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Visitors since
April 1999.
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BLADE II
 
Starring Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson,
Ron Perlman, Norman Reedus, Leonor Varela and Luke Goss
Director Guillermo del Toro
Canadian Rating 18A
Released by New Line Cinema - 03/02
Full of bloody dismemberment’s, gross-out special effects and vampire corpses aplenty, Blade II is the date movie of the year. Take the missus and thank me in the morning.
Ok, seeing Blade II may not bode well for the chance of a fruitful relationship, but for those in need of an over-the-top, action-packed testosterone injection, here is a movie that delivers the goods with some style and panache. Guillermo del Toro, director of Mimic and the recent and critically-acclaimed The Devil’s Backbone, takes the moody urban grit of Stephen Norrington’s original film to the next level. Blade II resembles the dark netherworld of a comic book (this is a Marvel comics creation), but the film is looser and trimmer, and doesn’t dwell on vampire origins and mythology to the extent that Blade did. Blade II is more about Wesley Snipes strutting his stuff through a parade of tremendously gory, exuberantly kinetic action scenes that just don’t quit.
Half-man, half-vampire Blade (Snipes), known as the “daywalker”, is on a mission to rescue his mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) as the film opens. Thought to be killed in the original film, Whistler has been held captive by the evil bloodsuckers who have been harvesting his blood. After Blade kicks their asses, he and Whistler are reunited as the real plot takes flight: representatives of the vampire council drop in, presenting Blade with an alliance from vampire lord Damiskinos (Thomas Kretschmann). He wants Blade to help with eradicating a new breed of night creatures, called the Reapers, who are led by Nomak (Luke Goss) and who make everyday vampires look like mosquitoes. Aiding Blade is the Blood Pack, elite hunters led by the smug attitude machine Reinhardt. Played by the always-fun-to-watch Ron Perlman, this character shares some wonderful repartee with Blade and gives us another presence aside from Snipes (who is oh so good at this) worth watching.
Unfortunately, David S. Goyer’s screenplay is under-plotted, with more than its share of wooden dialogue, a fact emphasized further by the monotone delivery of actors like Leonor Varela as the head vampire babe. Stephen Dorff’s Deacon Frost also has the edge over Nomak, but as a collective force, the villainous Reapers steal the movie. Scary, cool and thoroughly disgusting in their engineering, these baddies fit right into a movie that takes great pride in its grisly comic book detail.
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©2003, 2002 Jamey Hughton |
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