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First off, I absolutely loved the first film. It’s fast paced action together with it’s unbelievable style…...The perfect combination made for an outstanding action movie.
So my excitement was understandable when I found out that a sequel was being made, with Kris Kristofferson back, even though he apparently died in the first film. However, knowing that a sequel was being made and that Kris Kristofferson was back on board, was as far as my knowledge went. I knew no release date and no basic storyline. So the film really appeared from no where when I saw an advert on TV. I had no idea it was to be released so soon!
So (after a few cancellations) I finally kept a set date and entered the cinema. My expectations were astronomical at this point. I knew now what the basic storyline was but basic is as far as it went. I knew that Danny John Jules (Cat from Red Dwarf) and Donnie Yen (kung fu kicking man) were both vampires in the film. So we sat down in (admittedly uncomfortable) central seats, eagerly awaiting the film’s start.
The lights dimmed, the crackling of sweet wrappers instantly stopped (as it always does as soon as the lights go out) and the curtains drew back. The film was about to start. Before it really did begin however, I was treated to a rather tasty Star Wars Episode 2 trailer (which really has made an impression on me) and an action packed, though pretty poor looking Spiderman trailer. Now we were ready……
Instantly, memories of the first film flooded back to me. The same blood-red ‘New Line’ logo appeared on screen, just like in the original, and I knew straight away that this was going to be a film worthy of the original.
The opening scene was dark and dreary, set in a vampire blood bank. A rather unhealthy looking fellow was taken into the depths of the building and set out on a dentist chair (yes, a dentist chair). With the vampires laughing over him, the typical turn around occurred – the unhealthy guy started to laugh insanely. Why this would scare anyone I don’t know. You’d merely say “I dunno what you’re laughing about. You’re about to die!” Although admittedly, they did have good reason to be afraid this time, as he broke loose from his restraints and set himself loose upon the neck of a rather unlucky doctor vampire, naturally spurting a rather unrealistic volume of blood all over the wall. Next he shows his brute strength by throwing the nearest guy against a tiled wall, almost putting him straight through it. Lastly, we see his awesome speed as he darts across the room and attacks the neck of the final remaining doctor. Whilst he is feeding on the poor guy’s neck, he looks straight into the security camera and mutters “I hate vampires!” So, now that we know what our favourite vampire slayer is up against on his latest outing, we can continue with the film.
Continuing with the film in this case, means heading for the start credits. And I know this doesn’t matter in the least, but the credits were just so damn cool. Played with a voice over from Blade, explaining why he does what he does, and what happened to Whistler (Kristofferson) in the first film. At the end, we get the coolest part of all - ‘Blade II’ written in the best font ever! Still, credits aside, the film was amazingly cool too.
Then we meet Blade himself, hunting some vampires among cries of “The Daywalker is here”. This was a highly impressive action scene, showing off Blade’s nifty machine guns and glaive but I somehow thought at this point that it wasn’t going to better the original. I think it was perhaps the use of the special effects. The first film’s action sequences were extremely fast-paced and never let up for a second. Blade II’s on the other hand, used a bit too many special effects. There was quite a bit of slow motion going on, like something out of ‘The Matrix’. This is by no means a bad thing, but I think I did prefer the style of the original. Still, as good as that action scene was, it was to be bettered by countless others throughout the course of the film.
Anyway, before I lose myself and go through each and every scene in the movie, I’ll give a brief plot outline. There has been a mutation in the vampire race, and now a new breed of vampire has been created - the reaper. These are real bad-ass vampires, and are what we see at the beginning of the film. They are bald as their metabolism is so fast that they burn all their hair and they must feed every few hours to quench their incredible thirst for blood. Unlike normal vampires, they are immune to silver and garlic, and their heart is enclosed in bone so any attempt to stake them is a bit of a futile effort. The only way in which they can be killed easily, is by sunlight. Another difference to normal vampires, is their unbiasness towards their prey. Human or vampire, it doesn’t matter to them and even worse, their prey does not die. Instead, they become reapers and their prey in turn, also become reapers. Basically, in the end everyone will be a reaper. Unless of course, they are stopped. And this is where Blade comes in. A highly trained group of normal vampires – the blood pack - originally trained to hunt Blade, are given the assignment of wiping out the reapers. To do this, they enlist of the help of the daywalker, making a truce in order to rid both humans and vampires of this new breed of vampire. Although not entirely convinced that the vampire’s intentions are honorable, Blade goes along to vampire headquarters to hear the plan. When he returns, he has a short, but memorable conversation with Whistler consisting of:
Whistler: “What do you think?
Blade: “It’s a plan.”
Whistler: “What do you really think?”
Blade: “They’re gonna f*** us the first chance they get.”
With a few twists towards the end, some more unexpected than others, Blade prevails and wipes out the reapers. His hunt for the vampires doesn’t die with them though, and a fantastic touch at the end, sees him continue his hunt. Lets just hope for a Blade III….
The action scenes were superb, with some great fighting from Snipes. I was a bit disappointed to see Donnie Yen get so little screen time to show off his martial art talent, but that said, Snipes was good enough. One fight scene in particular, sees him take on 30 or so vampire guards, every one of which has either an arm, leg, neck or back broken with a satisfying (and very loud) crunch. The final guard he takes his on, is spared this crunching fate however, as Blade picks him up and does a hilariously gigantic vertical suplex. Something wrestling fans will certainly appreciate.
However, the action scenes did, as I have said, use a bit too much of the old special effects. The disintegrating vampires did look far better in this than in the previous film, but the slow motion effect was over-used. In one fight scene, Blade and his opponent occasionally did impossible to pull-off moves, requiring them to be filled in for by CG animations, and they weren’t very convincing to say the least.
It did have an incredible challenge in standing up to it’s predecessor, and it couldn’t pull it off. The original was certainly better, but then again I have only seen the sequel once. It wasn’t too far off, but from first viewings, I did enjoy the original more, although only just. The second was funnier in places, and did have some excellent lines but Blade 1 just nips it for me.
Blade II is certainly worth the admission fee, and I’d advise anyone who enjoyed the first film to go see this.
So my excitement was understandable when I found out that a sequel was being made, with Kris Kristofferson back, even though he apparently died in the first film. However, knowing that a sequel was being made and that Kris Kristofferson was back on board, was as far as my knowledge went. I knew no release date and no basic storyline. So the film really appeared from no where when I saw an advert on TV. I had no idea it was to be released so soon!
So (after a few cancellations) I finally kept a set date and entered the cinema. My expectations were astronomical at this point. I knew now what the basic storyline was but basic is as far as it went. I knew that Danny John Jules (Cat from Red Dwarf) and Donnie Yen (kung fu kicking man) were both vampires in the film. So we sat down in (admittedly uncomfortable) central seats, eagerly awaiting the film’s start.
The lights dimmed, the crackling of sweet wrappers instantly stopped (as it always does as soon as the lights go out) and the curtains drew back. The film was about to start. Before it really did begin however, I was treated to a rather tasty Star Wars Episode 2 trailer (which really has made an impression on me) and an action packed, though pretty poor looking Spiderman trailer. Now we were ready……
Instantly, memories of the first film flooded back to me. The same blood-red ‘New Line’ logo appeared on screen, just like in the original, and I knew straight away that this was going to be a film worthy of the original.
The opening scene was dark and dreary, set in a vampire blood bank. A rather unhealthy looking fellow was taken into the depths of the building and set out on a dentist chair (yes, a dentist chair). With the vampires laughing over him, the typical turn around occurred – the unhealthy guy started to laugh insanely. Why this would scare anyone I don’t know. You’d merely say “I dunno what you’re laughing about. You’re about to die!” Although admittedly, they did have good reason to be afraid this time, as he broke loose from his restraints and set himself loose upon the neck of a rather unlucky doctor vampire, naturally spurting a rather unrealistic volume of blood all over the wall. Next he shows his brute strength by throwing the nearest guy against a tiled wall, almost putting him straight through it. Lastly, we see his awesome speed as he darts across the room and attacks the neck of the final remaining doctor. Whilst he is feeding on the poor guy’s neck, he looks straight into the security camera and mutters “I hate vampires!” So, now that we know what our favourite vampire slayer is up against on his latest outing, we can continue with the film.
Continuing with the film in this case, means heading for the start credits. And I know this doesn’t matter in the least, but the credits were just so damn cool. Played with a voice over from Blade, explaining why he does what he does, and what happened to Whistler (Kristofferson) in the first film. At the end, we get the coolest part of all - ‘Blade II’ written in the best font ever! Still, credits aside, the film was amazingly cool too.
Then we meet Blade himself, hunting some vampires among cries of “The Daywalker is here”. This was a highly impressive action scene, showing off Blade’s nifty machine guns and glaive but I somehow thought at this point that it wasn’t going to better the original. I think it was perhaps the use of the special effects. The first film’s action sequences were extremely fast-paced and never let up for a second. Blade II’s on the other hand, used a bit too many special effects. There was quite a bit of slow motion going on, like something out of ‘The Matrix’. This is by no means a bad thing, but I think I did prefer the style of the original. Still, as good as that action scene was, it was to be bettered by countless others throughout the course of the film.
Anyway, before I lose myself and go through each and every scene in the movie, I’ll give a brief plot outline. There has been a mutation in the vampire race, and now a new breed of vampire has been created - the reaper. These are real bad-ass vampires, and are what we see at the beginning of the film. They are bald as their metabolism is so fast that they burn all their hair and they must feed every few hours to quench their incredible thirst for blood. Unlike normal vampires, they are immune to silver and garlic, and their heart is enclosed in bone so any attempt to stake them is a bit of a futile effort. The only way in which they can be killed easily, is by sunlight. Another difference to normal vampires, is their unbiasness towards their prey. Human or vampire, it doesn’t matter to them and even worse, their prey does not die. Instead, they become reapers and their prey in turn, also become reapers. Basically, in the end everyone will be a reaper. Unless of course, they are stopped. And this is where Blade comes in. A highly trained group of normal vampires – the blood pack - originally trained to hunt Blade, are given the assignment of wiping out the reapers. To do this, they enlist of the help of the daywalker, making a truce in order to rid both humans and vampires of this new breed of vampire. Although not entirely convinced that the vampire’s intentions are honorable, Blade goes along to vampire headquarters to hear the plan. When he returns, he has a short, but memorable conversation with Whistler consisting of:
Whistler: “What do you think?
Blade: “It’s a plan.”
Whistler: “What do you really think?”
Blade: “They’re gonna f*** us the first chance they get.”
With a few twists towards the end, some more unexpected than others, Blade prevails and wipes out the reapers. His hunt for the vampires doesn’t die with them though, and a fantastic touch at the end, sees him continue his hunt. Lets just hope for a Blade III….
The action scenes were superb, with some great fighting from Snipes. I was a bit disappointed to see Donnie Yen get so little screen time to show off his martial art talent, but that said, Snipes was good enough. One fight scene in particular, sees him take on 30 or so vampire guards, every one of which has either an arm, leg, neck or back broken with a satisfying (and very loud) crunch. The final guard he takes his on, is spared this crunching fate however, as Blade picks him up and does a hilariously gigantic vertical suplex. Something wrestling fans will certainly appreciate.
However, the action scenes did, as I have said, use a bit too much of the old special effects. The disintegrating vampires did look far better in this than in the previous film, but the slow motion effect was over-used. In one fight scene, Blade and his opponent occasionally did impossible to pull-off moves, requiring them to be filled in for by CG animations, and they weren’t very convincing to say the least.
It did have an incredible challenge in standing up to it’s predecessor, and it couldn’t pull it off. The original was certainly better, but then again I have only seen the sequel once. It wasn’t too far off, but from first viewings, I did enjoy the original more, although only just. The second was funnier in places, and did have some excellent lines but Blade 1 just nips it for me.
Blade II is certainly worth the admission fee, and I’d advise anyone who enjoyed the first film to go see this.
Bleeders wrote:
> Snowman was under-used in this, which was one of my gripes. Mind you,
> he was responsible for the choreograpgy of the fight scenes and
> what-not, for he is the superb Donnie Yen.
>
> Who co-starred in the awesome Iron Monkey - and if any self-respecting
> martial arts fan hasn't seen this, then for shame.
Yeah, he definitely didn't get enough screen time, did he?
Iron Monkey pales to EVERY Bruce Lee film though. It annoys me when they speed up fight scenes. It just ruins the fun of watching them completely.
> Snowman was under-used in this, which was one of my gripes. Mind you,
> he was responsible for the choreograpgy of the fight scenes and
> what-not, for he is the superb Donnie Yen.
>
> Who co-starred in the awesome Iron Monkey - and if any self-respecting
> martial arts fan hasn't seen this, then for shame.
Yeah, he definitely didn't get enough screen time, did he?
Iron Monkey pales to EVERY Bruce Lee film though. It annoys me when they speed up fight scenes. It just ruins the fun of watching them completely.
MoJoJoJo wrote:
> You're right, it was the scent thing, which they explained earlier
>
> Anyway, Danny John Jules was putting on an American accent wasn't he?
No, I don't think he was. If he was then it was the worst American accent ever, but I'm pretty certain he was just sticking with his English accent.
> You're right, it was the scent thing, which they explained earlier
>
> Anyway, Danny John Jules was putting on an American accent wasn't he?
No, I don't think he was. If he was then it was the worst American accent ever, but I'm pretty certain he was just sticking with his English accent.
Snowman was under-used in this, which was one of my gripes. Mind you, he was responsible for the choreograpgy of the fight scenes and what-not, for he is the superb Donnie Yen.
Who co-starred in the awesome Iron Monkey - and if any self-respecting martial arts fan hasn't seen this, then for shame.
Who co-starred in the awesome Iron Monkey - and if any self-respecting martial arts fan hasn't seen this, then for shame.
You're right, it was the scent thing, which they explained earlier
Anyway, Danny John Jules was putting on an American accent wasn't he?
Anyway, Danny John Jules was putting on an American accent wasn't he?
No, Kat was the black guy. He got dragged under the water by the reapers just before Blade told that Neesa/Meesa woman to leave. He'd draw their attention.
10.....
9.....
8......
:-D
I still can't remember when Snowman died. Ahhh well....
Anyway, what was it that Whistler put down when that guy started beating the crap out of him? First of all I thought it was a UV grenade but then I missed what the guy said as he picked it up. I can only assume it was some of that scent stuff to attract the reapers.
10.....
9.....
8......
:-D
I still can't remember when Snowman died. Ahhh well....
Anyway, what was it that Whistler put down when that guy started beating the crap out of him? First of all I thought it was a UV grenade but then I missed what the guy said as he picked it up. I can only assume it was some of that scent stuff to attract the reapers.
Kat? Was he the big guy who chinned Whistler? The Scottish guy was funny
Yeah, Snowman died right at the start of the sewers, just before the woman died
Yeah, Snowman died right at the start of the sewers, just before the woman died
Yeah, the snowman. they all had ridiculous names. His first kick was great, similar to Liu Kang's cycle kick thing in Mortal Kombat but he certainly didn't get enough screen time.
I can't remember when he died though. I guess it was in the sewers but when?
I was devastated when Kat died. It was terrible. His English accent made the character.
"Blade, what happens at sunrise. Oi, Blade. I'm talking to you!"
All in a fantastic English accent.
I can't remember when he died though. I guess it was in the sewers but when?
I was devastated when Kat died. It was terrible. His English accent made the character.
"Blade, what happens at sunrise. Oi, Blade. I'm talking to you!"
All in a fantastic English accent.
"requiring them to be filled in for by CG animations, and they weren’t very convincing to say the least."
Yeah, that was my beef, they looked pretty cack, but then I have a knack for spotting CGI, none of the film looked "real" to me, in that there was nothing in it that didn't look like it had been done with computers
That guy you mentioned, who you said didn't get enough time, was he the Snowman or whatever he was called? The guy with the sword? As soon as I saw him in the film I knew he'd be the martial arts one, and he was great. I was devastated when he died, heh
Anyway, I didn't like Blade when I first saw it, but after the third or so time I really got into it, then watched it whenever it was on Sky Premier
But I really enjoyed Blade 2, and I believe it was better. I'll have to wait till I see it a few more times then I'll ask myself which one is better then, but so far it looks like B2 is superior
And yes, Blade III had better come out or I'll cry
Yeah, that was my beef, they looked pretty cack, but then I have a knack for spotting CGI, none of the film looked "real" to me, in that there was nothing in it that didn't look like it had been done with computers
That guy you mentioned, who you said didn't get enough time, was he the Snowman or whatever he was called? The guy with the sword? As soon as I saw him in the film I knew he'd be the martial arts one, and he was great. I was devastated when he died, heh
Anyway, I didn't like Blade when I first saw it, but after the third or so time I really got into it, then watched it whenever it was on Sky Premier
But I really enjoyed Blade 2, and I believe it was better. I'll have to wait till I see it a few more times then I'll ask myself which one is better then, but so far it looks like B2 is superior
And yes, Blade III had better come out or I'll cry
First off, I absolutely loved the first film. It’s fast paced action together with it’s unbelievable style…...The perfect combination made for an outstanding action movie.
So my excitement was understandable when I found out that a sequel was being made, with Kris Kristofferson back, even though he apparently died in the first film. However, knowing that a sequel was being made and that Kris Kristofferson was back on board, was as far as my knowledge went. I knew no release date and no basic storyline. So the film really appeared from no where when I saw an advert on TV. I had no idea it was to be released so soon!
So (after a few cancellations) I finally kept a set date and entered the cinema. My expectations were astronomical at this point. I knew now what the basic storyline was but basic is as far as it went. I knew that Danny John Jules (Cat from Red Dwarf) and Donnie Yen (kung fu kicking man) were both vampires in the film. So we sat down in (admittedly uncomfortable) central seats, eagerly awaiting the film’s start.
The lights dimmed, the crackling of sweet wrappers instantly stopped (as it always does as soon as the lights go out) and the curtains drew back. The film was about to start. Before it really did begin however, I was treated to a rather tasty Star Wars Episode 2 trailer (which really has made an impression on me) and an action packed, though pretty poor looking Spiderman trailer. Now we were ready……
Instantly, memories of the first film flooded back to me. The same blood-red ‘New Line’ logo appeared on screen, just like in the original, and I knew straight away that this was going to be a film worthy of the original.
The opening scene was dark and dreary, set in a vampire blood bank. A rather unhealthy looking fellow was taken into the depths of the building and set out on a dentist chair (yes, a dentist chair). With the vampires laughing over him, the typical turn around occurred – the unhealthy guy started to laugh insanely. Why this would scare anyone I don’t know. You’d merely say “I dunno what you’re laughing about. You’re about to die!” Although admittedly, they did have good reason to be afraid this time, as he broke loose from his restraints and set himself loose upon the neck of a rather unlucky doctor vampire, naturally spurting a rather unrealistic volume of blood all over the wall. Next he shows his brute strength by throwing the nearest guy against a tiled wall, almost putting him straight through it. Lastly, we see his awesome speed as he darts across the room and attacks the neck of the final remaining doctor. Whilst he is feeding on the poor guy’s neck, he looks straight into the security camera and mutters “I hate vampires!” So, now that we know what our favourite vampire slayer is up against on his latest outing, we can continue with the film.
Continuing with the film in this case, means heading for the start credits. And I know this doesn’t matter in the least, but the credits were just so damn cool. Played with a voice over from Blade, explaining why he does what he does, and what happened to Whistler (Kristofferson) in the first film. At the end, we get the coolest part of all - ‘Blade II’ written in the best font ever! Still, credits aside, the film was amazingly cool too.
Then we meet Blade himself, hunting some vampires among cries of “The Daywalker is here”. This was a highly impressive action scene, showing off Blade’s nifty machine guns and glaive but I somehow thought at this point that it wasn’t going to better the original. I think it was perhaps the use of the special effects. The first film’s action sequences were extremely fast-paced and never let up for a second. Blade II’s on the other hand, used a bit too many special effects. There was quite a bit of slow motion going on, like something out of ‘The Matrix’. This is by no means a bad thing, but I think I did prefer the style of the original. Still, as good as that action scene was, it was to be bettered by countless others throughout the course of the film.
Anyway, before I lose myself and go through each and every scene in the movie, I’ll give a brief plot outline. There has been a mutation in the vampire race, and now a new breed of vampire has been created - the reaper. These are real bad-ass vampires, and are what we see at the beginning of the film. They are bald as their metabolism is so fast that they burn all their hair and they must feed every few hours to quench their incredible thirst for blood. Unlike normal vampires, they are immune to silver and garlic, and their heart is enclosed in bone so any attempt to stake them is a bit of a futile effort. The only way in which they can be killed easily, is by sunlight. Another difference to normal vampires, is their unbiasness towards their prey. Human or vampire, it doesn’t matter to them and even worse, their prey does not die. Instead, they become reapers and their prey in turn, also become reapers. Basically, in the end everyone will be a reaper. Unless of course, they are stopped. And this is where Blade comes in. A highly trained group of normal vampires – the blood pack - originally trained to hunt Blade, are given the assignment of wiping out the reapers. To do this, they enlist of the help of the daywalker, making a truce in order to rid both humans and vampires of this new breed of vampire. Although not entirely convinced that the vampire’s intentions are honorable, Blade goes along to vampire headquarters to hear the plan. When he returns, he has a short, but memorable conversation with Whistler consisting of:
Whistler: “What do you think?
Blade: “It’s a plan.”
Whistler: “What do you really think?”
Blade: “They’re gonna f*** us the first chance they get.”
With a few twists towards the end, some more unexpected than others, Blade prevails and wipes out the reapers. His hunt for the vampires doesn’t die with them though, and a fantastic touch at the end, sees him continue his hunt. Lets just hope for a Blade III….
The action scenes were superb, with some great fighting from Snipes. I was a bit disappointed to see Donnie Yen get so little screen time to show off his martial art talent, but that said, Snipes was good enough. One fight scene in particular, sees him take on 30 or so vampire guards, every one of which has either an arm, leg, neck or back broken with a satisfying (and very loud) crunch. The final guard he takes his on, is spared this crunching fate however, as Blade picks him up and does a hilariously gigantic vertical suplex. Something wrestling fans will certainly appreciate.
However, the action scenes did, as I have said, use a bit too much of the old special effects. The disintegrating vampires did look far better in this than in the previous film, but the slow motion effect was over-used. In one fight scene, Blade and his opponent occasionally did impossible to pull-off moves, requiring them to be filled in for by CG animations, and they weren’t very convincing to say the least.
It did have an incredible challenge in standing up to it’s predecessor, and it couldn’t pull it off. The original was certainly better, but then again I have only seen the sequel once. It wasn’t too far off, but from first viewings, I did enjoy the original more, although only just. The second was funnier in places, and did have some excellent lines but Blade 1 just nips it for me.
Blade II is certainly worth the admission fee, and I’d advise anyone who enjoyed the first film to go see this.
So my excitement was understandable when I found out that a sequel was being made, with Kris Kristofferson back, even though he apparently died in the first film. However, knowing that a sequel was being made and that Kris Kristofferson was back on board, was as far as my knowledge went. I knew no release date and no basic storyline. So the film really appeared from no where when I saw an advert on TV. I had no idea it was to be released so soon!
So (after a few cancellations) I finally kept a set date and entered the cinema. My expectations were astronomical at this point. I knew now what the basic storyline was but basic is as far as it went. I knew that Danny John Jules (Cat from Red Dwarf) and Donnie Yen (kung fu kicking man) were both vampires in the film. So we sat down in (admittedly uncomfortable) central seats, eagerly awaiting the film’s start.
The lights dimmed, the crackling of sweet wrappers instantly stopped (as it always does as soon as the lights go out) and the curtains drew back. The film was about to start. Before it really did begin however, I was treated to a rather tasty Star Wars Episode 2 trailer (which really has made an impression on me) and an action packed, though pretty poor looking Spiderman trailer. Now we were ready……
Instantly, memories of the first film flooded back to me. The same blood-red ‘New Line’ logo appeared on screen, just like in the original, and I knew straight away that this was going to be a film worthy of the original.
The opening scene was dark and dreary, set in a vampire blood bank. A rather unhealthy looking fellow was taken into the depths of the building and set out on a dentist chair (yes, a dentist chair). With the vampires laughing over him, the typical turn around occurred – the unhealthy guy started to laugh insanely. Why this would scare anyone I don’t know. You’d merely say “I dunno what you’re laughing about. You’re about to die!” Although admittedly, they did have good reason to be afraid this time, as he broke loose from his restraints and set himself loose upon the neck of a rather unlucky doctor vampire, naturally spurting a rather unrealistic volume of blood all over the wall. Next he shows his brute strength by throwing the nearest guy against a tiled wall, almost putting him straight through it. Lastly, we see his awesome speed as he darts across the room and attacks the neck of the final remaining doctor. Whilst he is feeding on the poor guy’s neck, he looks straight into the security camera and mutters “I hate vampires!” So, now that we know what our favourite vampire slayer is up against on his latest outing, we can continue with the film.
Continuing with the film in this case, means heading for the start credits. And I know this doesn’t matter in the least, but the credits were just so damn cool. Played with a voice over from Blade, explaining why he does what he does, and what happened to Whistler (Kristofferson) in the first film. At the end, we get the coolest part of all - ‘Blade II’ written in the best font ever! Still, credits aside, the film was amazingly cool too.
Then we meet Blade himself, hunting some vampires among cries of “The Daywalker is here”. This was a highly impressive action scene, showing off Blade’s nifty machine guns and glaive but I somehow thought at this point that it wasn’t going to better the original. I think it was perhaps the use of the special effects. The first film’s action sequences were extremely fast-paced and never let up for a second. Blade II’s on the other hand, used a bit too many special effects. There was quite a bit of slow motion going on, like something out of ‘The Matrix’. This is by no means a bad thing, but I think I did prefer the style of the original. Still, as good as that action scene was, it was to be bettered by countless others throughout the course of the film.
Anyway, before I lose myself and go through each and every scene in the movie, I’ll give a brief plot outline. There has been a mutation in the vampire race, and now a new breed of vampire has been created - the reaper. These are real bad-ass vampires, and are what we see at the beginning of the film. They are bald as their metabolism is so fast that they burn all their hair and they must feed every few hours to quench their incredible thirst for blood. Unlike normal vampires, they are immune to silver and garlic, and their heart is enclosed in bone so any attempt to stake them is a bit of a futile effort. The only way in which they can be killed easily, is by sunlight. Another difference to normal vampires, is their unbiasness towards their prey. Human or vampire, it doesn’t matter to them and even worse, their prey does not die. Instead, they become reapers and their prey in turn, also become reapers. Basically, in the end everyone will be a reaper. Unless of course, they are stopped. And this is where Blade comes in. A highly trained group of normal vampires – the blood pack - originally trained to hunt Blade, are given the assignment of wiping out the reapers. To do this, they enlist of the help of the daywalker, making a truce in order to rid both humans and vampires of this new breed of vampire. Although not entirely convinced that the vampire’s intentions are honorable, Blade goes along to vampire headquarters to hear the plan. When he returns, he has a short, but memorable conversation with Whistler consisting of:
Whistler: “What do you think?
Blade: “It’s a plan.”
Whistler: “What do you really think?”
Blade: “They’re gonna f*** us the first chance they get.”
With a few twists towards the end, some more unexpected than others, Blade prevails and wipes out the reapers. His hunt for the vampires doesn’t die with them though, and a fantastic touch at the end, sees him continue his hunt. Lets just hope for a Blade III….
The action scenes were superb, with some great fighting from Snipes. I was a bit disappointed to see Donnie Yen get so little screen time to show off his martial art talent, but that said, Snipes was good enough. One fight scene in particular, sees him take on 30 or so vampire guards, every one of which has either an arm, leg, neck or back broken with a satisfying (and very loud) crunch. The final guard he takes his on, is spared this crunching fate however, as Blade picks him up and does a hilariously gigantic vertical suplex. Something wrestling fans will certainly appreciate.
However, the action scenes did, as I have said, use a bit too much of the old special effects. The disintegrating vampires did look far better in this than in the previous film, but the slow motion effect was over-used. In one fight scene, Blade and his opponent occasionally did impossible to pull-off moves, requiring them to be filled in for by CG animations, and they weren’t very convincing to say the least.
It did have an incredible challenge in standing up to it’s predecessor, and it couldn’t pull it off. The original was certainly better, but then again I have only seen the sequel once. It wasn’t too far off, but from first viewings, I did enjoy the original more, although only just. The second was funnier in places, and did have some excellent lines but Blade 1 just nips it for me.
Blade II is certainly worth the admission fee, and I’d advise anyone who enjoyed the first film to go see this.