I can't believe that there wasn't a writeup here! I'm not sure when this movie came out in the US, but it's been out in the UK for about three weeks. Unless I've missed something and there's already tons of nodes about it...
This isn't going to be one of those
ultra-factual nodes, listing the entire cast of
Blade II or the exact running time and
decibel levels. I saw the movie last night and loved every minute of it, so I've decided to node it. This will mainly be my opinion of the film, the things I enjoyed and the things that I found highly
dubious;
not a
synopsis or complete
review. I've been waiting for the film to come out ever since seeing
Blade a few years ago, and I really wasn't disappointed. If you haven't seen it and intend to, stop reading NOW. And then
go see it.
First off,
Blade II begins with an huge
advantage over the original -- it has a
plot. Yes, yes;
Blade supposedly also had a plot. Really, it didn't, just another new suit on an old
formula. Arguably
Blade II is just as
formulaic, but it does it
so much better; it kept me guessing up until the very end. But
let's face it: we're not there for the plot.
That's right, we're there for the
bone-crunching,
blood-spurting,
vampire-exploding
action! There are no words to adequately describe this:
Wesley Snipes is a
god, and the
choreographer/
computer graphics teams are
demi-gods. Blade has more
weapons than
James Bond and some really nasty
gadgets (most of which he uses once and
promptly throws away); not to mention a load of cool new moves that would make
Li Mu Bai start to
sweat. There are moments where I began to wonder how
killable Blade really is, compared to the
hordes of enemies that he
vanquishes without
batting an eyelid. That's one of the only faults, aside from some
hard-to-follow action sequences: the fact that Blade is
too good.
Those are my major problems with the movie. I was really glad to see
Danny John Jules in something other than
Red Dwarf, although Blade's "
allies" could have done with a little more
personality; once again,
quantity was chosen over quality. I still admire the
Blade films for a different
slant on the
vampire myth (seeing it as a
virus rather than something more
mystical) and the action is, well,
to die for. Some things are more
unbelievable than others, but let's face it: you're watching a film about a seemingly
invincible half-vampire set on saving the world again,
what's impossible?
Some of the better speaking moments (in
paraphrase, unfortunately):
One of Blade's vampire allies lunges for him, but he parries and counterattacks...
BLADE: ...and now you've got an
explosive device stuck to the back of your head!
WHISTLER: It's no use. They took all of our weapons, Blade -- even your sword. (Maybe I'm being picky, but surely the sword would be the first thing to take? Shouldn't Whistler say something more like: "They took all of our weapons, even that silver toothpick you keep inside your big toe."?)
BLADE:You're human.
FAMILIAR: Barely --
I'm a lawyer.