Blade II (2002)

Blade forms an uneasy alliance with the vampire council in order to combat the Reaper vampires who feed on vampires.

Director:

Guillermo del Toro

Writers:

Marv Wolfman (character), Gene Colan (character),

Stars:

Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman

7 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Wesley Snipes	...	Blade
Kris Kristofferson	...	Whistler
Ron Perlman	...	Reinhardt
Leonor Varela	...	Nyssa
Norman Reedus	...	Scud
Thomas Kretschmann	...	Damaskinos
Luke Goss	...	Nomak
Matt Schulze	...	Chupa (as Matthew Schulze)
Danny John-Jules	...	Asad (as Danny John Jules)
Donnie Yen	...	Snowman
Karel Roden	...	Kounen
Marit Velle Kile	...	Verlaine
Tony Curran	...	Priest
Daz Crawford	...	Lighthammer
Santiago Segura	...	Rush

Storyline

A rare mutation has occurred within the vampire community. The Reaper. A vampire so consumed with an insatiable bloodlust that they prey on vampires as well as humans, transforming victims who are unlucky enough to survive into Reapers themselves. Now their quickly expanding population threatens the existence of vampires, and soon there won't be enough humans in the world to satisfy their bloodlust. Blade, Whistler (Yes, he's back) and an armory expert named Scud are curiously summoned by the Shadow Council. The council reluctantly admits that they are in a dire situation and they require Blade's assistance. Blade then tenuously enters into an alliance with The Bloodpack, an elite team of vampires trained in all modes of combat to defeat the Reaper threat. Blade's team and the Bloodpack are the only line of defense which can prevent the Reaper population from wiping out the vampire and human populations.

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Plot Keywords:

vampire | blade | reaper | mutation | warrior | 

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Taglines:

One man is still the cutting edge

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Genres:

Action | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong pervasive violence, language, some drug use and sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

New Line Cinema [us] Trailer, screensaver, message board RCV Film Distribution [nl] (Dutch)

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English Romanian Czech

Release Date:

22 March 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Blade 2: Bloodhunt

Filming Locations:

Barrandov Studios, Prague, Czech Republic

Box Office

Budget:

$54,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$60,999 (Hong Kong) (6 September 2002)

Gross:

$60,999 (Hong Kong) (6 September 2002)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Amen Ra Films, Marvel Enterprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

DTS-ES Dolby Digital EX SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Lauren German auditioned for the role of Nyssa.

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Goofs

The blood stain on the wall following Nomak's first attack in the blood bank.

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Quotes

Drug Dealer: Looking to get hooked up?
Nomak: Maybe. What do you have?
Drug Dealer: No problem. Horse, Hawaiian ice, whatever you need.
Nomak: Whatever I need. I like that. What if I need you?
[attacks him]

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Crazy Credits

No real reapers were hurt during the making of this film.

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Connections

Features The Powerpuff Girls (1998)

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Soundtracks

"PHDream"
Written by Ken Jordan, Scott Kirkland, Bubba Sparxxx (as Warren Anderson Mathis) and Organized Noize Productions, Inc.
Performed by Bubba Sparxxx and The Crystal Method
Produced by The Crystal Method and Tom Morello
Bubba Sparxxx appears courtesy of Beat-Club / Interscope Records
The Crystal Method appears courtesy of Geffen Records

User Reviews

Enjoyable dark style with solid action, OK plot and good cast

Having rescued Whistler from the grasp of the vampires and acted quickly enough to combat the vampire virus in his blood, Blade reforms his team. When his base is infiltrated by two vampires, he is offered a temporary truce that Blade accepts. He meets with the vampire council who ask for his help to track and kill a new strain of the vampire virus called the Reaper. The Reapers feed on vampires and humans, are immune to garlic and silver and threaten to rapidly multiple. Blade agrees to join forces but fighting alongside those he would hunt puts him very ill at ease.

Opening with the same style that made Blade enjoyable, it is immediately apparent that, if you liked the first film then you should enjoy this one just as much. The plot has quite a few major holes but I can't help eel it's a little unfair to attack a vampire horror movie for being a little illogical at times! What remains is a series of fast and stylish action scenes, held together by a reasonable plot and a nice few little twists and turns to keep it engaging. While the plot may only be average it is probably the dark action that you came for and it is as enjoyable as in the first film. The wirework was pretty good, mainly because the cast members involved could actually do it without looking like they had become members of Thunderbirds! The CGI stuff is not very good and the computerised characters, despite looking good, don't look or move real and thus take away from the energy and impact of the fights. Director del Toro handles the action well and also brings the same dark feel that he brought to Cronos and Mimic.

However generally the fights are good – good moves but still rather rough. Snipes has certainly worked on his body to the degree that he can perform these moves with a natural feel, only the WWF style moves came across as being rather silly or ill fitting. As a leading man he has really come on since reinventing himself as an action hero, and Blade is his best character in that regard. This film scales back on the complexities of his character and it damages the film a little bit but chances are that isn't what you came here for! Kristofferson is good but his character isn't really used well here. Perlman uses his screen presence well and he holds his own with Snipes. Varela is quite sexy but again the script doesn't use her relationship with Blade as well as it could do. Goss is very good in this role and it bodes well but I'd need to see him play a character (as opposed to a monster) to be able to judge if he has real ability as an actor – all the makeup also helped forget his Bros personae too. Jules is a very strange find but he looks good. Donnie Yen was, as he often is, poorly used – he has one small fight scene but considering the amount of martial arts action in this movie it would have been better to have actually used him in more of the action; wisely the film uses him better as the main fight choreographer.

Overall this is an enjoyable action movie with a horror twist. The plot is OK and has enough to it to be engaging despite having several themes that it should have done more with. The action is solid and enjoyable and not too hurt by the odd bit of poorly used CGI. A good cast helps and the action flows reasonably consistently to produce an enjoyable two hours of dark style.