Blade II (New Line Platinum Series)

I choose this rating because the movie is good. What I like about the movie is that “Pure action, bloody well done.” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times), “Nonstop action!” (Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times), “Fluid, fast and fun!” (Desson Howe, The Washington Post), and “Pulse-pounding!” (Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times) When the world is threatened by a new and deadlier breed of super vampire, the legendary Blade (Wesley Snipes) and his mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) must join forces with the Bloodpack, an elite team of vampire warriors made up of his sworn enemies. In order to stop the carnage these ravenous fiends must be destroyed at all costs in this high-voltage adventure, exploding with spectacular effects and martial arts action. The electrifying Snipes reprises his role from the original cult classic, Blade. What I dislike about the movie is that I wanted to see more of it. I would recommend this movie to other people.

I saw Blade in theaters when it came out, and LOVED it. Bought the VHS, and then the DVD. Watch it every so often. I acquired "Blade: Trinity" a while back and thought I had Blade II but it turns out either I didn't or lost it so I hit up Amazon for this DVD. After watching the 3 Blade Movies I place Blade II as my least favorite. I thought the whole "Reaper" storyline was slightly out there. I did enjoy the idea of a Vampire "Special Forces" team devoted to hunting down Blade. It's a good movie on its own but I think its the low point in the Blade story arc across the 3 movies.

The best of the Blade franchise. Wesley Snipes is excellent in the second edition of this darkly entertaining series, and his presence is the epitome of "cool". Ron Pearlman and Leonora Varella, are excellent co-stars that help complete the high-energy ensemble of actors in search of a "new" strain of vampires that threaten our world. The special effects are amazing and even better than the original Blade. The storyline has more twists and turns to keep the interests of the viewer glued to the screen as the story unfolds, and the ending is spectacular. I am a swordfight expert, for some reason, and love any movie where duels are staged using them. Some of the best have been Jose Ferrer in "Cyrano de Bergerac", where he talks to his opponent using poetry while defeating him in battle. The long fight scene in "Scaramouche ", between the star Stuart Granger, and Mel Ferrer, the scene in the castle between Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Ronald Coleman in "The Prisoner of Zenda", and last but not least, the fight between Tyrone Powers and Basil Rathbone in "The Mark of Zorro". Blade II fight choreography puts them all to shame.

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 in the way that only Guillermo del Toro can. While the first movie about the Marvel vampire-hunter was dark and gritty, "Blade II" is gloriously gory and full of rapid-fire violence, 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.