Blade II ****

The first "Blade" was a good movie. It gave us a character that wasn't just a one note character and it showed us a different side the vampire genre. It was also a very good action movie and contained some scares as well. Now we get "Blade II" and with it we get everything that the first "Blade" was and so much more.

Wesley Snipes stars as Blade who is half vampire and half human. He posesses all our their strengths and none of their weaknesses, except for one. He still needs to feed on human blood in order to stay alive. Blade lives with an old man named Wristler (played by the always gruff Kris Kristofferson. Wristler has taught Blade everything that he knows about vampire and even assists Blade in hunting them. Wristler has also made a serum that acts as a substitute for blood.

"Blade II" introduces something to the genre by creating a new kinda of vampire. This creation is a genius movie by the writer because, like zombie movies, the vampire movie has grown a bit stale. This new vampire not only feed on human, but vampires as well. The vampires come to Blade for his help in stopping the new vampire because they can not do it alone.

This is all brought to us by Guillermo del Toro, whose previous movie was "The Devil's Backbone". He knows how to scare us and gross us out, too. He gives us scenes that would gross out even hardcore horror fans, but their is something about them that is beautiful.

 

 

The production design here is top notch as well. Blade's warehouse hideout is a massive space of emptiness, that shadows Blade's self containment. The vampire's lair is a mixture of corporate and underground, and the harvesting area is cold and sterle. All of these enviorments are void of most colors, except for earth tones, so that when the blood flies you can really tell.

The action is better than expected. The first "Blade" had good action scenes, but were mared by fast cutting. Here del Toro and choregrapher Donnie Yen craft some great action scenes. They make it seem like the camera is everywhere at the same time.

Guillermo del Toro has crafted a superb action movie. Everything in this movie works. Even the new special effects that were used on this movie somehow work. He also did something that was once thought impossible: he made vampires scary again.