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One
of the many poses Wesley makes in this particular fight
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The
first Blade movie had some good points. Nice, bright sets.
Some good action sequences and it deservedly cemented Wesley Snipes
as a big action draw in the box office, a good thing considering
how few black actors are able to headline star power films. However,
Blade suffered an overabundance of cheesy ritual that seemingly
designed to establish goth cool. It ended up sapping the energy
built up in its sped up fighting, inventive camera and the charisma
of its actors.
Thankfully,
Blade II, is all ferocious fun.
Like
all good sequels, Blade II raises the tempo of the
original by a significant amount while also furthering the original
premise. Blade, a half-vampire half-human who has all the strength
and speed of vampires while being able to walk in the sun, spent
the first movie cutting into a group of power-hungry young vampires
who were subverting the ruling class of vampires. In Blade II,
the surviving vampire 'nation' calls on his help to fight against
a mutation of the bloodsucking breed who prey on vampires as well
as humans.
Blade
II is a movie tailor-made for action figures, adding more characters
to Wesley Snipes already iconic presence. Blade is now teamed up
with a group of vampire commandos called the Bloodpack, all with
cool black costumes, individualized weapons and attitude to spare.
Blade's
temporary allies: collect all six
Whereas
the villains in Blade seemed to lack a little heft (the main
dude being the slight Stephen Dorff), Blade II is awash in
heavy duty baddies. Not only is there an expected showdown between
Blade and his erstwhile allies, but Blade has to track down and
exterminate a horde of hairless mutants whose jaws come apart to
reveal ... uh .. organs that suck and spray blood.
Did
I mention how gory Blade II is? There is more blood, spraying
bone, immolation and limb cutting in Blade II than in any
handful of horror /action movies. And much of this is in passing.
Even so, it's not particularly scary or frightening. It simply establishes
the macabre environment that is the vampire world, a world where
vampires have parties where they feed on the living and each other.
And they have fun.
Yes,
despite the gore factor, Blade II is lots of fun. When Blade
is not chopping, kicking or shooting his way through one of a dozen
brauvura battles on his way to the top, we're treated to liberal
amounts of technocheese and improbable weaponry and gadgetry. Even
as the characters try and kill each other in many interesting ways,
we get the sense that everyone is having their version of fun, even
if that means ripping the innards out of the other. The action is
well imagined, even if the filming is too frenetic.
Blade
II keeps up a pace that rarely droops, thankfully foregoing
any romantic engagement between Blade and the daughter of the head
of the vampire nation. At the same time, there is a decent amount
of story, if told only in the momentary pauses between sword fights
and rapid fire stakings.
In
theatres now.
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