BLADE II
Reviewed by Sam Hatch
Wesley Snipe's half-human/half-vampire stalker of the undead returns under the direction of horror wunderkind Guillermo Del Toro (Chronos, Mimic, The Devil's Backbone). This time he rescues Kris Kristofferson's Whistler from a Han Solo-ish fate at the hands of vampires only to find himself drafted into yet another company of fanged ones who use the not-so-subtle gang name 'The Blood Pack'. It seems a new breed of sickly looking bloodsuckers has popped up in the uber-familiar city of (you guessed it!) Prague, and Blade's know-how is required to rid the world of these Predator-jowled undead nasties. Ron Perlman (Alien Resurrection, TVs Beauty and the Beast) lends his sardonic wit to the proceedings as the surliest Blood Packer. Hong Kong martial arts legend Donnie Yen (Iron Monkey) is on tap to lend Matrix-style credence to the film, and did indeed stage most of the stunt work. Sadly, he isn't given much dialogue to flesh out his character Snowman, but does get to slay a few vamps before shuffling off his immortal coil.
This film is infinitely gorier than the first, and Del Toro seems to delight in numerous squeamish sights. Most notable of these are the Hellraiser-esque vamp fetishists in the bowels of a trendy nightclub who revel in having their backs dissected and pulled apart by hooks and chains. Said club supplies the obligatory techno-driven action scene that hearkens back to the intro of the superior first flick. Del Toro lends his own look to the film, but the matte widescreen ratio and over saturated yellows can't match the widescreen glory of Steven Norrington's immaculately framed and steely lit Blade. That film suffered from having Steven Dorff's villain Frost unable to render himself a terrifying foe in the final act, but that is one of Blade II's successes - the vampire junkie Nomak (Luke Goss) becomes a worthy adversary to Blade and the Blood Pack, and the further this film goes, the better it gets as David Goyer's script weaves a denser plot with a very satisfying finale.
Cool additions to the Blade pantheon of weapons include the newly crafted light grenades, which work just as you'd imagine. Not as cool an addition is Eddie Furlong-lookalike Scud (Norman Reedus), the dubious Whistler stand-in who crafts such goodies for Blade. The effects also kick things up a notch, and while some succeed admirably (Snipes' slo-mo aerials during the opening fight/motorcycle chase) others fail spectacularly (a horribly animated CGI showdown between a begoggled ninja vamp and Blade in front of an array of floodlights) Overall a bit of a mixed bag, but fans of the original should be suitably entertained, and fans of Del Toro's work should be similarly pleased. Its five times better than Mimic, at any rate.