Blade II

There are some types of movies that you walk into expecting a lot of killing,a lot of swearing and snappy dialogue. Blade II is this kind of movie, and it is great. The plot is great, (albeit a little predictable)and some of the computer graphics are extremely noticeable, but altogether this is a great action movie. So many people die a body count would be impossible. The second to last fight scene is unbelievable. Blade puts the icing on the cake when he vertical suplexes the last security guard through a plate glass floor. The music lines up perfectly with the fighting, and I was very impressed with the way the Reaper looks and feeds. A GREAT SEQUEL TO A GREAT MOVIE!!! Looking forward to a trilogy!!!

I'm not sure why the overall rating of this is lower than Blade 1. I guess b/c the first one is original and perhaps many people's expectations were higher than expected. My assessment is that Blade 2 is superior to the first and an improvement in many areas.

First is the expanded story and cast, it includes a tactical unit of elite warriors. That was definitely a plus and very interesting. Next it dives much more into the vampire lore, as even Blade himself mention in the film it takes us deeper into their operation, their world. And thirdly, the mutation into the reaper strain was a plus and a logical step in the overall lore.

But what I appreciate most is how by introducing the squad, it demonstrated that yes other vampires can fight as well. That had always been an issue in the 1st movie b/c just b/c Blade is a hybrid and has all the vampire strength, why is it all the vampires were nothing more than background units that were so easily killed? This 2nd movie we finally see how formidable they can become.

Overall I'm quite pleased with this story, the action, and the overall plot. A much better improvement upon the 1st film.

8/10.

Beneath the streets, behind facades, above the law; conglomerations old and new, slash, shear and saw; unseen but all around, vigilant of every sound, taking lives, destroying chances, tooth and claw.

But a new strain has evolved and it bites back, renders vampires into beasts weapons can't crack, an allegiance is convened, to destroy the new obscene, with a violent and quite viscous, counterattack.

One of the more accomplished takes on the vampires taking over the world genre, with one of the more accomplished, and even to this day spectacular incarnations of a vampire slayer there's been.

The blood flows proportionally.

Blade and his alter ego Wesley Snipes are back yet again to battle the vampiric scourge terrifying the world of the humans. But this time he helps...that's right, you heard me...helps the vampires fight a mutant vampire that prefers feeding on vampires over humans. Well, to spin a long (actually not that long or terribly complicated) story, Blade is...Sorry I cannot say anymore or I might give away too much of the plot - and you know movies like this are plot-driven. This film is exactly what you would expect. Gobs of blood, tons(maybe even more!) of CGI's kicking heads in, bashing heads in, splitting bodies, turning into sparkling dust, and so on and so on and so on, cute one liners with Wesley twisting his neck a lot, and lots of techo-weapons designed to do everything and anything to the body. Is it a great film? Get real. Is it entertaining? Yes, somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me I must confess. Snipes never seems to take his role or what is going on too seriously with his low-key, stoic acting. Kris Kristofferson is back as Whistler. You might remember he died in the first Blade movie, but through some plot contrivance that was designed for us not to really understand - he is back and much older and somewhat wiser for wear. The rest of the cast is acceptable EXCEPT for Reedus who is annoying. Ron Pearlman seems to be having the most fun hamming it up as a villainous vampire out to get Snipes. All in all not a bad way to spend an hour or two.

Sequels are always tough but I personally love sequels, sometimes even a bad sequel is good just because you missed the characters. Blade 2 brings Wesley Snipes back as a kick-butt action hero who is also part Vampire...how can you go wrong with a story line like that? I will say Blade 2 doesn't touch how good Blade was. Blade was a deep story, packed with action, and depth, and was so fascinating and dark. Blade 2 keeps it's dark appearance which is very good...I would hate to see Blade go soft on us. It's a relief that they also went out of their way to bring back Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) who gives us a anti-hero...something just not right about his character and yet he's like Blade's only weakness because of his love for his mentor and father-figure. In this story, Blade is approached by the Vampires seeking his help this time. Something is hunting the Vampires and ripped them to shreds and in the process creating something worse than a Vampire. They are called Reapers. Blade agrees to join a squad of mercenary Vamp killers who were trained to kill him originally and work with them to rid the world of these Reapers who will eventually turn on humans. Blade still doesn't let his guard down and doesn't trust his new allies. This is the basis of the story. The story is very shallow and could have been written so much better. It had so much potential and I just think they got through it as quickly as possible. Fortunately for them it's action packed, and the fight sequences are still pretty good. But for the most part the savior is Wesley Snipes and Kris Kristofferson returning in their roles. They save the movie they make it worth while because they are just great super hero's. Otherwise the movie is lost in RIDICULOUS special effects, that I could do sitting at home in front of my Desktop computer. The effects are computer generation and they show, you can pin point exactly where the real people end and AI takes over. It's annoying and campy. The music is just absolutely lost in this one. In the original Blade the music is unbelievably complimenting the story line and Blade. It's thumping and exciting and makes you heart race. In this one, the music is barely a part of it. Blade's sudden use of a magical gun that explodes Vampires into little computerized sparkles of dust is just plain stupid. Now can you believe after all those things I just listed that I would still tell you to go see this movie??? As I said, the original characters make it worth while and some of the new Vamps are interesting. I sincerely hope they carry on the Blade franchise but I hope they go back to the original Blade to continue from and not Blade 2. Definately go see it for action and just because Blade rocks but don't be surprised if it's not quite what the first one was. I give it a 7/10