Blade 2 (2002)
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1998's Vampire-filled action film “Blade”, starring Wesley Snipes, was possibly one of the best action films of the 90's so expectations were high for the 2002 sequel. Respected horror director Guillermo Del Torro took over the franchise and managed the impressive feat of packing in even more action, but was it as good as the original film?
One thing Blade didn’t waste much time one was trying to present a believable plot, although by action movie standards it was quite a decent plot. Unfortunately the plot for Blade 2 is a bit more contrived with Blade’s vampire enemies making peace with him so they can fight a new menace - a race of super vampires (known as Reapers) who are even more destructive than normal. Blade must join forces with the “Bloodpack”, an elite group of vampires who were originally trained to hunt Blade down. Blade is assisted by smart-mouthed technology expert Josh and Kris Kristopherson’s character of Whistler who returns here, even though he apparently died in the first film. Although Kristopherson’s character is interesting enough for his return to be welcomed it’s still an obviously contrived plot device. So, the plot is reasonably ludicrous, but action movies fans are unlikely to care too much.
Despite the silliness of the plot, it does throw up some interesting situations, particularly the forced cooperation between Blade and the Bloodpack. Although the Bloodpack vampires are undoubtably evil, and likely to betray Blade at any moment, they are still interesting enough for the audience to support them in the battle against the Reapers. This is probably due to some excellent acting, particularly from Ron Perlmann as the Bloodpack leader, ably supported by Leanor Varela as the daughter of the vampire leader and Red Dwarf’s Danny John Jules who makes a surprisingly good vampire.
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As in the original film Snipes confirms that he is perfectly suited to taking the lead in action-film roles and Ron Perlmann is similarly imposing as his rival for control of the mission. The Reapers they have to fight against are suitably impressive, and they wouldn’t look out of place in a pure horror movie.
Any action movie lives or dies on the quality of it’s action scenes and Blade 2 is consistently excellent on this score. There are more entertaining action scenes than can be easily counted and the lightning-fast fighting is as good as anything else in the world of movies. Inevitably with so many fight scenes they do lose their impact after a while, but there’s enough variation that it never becomes tedious to watch although it’s questionable whether so many shots of the Reapers looking menacing are necessary. Although the action scenes are great, it’s here that Blade 2 falls slightly behind the original film. There may be more action this time around but there’s nothing quite as memorable as the opening or closing sections in the original film and while this film is great fun, it doesn’t quite match it’s predecessor.
Overall, this may not be the most innovative movie this year, but in terms of sheer entertainment value it’s one of the best. It does, however, fall into the sequel trap of being quite like the original film, but not quite as good.
Rating : 8 / 10
All content ©2003 William Marnoch.
Comments? Agree/Disagree with the Reviews? Suggestions? Random Ramblings? Whatever you might want to say, feel free to e-mail me at william@wmarnoch.freeserve.co.uk .