Blade II (2002)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Guillermo del Toro

Writers (WGA):

Marv Wolfman (character) &
Gene Colan (character) ...

Release Date:

22 March 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller | Horror

Tagline:

Know The Mark

Plot:

Blade forms an uneasy alliance with the vampire council in order to combat the Reaper vampires who feed on vampires.

Plot Keywords:

Vampire | Blade | Reaper | Warrior | Daywalker

Awards:

3 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Wesley Snipes	...	Blade
Kris Kristofferson	...	Whistler
Ron Perlman	...	Reinhardt
Leonor Varela	...	Nyssa
Norman Reedus	...	Scud
Thomas Kretschmann	...	Damaskinos
Luke Goss	...	Nomak
Matt Schulze	...	Chupa (as Matthew Schulze)
Danny John-Jules	...	Asad (as Danny John Jules)
Donnie Yen	...	Snowman
Karel Roden	...	Kounen
Marit Velle Kile	...	Verlaine
Tony Curran	...	Priest
Daz Crawford	...	Lighthammer
Santiago Segura	...	Rush

Also Known As:

Blade 2: Bloodhunt (USA) (working title)
Blade 2: Bloodlust (USA) (working title)
Blade II (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong pervasive violence, language, some drug use and sexual content.

Runtime:

117 min | Finland:108 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English | Romanian | Czech

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS-ES | Dolby Digital EX | SDDS

Certification:

Brazil:14 | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Canada:R (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:15 (cable rating) | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:18 | Hong Kong:IIB (original rating) | Hong Kong:III (DVD rating) | Ireland:18 | Japan:PG-12 | Malaysia:(Banned) | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:18 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:M18 (re-rating) | Singapore:NC-16 (original rating) | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:16 (canton of the Grisons) | UK:18 | USA:R (certificate #38848) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Barrandov Studios, Prague, Czech Republic

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

Donnie Yen, a martial arts star who plays a member of the Bloodpack (Snowman,) was also the film's fight choreographer.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The gas masks used by the soldiers who electrocute both Blade and Whistler have removed the filters, rendering them completely useless.

Quotes:

Whistler: They tortured me almost to death, and then let me heal in a vat of blood so they could go at it again. Sorry sons of bitches could've at least fixed my damn leg while they were at it.

Movie Connections:

References Naked Lunch (1991)

Soundtrack:

I Against I

Enjoyable dark style with solid action, OK plot and good cast

Having rescued Whistler from the grasp of the vampires and acted quickly enough to combat the vampire virus in his blood, Blade reforms his team. When his base is infiltrated by two vampires, he is offered a temporary truce that Blade accepts. He meets with the vampire council who ask for his help to track and kill a new strain of the vampire virus called the Reaper. The Reapers feed on vampires and humans, are immune to garlic and silver and threaten to rapidly multiple. Blade agrees to join forces but fighting alongside those he would hunt puts him very ill at ease.

Opening with the same style that made Blade enjoyable, it is immediately apparent that, if you liked the first film then you should enjoy this one just as much. The plot has quite a few major holes but I can't help eel it's a little unfair to attack a vampire horror movie for being a little illogical at times! What remains is a series of fast and stylish action scenes, held together by a reasonable plot and a nice few little twists and turns to keep it engaging. While the plot may only be average it is probably the dark action that you came for and it is as enjoyable as in the first film. The wirework was pretty good, mainly because the cast members involved could actually do it without looking like they had become members of Thunderbirds! The CGI stuff is not very good and the computerised characters, despite looking good, don't look or move real and thus take away from the energy and impact of the fights. Director del Toro handles the action well and also brings the same dark feel that he brought to Cronos and Mimic.

However generally the fights are good – good moves but still rather rough. Snipes has certainly worked on his body to the degree that he can perform these moves with a natural feel, only the WWF style moves came across as being rather silly or ill fitting. As a leading man he has really come on since reinventing himself as an action hero, and Blade is his best character in that regard. This film scales back on the complexities of his character and it damages the film a little bit but chances are that isn't what you came here for! Kristofferson is good but his character isn't really used well here. Perlman uses his screen presence well and he holds his own with Snipes. Varela is quite sexy but again the script doesn't use her relationship with Blade as well as it could do. Goss is very good in this role and it bodes well but I'd need to see him play a character (as opposed to a monster) to be able to judge if he has real ability as an actor – all the makeup also helped forget his Bros personae too. Jules is a very strange find but he looks good. Donnie Yen was, as he often is, poorly used – he has one small fight scene but considering the amount of martial arts action in this movie it would have been better to have actually used him in more of the action; wisely the film uses him better as the main fight choreographer.

Overall this is an enjoyable action movie with a horror twist. The plot is OK and has enough to it to be engaging despite having several themes that it should have done more with. The action is solid and enjoyable and not too hurt by the odd bit of poorly used CGI. A good cast helps and the action flows reasonably consistently to produce an enjoyable two hours of dark style.