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The popularity of the first "Blade" feature film helped to launch the current wave of comic-book-based movies that actually respects comics. Think about it--even prestige, "art-ier" projects like "From Hell" and "Road to Perdition" have roots in the graphic novel medium. In "Blade", there's a seriousness of purpose and a desire for realism (well, as much as it's possible for a movie derived from comics), so the film has developed a passionate following.
In the first movie, Blade (Wesley Snipes), born half-human and half-vampire, loses his mentor, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson). It appeared that Whistler had died, but "Blade 2" begins with our hero looking for Whistler, who's still alive and in need of a retro-virus to become fully human again. During Whistler's absence, Scud joined Blade's vampire-hunting outfit, and Scud's been building a variety of new tools that destroy vampires with great ingenuity.
"Blade 2" also introduces a new love interest for Blade. (Apparently, the lady from the first movie has been forgotten.) The exotically beautiful Leonor Varela--she played Cleopatra in a recent TV miniseries--appears as Nyssa, a vampire warrior who's Blade's kind of girl. Varela shows great presence in the movie, and she could be the next big Latina star.
The movie features a simple-enough story. The Vampire Nation recruits its worst enemy, Blade the Daywalker, to help it fight the Reapers. The Reapers are former vampires that have been changed by a virus into super killing organisms capable of drinking blood from vampires as well as from humans. Blade agrees to cooperate with the vampires because he wants to gain access to the inner sanctums of the vampire world and because the vampires have a good point--when they're done feeding on vampires, the Reapers will proceed to destroy all human life. Sure, there are surprise discoveries, plot twists, and several showdowns between the main characters, but the film exists primarily to fetishize bloody visuals and extraordinarily violent behavior.
The best action sequences take place during the first 20 minutes. Blade flies all over the place, destroying bloodsuckers in stylish ways never-before-seen in motion picture history. There's also a flashy swordfight between Blade and two vampire ninjas. However, what makes no sense to me is that, if the vampire ninjas were sent to ask for Blade's help, why the need for a prolonged sword fight? I guess the filmmakers couldn't resist showing how groovy clanging swords can be.
Despite their grim, dark atmosphere, the movies don't have much to say about the Blade character. Okay, he hunts vampires because he hates them. Why does he hate vampires? No one seems to know, including the handlers of the comic books as well as the filmmakers. That is the greatest weakness of this film franchise, and as long as it is more interested in finding new ways to kill vampires rather than giving depth to Blade, I'm afraid that these movies won't transcend the genre the way that 1989's "Batman" did. Hell, "Blade" and "Blade 2" devote more time to vampire mythology than to Blade's character development.
Like so many big movies made these days, "Blade 2" relies heavily on CGI (computer generated imaging). Frankly, I left the movie theatre wishing that the film, which tries to be as realistic as possible within its self-created realm, had avoided looking a bit "cartoon-ish" in a few spots. Some critics complained about how the CGI work in "Spider-Man" looked too fake, but I disagreed. I thought that, by showing Spider-Man freely swinging around NYC, the film imparted a liberating sense of exhilaration. However, the dark world of "Blade 2", meant to look more serious than the colorful "Spider-Man", features vampire ninjas that look like barely-there phantoms. There are people capable of performing the stunts shown in the movie, so why not use real stuntsmen rather than computer graphics that look like putty?
(I think that Wesley Snipes has demonstrated tremendous acting ability in non-action flicks, so I have mixed feelings about his continued success with the "Blade" franchise. On one hand, it's nice to see somebody make a killing at the box office based on his charisma alone. On the other hand, knowing that he's good enough to get an Oscar, I would like to see Snipes show that he can out-act anyone in Hollywood given the right role.)
Video:
Usually, I trip over myself lavishing compliments on New Line's video transfers to DVD. However, while "Blade 2" looks very good on DVD, it does not look as good as many recent state-of-the-art transfers. I respect the 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer because of its crisp clarity, clear compressions, total lack of video noise, lack of readily noticeable scratches or pixels, and sense of depth. On the other hand, the clarity of DVD enhances the "fakeness" of the CGI work, and so much of the film is shrouded in darkness that, sometimes, I had to strain my eyes more than I should have to do when watching a DVD. Also, I understand that the filmmakers wanted to give the final product a grainy feel. Yet, despite the gritty appearance of the first 5 or 6 minutes, the rest of the film exhibits little to no grain. Ergo, the video transfer is not quite reference material.
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[release]10416[/release]