few minor flaws in blade 2
There is something to be said for setting one's expectations appropriately. I expected "Resident Evil" to completely suck, and so I was pleasantly surprised to find it somewhat enjoyable. With "Blade 2", I was expecting the greatest epic bloodbath in the history of film. And while it certainly strives to hit that mark with an exponentially higher body count, there's still something missing.
Don't get me wrong. This is a great action film. Many vampires die in a flurry of kung fu kicks, sword thrusts, and machine gun fire (silver bullets, of course). This movie has all the gore that Resident Evil was lacking (and let me tell you, my title for this review isn't far off. It's pretty damn gory!). The fight scenes are longer and better, the weapons and moves are cooler, and Blade is as much of a bad-ass as ever. Snipes was born to play this role, and it is obvious that he loves playing it. Director Guillermo del Toro has certainly outdone his predecessor, Stephen Norrington (although Norrington also did a fine job). The action is crisp and vivid, with incredible shots of Blade (and his enemies) doing amazing leaps and flips. And, despite what most ignorant critics might say, this is not a "Matrix" knockoff (and really, what is "the Matrix" but a knockoff of many Honk Kong action flicks that came before, only with a high-tech gloss). Del Toro definitely has a visual style of his own, and it serves him well in a film like this.
The story takes place 2 years after the original. Blade's longtime partner and father-figure, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), who we were led to believe shot himself in the first film, is still alive, being kept in some kind of preservation tank by vampires while being a vampire himself. Blade has been searching for him all this time in order to either turn him back from "the thirst", or kill him. He is quickly able to cure Whistler with some kind of anti-vampirism serum, but still doesn't quite trust him, since his loyalties may have been turned during his time as a vampire. Meanwhile, The vampires have come running to Blade, seeking his help when a new strain of super-vampires, called reapers, began to feed on their own kind. Blade takes them up on their offer of a truce to fight the reapers, knowing full well that 1)they are going to try and *beep* him the first chance they get and 2)he will be trying to do the same to them. He is placed in charge of a group of elite vampire warriors, known as the blood pack (not to be confused with the brat pack). They are a motley group of people who look like they just came from a Rob Zombie concert and carry a ridiculous ammount of both high-tech and medieval weaponry. Among their ranks is the beautiful Nyssa (Leonor Varela), the daughter of the vampire overlord, and Reinhardt (Ron Perlman, who is *beep* great in everything he does), a wisecracking bloodsucker who's itching for a chance to have a little chat with Blade, mano-a-mano. Together, the daywalker and his crew of suckheads delve into the bowels of the vampire underworld, searching for the reapers. Their prey turns out to be a little more than they can handle, being virtually invulnerable to most anti-vampire weapons, save the most powerful: Direct sunlight.
Naturally, nobody fully trusts anyone, and Blade's only true ally among the vampires is Nyssa. There is the hint of a love story there, but it is never fully developed, although its culmination is touching, nonetheless.
As fast paced and exciting as it was, however, the film falls just short of that *beep* awesome" five stars, for a few reasons. For one thing, there are some pretty big plot holes, chiefly the way in which Whistler is brought back to life from the last film. Nevertheless, his presence is welcome, so the contrivance is forgiven. However, there is also not a single mention of Karen Jensen (N'bushe Wright), Blade's partner and potential love interest from the last film. Why is she not even acknowledged here? Is she alive? Dead? Undead? I haven't seen such a major brush-off of a significant character since they killed off Hicks and Newt before the opening credits finished rolling in "Alien 3". Perhaps they didn't want her competing with Nyssa, but at least a nod to her existence would have been nice.
The biggest problem I had, however, was the lack of any real compelling central villain. There are certainly tons of bad guys, and a number of chief villains, but none of them have the cool and menacing charisma of Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), Blade's nemesis from the original. The closest thing is probably Perlman's character, Reinhardt, who is so great mostly because of Perlman himself. But while Reinhardt certainly has the smart-ass comments and one-liners, he just isn't prominent enough or menacing enough to fill Frost's shoes. Meanwhile, the Reaper boss and the Vampire overlord are merely fancy "Nosferatu" knockoffs, neither character being especially compelling. Oh, and one other thing about the reapers that bothered me. Instead of just having fangs, their entire jaws split open into a big, fanged mouth with a blood sucking probiscus. The whole thing looks a little too "Predator"-like for my tastes. However, Del Toro did say that he wanted to destroy the romanticism of vampires and make people start fearing them again, by making them so hideous that nobody would want their neck to be sucked on by one of them. In that respect, he succeeded. These things ain't necissarily all that scary, but they sure as *beep* ain't pretty, either.
(One side note: I have completely lost faith in the film critics of the San Francisco Chronicle. Not only did they give this film NO STARS, but they gave "Sorority Boys", an obvious piece of *beep* 4 STARS. I trust only my fellow bitchslappers from now on.)
Despite my few complaints, and the lack of a truly interesting central villain, the film is a solid piece of action fare. There's definitely enough ass-whoopings here to justify multiple viewings, and for most action fans in general and "Blade" fans in particular, this should satisfy the thirst.