Film Review: Blade II (2002)

over 1 year ago

(source: tmdb.org)

“Enemy of my enemy is my friend” is concept that might be difficult to put in the practice, if the said enemy has dedicated his entire life towards your eradication. But sometimes, situations occur when such unpleasant alliances become the only alternatives for mutual surival. One such situation is the basis of the plot for Blade II, 2002 action horror film directed by Guillermo del Toro, a sequel to popular 1998 film.

Wesley Snipes returns in the role of Elias Brooks a.k.a. Blade, man whose mother has been bitten by a vampire during pregnancy, thus giving him all the vampire powers while depriving him of vampire weaknesses. With the help of his scientist friend and mentor Abraham Whistler (played by Kris Kristofferson) he has spent most of his life fighting vampires. But, once, much to his surprise, vampires ask him for help when faced with something that represents serious dangers to vampires and humans alike – virus that turns vampires into “Reapers”, primordial monstrous creatures that feed on vampires. Since the “Reapers” also feed on humans, Blade agrees to temporary truce and joins the team of elite vampire soldiers tasked with locating Reapers and their leader Nomack (played by Luke Goos). During the quest Blade will clash with his vicious vampire teammate Reinhardt (played by Ron Perlman), but also feel attraction towards female vampire Nyssa (played by Leonor Varela).

Second film of the series doesn’t stray much from the formula established in the first – martial arts, “cool” soundtrack, even “cooler” special effect and plenty of blood. What has changed is the style, mainly thanks to Guillermo del Toro, Mexican film director who has, by that time, established himself as one of the more respected authors of horror genre. Del Toro didn’t bother much with relatively simple plot and instead paid much more attention to the atmosphere, putting Prague locations to good use and making sure that all the action takes place at night or in dark claustrophobic tunnels. The diverse cast is doing solid job – that includes Snipes who obviously enjoys playing action-oriented hero, Kristofferson in sometimes thankless role of his mentor, Perlman as vicious vampire, Goos as even more vicious vampire, German actor Thomas Kretschmann as vampire leader and, finally, popular Spanish comedian Santiago Segura in small role. Leonor Varela, brought to serve as eye candy for male audience, didn’t make much of an impact because of poorly written role. Great effort was invested in special effects that makes scenes of violence and autopsies much more gory, while the fight scenes at time look as spectacular as in The Matrix. While not particularly deep of memorable, Blade II represents solid piece of entertainment that would mostly satisfy fans of the original Marvel comic book or action genre in general.

RATING: 5/10 (++)