Blade II (2002) (R)

Blade II (2002) (R)
Directed by Guillermo Del Toro
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Leonor Varela, Ron Perlman

Daughter Says:

Blade 2... where to begin?

The basis of the story is Blade is out to get his master after being stolen from vampires. Soon after the awesome rescue mission an intruder alert came on at Blade's headquarters. The intruders are none other than vampires. Blade, sworn enemy to all vampires, is now asked for a truce. So you think. There is a new type of vampire on the loose that is after not only humans but vampires. What should Blade do now? He joins up with a team of vampires, meant to track him down, to stop these disease spreading blood suckers.

I won't give too much away but there is a lot of back stabbing in this movie; figuratively and literally. I could never tell who was the evil, back stabber or the best buddy forever. I also loved the effects in this movie. When a vampire got stabbed it was so amazing. So much color and effects to it. That really made my day. The only problem I had with the effects was when Blade went all ninja on some vampire butts. It was so unrealistic. Special effects can only go so far with me.

I really enjoyed the storyline. I could follow it easily and I really felt connected with Blade. The makeup in this movie was really good too. The hybrid vampire was so cool looking to me. I was really creeped out by him. I felt like I was watching a Guillermo del Toro masterpiece. He really did a great job on this movie.

I highly recommend this movie to everyone who loves a good action almost unrealistic film. Plus you don't even have to watch the first movie to understand this one. What a plus!

Rating for Blade II: ****1/2.

Daddy Says:

I remember liking this movie a lot more the first time I saw it then I did this time. We skipped over the first movie in this series because we both like Guillermo del Toro movies (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy II). But this one isn't as good as either of those.

First, the good. Wesley Snipes as the titular (there's that word he likes to use again) character is a complete badass. I loved watching him fight vampires in hand-to-hand combat and with swords, or just running and shooting silver bullets at them turning them into fiery ashes. Kris Kristofferson returns as Blade's mentor, with a scripting sleight-of-hand since he seemed to kill himself in the first film. Leonor Varela is the leader of the vampire troops, and also daughter to the "vampire king", and del Toro regular Ron Perlman plays one of the fighters who gets in Blade's face and ends up with an explosive device attached to the back of his head for his troubles. Guillermo del Toro does a very good job at directing this fast-paced and funny action (not horror) movie.

But then there's the bad: namely the script by David S. Goyer. It relies heavily on a lot of very cliched stories. There's the "good guy and bad guy must team up to fight a bigger bad guy" story that has been done in multiple John Woo movies, and to much greater effect. The main villain turns out to be doing it all for the "glory of his race", the reasoning Hitler used behind his master race. There's the old Frankenstein tale of the monster creation coming back to take his revenge on his creator. The script even tries to shoehorn in the story of the Prodigal Son. It's all too much.

It's hard to decide whether to recommend this movie or not. So I'm going to go right down the middle and let you decide for yourself if you want to see it or not. I didn't hate it, but it could have been better.

Rating for Blade II: ***