Image courtesy of wall.alphacoders.com
Hello, everyone.
Before I start this review, I would like to apologize for the wait on this one and so many others that have yet to happen.
Ones like these usually take more time because there’s so much that I want to say in them. This is the main reason why sometimes they take longer than planned. One big example is an Anniversary Review I would’ve done following this one, because not only is it an even bigger movie that came out the same year, but there’s also so much to cover because it’s one of those that left an impact on so many people in so many ways when it came out. I decided in advance to bump that review back, and you’ll know why once I get to it.
For this review, I am going to cover one of my personal favorite superhero sequels, and this is the best movie to feature the title character (hopefully, for now, provided the upcoming reboot (set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe) is good). Even before I covered the original, and especially after, I had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to cover its sequel.
Folks, at long last, I finally get that chance, as I will be covering the movie where an argument could be made that it introduced its director to domestic audiences, and that is Blade II.
Before pressing on, I would advise you to check out the original and my review of it first, as this review may contain spoilers for it.
The story picks up two years after the events of the original. This time around, we have Blade investigating a new strain of the vampire virus. Dubbed the Reaper strain, it's even worse than normal vampirism, as it can not only affect humans, but even other vampires. Even with the help of his friend Whistler, and the accompaniment of a group known as the Bloodpack, their combined efforts may not be enough.
What Worked: The cast is excellent. Wesley Snipes gives his best performance of the trilogy here, as does Kris Kristofferson as Whistler (which isn’t saying much, because he’s barely in Blade: Trinity, but we’ll get to that later).
Those are the only two returning from the first one.
The supporting cast here is one aspect of this movie that stands out the most of the trilogy.
Starting off, we have a pre-Walking Dead Norman Reedus as Scud, who’s been filling in for Whistler during his absence. One of many awesome moments involves him and Whistler giving everyone their weapons before they go into a nightclub.
The moment is made even cooler as Blade and the Bloodpack are walking in slow motion as Massive Attack & Mos Def’s “I Against I” is playing.
That is one of three of my favorite tracks from the movie, two of which are on the soundtrack itself, while the third is only a carryover from the trailer. The soundtrack (and by extension, the score) I will get to in a little bit.
Going back to the cast, in regards to the Bloodpack themselves, there are some names you may recognize, the best known of which I’m saving for last.
We have Matt Schulze (best known as Vince from the Fast & Furious franchise) as Chupa, who has a bone to pick with Whistler. What’s also worth noting is that this is actually not his first time being in the Blade franchise, as he made his film debut with a minor role in the first movie.
Next, we have Donnie Yen (Rogue One, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, the upcoming John Wick: Chapter 4) as Snowman, and while he doesn’t actually speak, in a way, his sword does the talking for him. Even when he doesn’t use it, he still knows how to fight. He gets at least one awesome moment here where you do get to see some of his martial arts moves on display.
The one who gets the most development is Leonor Varela’s character Nyssa. She becomes one of the more interesting new characters from the moment she’s introduced. There is a big reason for that, but it’s best you see it for yourself.
The biggest name out of all the members, though, is Ron Perlman, a frequent collaborator of Guillermo Del Toro, who gave him a career-defining role with Hellboy. He’s not the only actor here who would go on to feature in the Hellboy movies, however.
Just when you think Chupa had a problem with Whistler, from a narrative standpoint, the grudges escalate from there.
Ron Perlman’s character, Reinhardt, really has it out for Blade, and yet Blade takes this new rivalry pretty well. Going by Wesley Snipes’ performance alone, it shows that whatever issue Reinhardt may have with Blade does not faze him at all. In fact, at least a couple times, he toys with him, and it’s awesome.
As for his performance, Ron Perlman is actually one of my favorites in this. He is fantastic here. Reinhardt is not only a great rival for Blade, but you can also tell Ron is having fun playing him. As evidenced by their collaborations, you can also tell he and Guillermo Del Toro have a great working relationship with each other.
Speaking of rivals, one major improvement this makes over the first one is with the villains. Deacon Frost was good, but the villains here are much better. They have more compelling character arcs and more interesting motivations.
Frost and his crew wanted to be gods, which is a solid enough goal for the antagonist of a first installment. However, to be able to connect with future villains, the stakes need to be raised and their motivations need to be more understandable. This absolutely succeeds at both.
Here, we have vampire overlord Eli Damaskinos (played by Thomas Kretschmann), who wants to create a new breed of vampires to carry on his legacy. That’s not only much more interesting, but his reasoning is also something people can identify with. People want to be remembered for what they accomplished in life, which makes sense. This is also one of those cases that comes with a bonus: He has a reason for crossing paths with both the hero and the main villain, and for both sides, it’s more personal.
One of the standouts here is Luke Goss as the main villain, Jared Nomak. He bears the biggest grudge out of everyone, because he happens to be Patient Zero and the carrier of the Reaper strain as a result of Eli’s goal. That’s one of the reasons why he’s the best villain of the series.
Now for everything else that makes this the best installment of the series.
This is easily the best directed and best paced of the three, and I do feel like this helped put Guillermo Del Toro on the map for domestic audiences. His sense of atmosphere and style are all over this movie.
His style definitely shows in the look of the locations, and especially the creature designs.
The effects are mostly practical, and they do hold up really well.
Where this movie really shines is with two things: the action and the music.
The action is excellent in this, and when it’s accompanied by the music, it gets you hyped for what’s about to come.
As mentioned earlier, there are three tracks I particularly love. “I Against I” is one of them, and they actually use that twice. The first time is in the scene I mentioned, and then it comes back again to kick off the closing credits.
The second one is the main theme, courtesy of Marco Beltrami, who provides one of my personal favorites of his scores with this. The theme is used perfectly: Blade narrates a recap of the first movie, and the theme is playing in the background as the opening credits come up, then the title card comes up, and then the movie really starts.
Then we get to my favorite, and it’s also one of my favorite songs of all time: The Crystal Method’s “Name of the Game”. It was awesome enough to hear in the trailer, and it comes as a huge surprise when an awesome song choice for a trailer actually does carry over into the movie. This is one of my favorite examples of that, and it comes in at the right time.
What Didn’t Work: While I do still absolutely love this movie, there are a couple issues here.
One of them is that while the CGI here is way better than that in the first one, and it isn’t used nearly as much this time, when it is used, it does not hold up well at all. It’s mainly present during the fights and whenever a Reaper’s jaws open up to infect someone.
My biggest issue I have is that because there are so many characters this time, some of them get sidelined and aren’t really given much, if anything to do.
Half of the Bloodpack get some good moments, whereas the other half (Lighthammer, Verlaine, Priest, and Asad) feel like they’re just there, and hardly have anything memorable about them. For example, with Lighthammer and Verlaine, it’s established that they’re both a couple.
All we get with Lighthammer is a character with an awesome name and a weapon to match.
There is somewhat of a missed opportunity with Verlaine in particular, because at one point, she was going to be the sister of Racquel, the vampire woman from the beginning of the first movie. That would’ve been much more interesting. However, with so many characters having issues with each other, had they gone with that, that probably would’ve been one conflict too many, so I can understand why they ultimately didn’t.
With Priest, as well as Asad, it almost feels like they’re barely in it. Priest could’ve used more screen time, especially considering he’s played by Tony Curran, one of the lesser known names here. With Asad, although he's in it a sizable amount, he could’ve been like Sergeant Apone from Aliens as more of an authority figure type of character.
As for the villains, while the performances are all really good in the movie, only Nomak is given any real development, although Eli does get some as well, albeit to a lesser extent.
The one with the least development is Karel Roden (who would later play Grigori Rasputin, a major antagonist of the original Hellboy) as Eli’s lawyer. That is all we know about him. Everything he does is on Eli’s behalf. He doesn’t get a standout moment of his own or anything like that.
Basically, what I’m saying is that had there been a little bit more in terms of character development, or at the very least given those that don’t have much some cool moments that define them, I think this could’ve elevated the movie’s status to being held in a much higher regard than it is.
Overall: Blade II is not just an awesome movie, it’s also a great sequel. With excellent performances, improved effects, Guillermo Del Toro’s distinct visual style and direction, the most compelling villain of the trilogy, great action, and an awesome soundtrack, it’s also the most entertaining of the three movies because it’s paced so well.
It also has what is easily the best performance Wesley Snipes gives to Blade himself, and the best supporting cast of the series to back him up.
While the CGI still could have used some work, and more so the character development, the fact that the majority of the effects are practical here and the performances given to the lesser developed characters are still really good does make up for that, especially when everything else is so good. Even with the majority of my issues regarding how the characters are utilized within the bigger narrative, Blade II is still an overall satisfying experience.
Sadly, for those who end up being hopeful for the conclusion upon seeing so much buildup that thus far had been really good, you might want to lower those expectations almost to the point of the potential to exceed them being between slim and none. Even in saying that, though, that might be a bit too generous on my part. That was not the first time people have had to do that for not only movies, but in general, nor will it be the last. However, as stated earlier, that comes later, as numerous other reviews will be coming first.
What you can be hopeful for is the subject of one such review, which in fact is what I ultimately settled on being next.
Next time, we go from Reapers… to Robots.