Blade 2
The original 1998 Blade was a remarkable accomplishment in more ways than one. First off, it completely reinvigorated the entire comic book genre barely a year after it had been practically killed off by 1997’s Batman And Robin. Secondly (long before Iron Man and The Avengers came along), it brought the entire Marvel Universe breathing to life by being their first major hit film that had been based off one of their properties. Thirdly, it redefined action cinema with fight scenes and battle sequences in such a kinetic way that almost everything in that genre that came afterwards would take their cues from it. It also successfully showed a fictional vampire culture where the creatures were portrayed as being extremely wealthy yet shadowy Illuminati type beings who pretty much secretly controlled our society as we know it. Finally, under the steady hand of Wesley Snipes as the title character, it gave us an enigmatic, charismatic hero who looked as if he could give the most powerful villains all they could handle and when pitted against Stephen Dorff’s Deacon Frost, we got to see a showdown with some real resonance to it. The box office returns reflected this and so in 2002, it was time to come forth with a sequel even though original director Stephen Norrington (whose contributions to Part 1 were much more vital to its success than he probably ever got credit for) had bowed out citing his commitment to other projects which led to the hiring of future Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro (certainly not a lightweight) to come in and direct. Snipes would indeed return as would Kris Kristofferson as his mentor Abraham Whistler, a casting that had initially perplexed many since the Whistler character had DIED in Part 1 (and for which his death became Blade’s major motivator in the climatic scenes of that film) but that concern is put to rest in the explanation given here in the opening scenes as it would turn out that right before shooting himself, Whistler had actually been bitten (although whether it was by Frost or Blade himself is not made clear) and had apparently turned right after shooting himself leading to him being kidnapped by other vampires (again not made clear if they were connected to Frost or not) who had spirited him away across Russia and Eastern Europe and then (since Blade’s name and exploits are feared by vampires around the world with Whistler also being very well known as his mentor) had basically tortured him before putting him into a stasis chamber so that he might heal and then be tortured some more. All of that is brought to an end in the opening scenes as Blade (who acknowledges that Whistler might just be a real enemy now) retrieves him and brings him back to his Eastern European headquarters, shooting him up with the healing serum invented in Part 1 and rendering him back to being a very grouchy human again. The issue is that Blade has already recruited a so called “replacement” to help him make and design his weapons as played by Norman Reedus (coming in by way of being one of The Boondock Saints and eventually going on to star in The Walking Dead) so now these two must learn to work together. But the main story is soon to begin as a team of vampires (and not just any vampires, but royal, pureblood vampires no less) approach Blade and Whistler offering up a truce. It seems that a new species of vampire has developed that are called “Reapers”, rather pathetic looking beings that resemble junkies and street people desperately pawing for whatever blood that they can get with the real danger being in that they can and will feast on “normal” vampires also, turning them into more of their kind and potentially doing the same to the human race as well. Blade is brought aboard and has a formal meeting with the current Vampire King (who is a terrible looking and cliched homage to Max Schreck’s Nosferatu) and is told that he will be leading up some sort of specialized Vampire SWAT Team whom it is said have been training for two years in order to take Blade out but supposedly will now accept him as their leader. Sadly, this group (called The Bloodpack) is really just a motley mix of bad actors and ridiculous looking getups (the worse being a big guy with tattoos on his face and his “pet” girlfriend that he carries around with him even though she is supposed to be a team member and trained fighter herself but instead proves to be a total fuckup in actual combat). The exceptions are Leonor Varela who is beautiful and composed as The Vampire King’s daughter and (in what can be called by some checkmate casting) Ron Perlman as the bald headed original leader of the group named Reinhardt. Perlman (who easily could have carried this or any other movie as the main villain) has a lot of fun playing up an antagonistic rivalry with Snipes with the main questions of who can trust who and for how long (especially in the way that the other vampires feel about Whistler who spends much of his time hanging around the fringes of the story) being the driving force until it’s time to face off against The Reapers and their leader (not to mention the main carrier of the mutation) Nomak, who unfortunately is played by Luke Goss in a very whiny, overplayed yet uncharismatic performance. Reapers are definitely stronger than regular vampires in that they are immune to silver and garlic which leaves the only option open to killing them being daylight (or ultra violet light which produces the same killing effect), an idea which doesn’t sit too well with them since (except for Blade and Whistler) that would kill them too. But Whistler and Reedus have managed to invent literal ultra violet hand grenades that will disintegrate any vampires within its range. The film plays on the possibility of a romance between Blade and Varela’s Vampire Princess (which makes Whistler suspicious) and tensions between he and Perlman continue to build over the whole course of the story (the final battle would have probably been better with him instead of with Nomak), yet most other plot threads feel just a bit flat as when Whistler has Nomak cornered dead to rights only to have Nomak choose to clue him in as to a certain “secret” to his condition before convincing Whistler to allow him to walk away unharmed in exchange. Despite that, we still get the incredibly kinetic fight scenes and exciting action sequences that distinguished the first movie greatly and Snipes and Kristofferson are still in top form with Perlman, Varela, and Reedus being the best of the supporting cast. Goss’s Nomak though is a very far cry from Dorff’s Deacon Frost, whimpering his way through the part as opposed to Dorff’s young punk vampire outcast looking to overthrow the whole entire preordained order of things. Nomak would appear to have the same mission since his condition was the result of vampire genetic engineering that ironically was conducted to create a better breed of bloodsuckers that most importantly, would make them all be Daywalkers too just like Blade is, but The Reapers (despite technically being more powerful) are really just more DEPENDENT on constantly needing blood than regular vampires but the pity required from the viewer for their condition is offset by Goss’ Nomak (unlike Dorff’s Frost) just not having all that much screen presence or likability (ironically Reedus with his chain smoking and smartass mouth commands much more presence and given his age would probably have made a better casting choice as Nomak had they gone in that direction). Opinions seem to be divided as to whether or not this topped the original as many (including Snipes himself) feel that this one is the best in the series, but surprisingly the real factor in determining just how good a sequel this is is dependent on how recently you may have watched the phenomenal Part 1 (if you watch these two back to back then Part 2 doesn’t really hold up) since that one had a fresh techno punk mentality that permeated everything in the film and kept it edgy while this one (set in and around Eastern Europe especially in Prague which means lots of subtitles for foreign language bits) mostly just relies on Snipes to keep us invested in the story. The series would end strongly with Part 3 (although not with Snipes who experienced MAJOR personal problems on the set while filming that one) but Part 2 stands solid as at least being a worthy sequel even if its star had to take the whole thing upon his own shoulders in order to make it into something more notable…
7/10