that someone shoots him by accident.
"Blade II" is a very different beast than its predecessor, and del Toro does a great job with some truly mediocre scripting. Worth seeing if you have a strong stomach.
Vampire Heaven A great follow-up to the original movie. New vampires, new weapons, new tricks. If you're a "sucker" for vampire movies, this one delivers.
A New Breed of vampires Blade 2 knocks blade 1 out of the baseball field. this blade movie has tons more of action and tougher villians for blade to fight like nomack. this is the best in all of the blade movies. and it has a awesome soundtrack. and awesome characters. this movie rocks.
Not a vampire movie I like to be entertained, but this movie isn't a vampire movie and is a little weird.
The fight sequences are pretty pathetic, a mix of WWE wrestling movies and bad computer graphics. The fact they are vampires is just a side thing, as they never actually do anything like a vampire (like drink blood, for starters). Also, this film shows that death comes according to emotion. In the first Blade, a vampire exposed to the sun died a screaming and explosive death. In this one, she flakes a way lovingly in his arms as the sun rises.
Besides Blade and Vampires fighting together, the vampires he fights with are cheesy and not warriors. Just because blade carries a sword (which seems to be an effective weapon when fighting vampires), doesn't mean they have to carry battle axes, a katana, and anything that is decidely ineffective against Blade (who they are someone trained to fight) and inferior to guns.
Fighting the "enemies", which seem a bit contrived, is pathetic. They are easily killed with UV light, and cannot be killed with bullets and blades. So, naturally, they tend to pump as many rounds as they can into these creatures when they could just use a blacklight, available at any store which sells hardware (or Amazon, where I got mine...).
Blades sidekick is just a forerunner of the annoying male character in the third movie as well...
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