Blade II (2002)

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Writer: Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan, David S. Goyer

Tagline: Know The Mark.

Actors: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, Leonor Varela, Norman Reedus, Thomas Kretschmann, Luke Goss, Matt Schulze, Danny John-Jules, Donnie Yen, Karel Roden, Marit Velle Kile, Tony Curran, Daz Crawford, Santiago Segura

Runtime: 1h 57m

Category: Comic Book, Vampire

Synopsis: Blade is back! But there’s a catch. The vampire overlord Damaskinos has developed a new strain of the vampire bloodline; dubbed “The Reaper Strain”. This new mutation feeds twice as much as a normal vampire and is more malicious; feeding not only on humans, but vampires as well. Now out of control, the Reaper, Nomak, must be hunted down and stopped. So the vampire race enlists the help of their greatest enemy…Blade. Working alongside The Bloodpack, a specialized team trained to hunt Blade himself, they must find a way to work together before Nomak wipes out the vampires and the humans.

Review: I heard, before this movie was released, that there was gonna be a lot more CGI incorporated. I was not happy to hear this. CGI is a wonderful thing where you can do almost anything, but when watching a movie like this it has its place. Unfortunately, the CGI overpowered most of the other graphics, making a few scenes look hoaky. Like the initial fight between Blade and the first two members of The Bloodpack: it was so fake looking that I couldn’t even enjoy what should have been a sweet swordfight. On the other hand, some of the other graphics were really cool; like when Blade cut Reinhardt in half at the end…very nice. The other thing that I liked was the make-up used on the Reapers and the CGI used on their jaws. It somehow made them more menacing than the original vampires.

The story was inherently well written. With some very nice plot points and ok acting they were able to pull off a decent vampire movie. It was really cool to have a new kind of vampire running amuck; giving the other vampires a “run for their money”. It was a concept that was brand new and was actually well scripted (apart from some clichés here and there). The acting wasn’t all that bad and some of the characters were very believable. This continuation of the story of Blade has its ups and downs but overall was well done.

Rating: 18. Although the movie was well done, the overkill on the graphics was just too much for me. I found it hard to concentrate in some areas because I was laughing at the ridiculous use of CGI. Don’t get me wrong, CGI is great, but too much can make or break a movie. Fortunately, Toro knew what he was doing and compensated nicely with prosthetics and make-up. Don’t discount this sequel…you’ll be sorry. (18of25).

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