The original Blade sucked, it sucked. I don't care what anyone else says it was a very disappointing film and looking back my score for it was generous to say the least. With that in mind one could well ask what I was doing running giddily to the sequel, which has the same star, producers and writers as the original. Well, cos it's great that's why. The director, Guillermo Del Toro, is a man to watch these days after his highly original The Devil's Backbone and the hype surrounding his inclusion in the highly anticipated Hellboy. Knowing that with him at the helm the film would be a totally different kettle of fish to the original was my chief reason for going to see it. And it doesn't disappoint.
The storyline is impressive: a mutant strain of vampires, the Reapers, more powerful and bloodthirsty than the original have been feeding on both human and vampire alike, and their presence is enough of a worry to the Shadow Council that they send two of their elite warriors (the gorgeous Leonor Varela and Red Dwarf's Danny John Jules. Yeah weird) to deliver a message of reconcilation to Blade. His reluctant acceptance leads to an alliance with the Bloodpack, elite vampire warriors trained specifically to hunt him down. They then search the streets, sewers, and nightclubs of Prague in an effort to locate the original mutant, Nomak (played brilliantly by Luke Goss), and destroy the Reaper menace. Unsurprisingly the alliance is fragile to say the least but the idea is sufficiently well executed so as to leave aside the idea of who will turn on who till a pivotal moment in the film.
Wesley Snipes, much as in the original, does little except look exceptionally hard and cool, and occasionally deliver a good line. It's left to the impressively constructed supporting cast to flesh the film out, and both the Bloodpack and Blade's back up team, Whistler (whose return is perhaps a little on the unbelievable side) and Norman Reedus's hardware specialist Scud, acquit themselves well. The Bloodpack members look fantastic, all dark clothes, impressive weaponry and menacing faces, and it is Varela and Ron Perlman who come out with the acting honours, though that isn't such a surprise with Perlman, whose acting career has encompassed over 60 films in the last decade and has his bad ass supporting player role down pat. Donnie Yen and Danny John Jules are underused however but there is only so much time any one character can have, and I guess they drew the short straw.
One thing that was a success about the original Blade was it's use of lighting and locations, they gave such a dark and moody look to the film that its style was beyond compare and drew almost perfect comparisons to the comic book it was based upon. In that regard it could be considered succesful. Blade 2 knocks that style into a cocked hat, using decaying Eastern European locations as the centre of vampire underworld activity. Prague has never looked more dark and terrifying. Compare this to the very inside of the vampire's world, with it's sterile, clean nightclubs and impressive corporate HQ's and you have two impressively distinct yet super cool design styles.
The one thing however that does the most to improve Blade II over it's predecessor is that fact that Blade occasionally gets a kicking. Yes, it's true, the man who in the original was only hit once, and then by a super powerful vampire demon, is actually slapped around a little bit during the course of the film. While he again seems fully in control of the fight scenes it's nice to see that our hero is in a little bit of danger now and again, and not simply up against disposable baddies, the likes of which Deacon Frost was a prime example. It's not that his ultimate victory is ever in doubt, it's that the audience sees the suffering he has to undergo in order to bring it about. And in a film like this which wants to be more than the usual comic book fare, that means everything. |
