THE STORY:

When a stronger and more dangerous breed of vampire surfaces which hunts both humans AND vampires, Blade and crew form an uneasy truce with the "Vampire Nation" and their elite band of fighters to take out the new breed. It's an action tour-de-force fight for survival through the vampire world (revealing some pretty nasty stuff) as the "posse" attempts to hunt down the new breed before they infect and destroy both races.

THE COOL STUFF:

Blade II is by far perhaps the most action packed flick to hit the theatres all year with more ultra-choreographed fights and blows per frame than any Jet Li or Jackie Chan movie. Martial arts and action lovers will definitely be satiated and impressed by this outing.

Overall, these are the movies highlights:

1.Cool choreographed fight scenes (and by there's a lot of them!!!)

2.Even cooler weapons.

3.Stronger villains and ...heroes.

WARNINGS:

One of the cool things that I believe makes Blade II much better than the first are the much stronger villains in this film who literally just SWARM everything in their path. Depending on who you are though (and you know yourself better than anyone) you may find the villains in this movie a bit much to digest. Quite frankly, they are pretty spooky looking and pretty gross as a cross between where "Nosferatu" type vampires meet the Predator. At one point in the movie an autopsy of sorts is performed which may set off some of those squeamish. The other downside for those squeamish is the look into "vampire culture" which includes some pretty nasty and gory stuff (including the feeding on humans).

Here's the things to watch out for:

1.Autopsy scene

2.Lots of violence

3.Freaky and gory vampire culture stuff

THE VERDICT:

The villains as well as the fight scenes in this movie are far superior than the ones in the first movie, making Blade II ten times better than the first. In all, this is definitely an action lover's dream. However, if you've got young kids you were thinking of taking to this one or if you yourself are on the squeamish side though, you may consider a judgment call on this one as some of the villains and gore may be a bit much for you.

Highly Recommended (for action fans)
Recommended (for others)


Forget X-Men, this is the best comic book movie ever!!!   March 30, 2002
 23 out of 28 found this review helpful

The original Blade was regarded as the beginning of the resurgance of comic book movies, and its sequel tops it in every way possible. I just saw this last night and my head is still spinning. Vampire hunter Blade (Wesley Snipes looking totally badass) returns two years after the original movie in search of his reincarnated mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), and after he finds him he is made an offer. A new breed of vampires called the Reapers are taking out normal vampires, and the vampire lord offers Blade a temporary truce so he can hunt them with his new associates the Blood Pack which is led by Reinhart (Ron Pearlman). The movie is slow in the first hour or so, but it builds up when secrets are revealed and Blade learns all is not what it seems, and what results are the best action scenes ever in a movie, excellent special effects, and the bloodiest goriest martial arts melee you'll ever see in a movie adapted from a comic book. My only complaint is that we didn't get to see martial arts great Donnie Yen (a member of the Blood Pack) for very long, it would have been great to see him and Snipes go at it in a fight scene. All in all, this is one of those rare cases where the sequel is better than the original, and I can't wait until this is relased on DVD, I'll be the first one in line to buy it.


Blade 2 contained jaw dropping action   August 5, 2002
 20 out of 22 found this review helpful

Blade 2 was diffenetly a movie that shot down the theory that sequels are worse then the first movie. Again Snipes went above and beyond during the fight scenes in this movie. It was interesting to see how the directors were able to establish moves from the wwf(or now, the wwe, and bring those moves into blade. I thought the bad guys in this movie were the best, and my hat comes off to the make-up artists. All in all, Blade 2 was a great movie, with awesome action scenes, tight bad guys, and a good plot.


No signs of the "Sequel Syndrome" detected, Doctor.   September 23, 2002
 12 out of 15 found this review helpful

What could have easily been, well, a mess, instead became as intriguing as the original. Sometimes, Hollywood needs to relax on the laurel of the success of the first movie and leave it alone. However, I am glad that they threw that advice out of the window with BLADE II. My worry would be that the sequel would not be as action-oriented or smartly written as the first; the common thread found in many "part two" flicks. What I got was more action than required and a storyline that involved a group of monsters called the Reapers, a vampiric bunch that destroyed humans and vampires alike. The best part of the movie, outside of the fight scenes, was when Blade and the vampire task force had to join forces to destroy the Reapers. How can a team work together when distrust almost becomes stronger than the common enemy? That interesting aspect, along with the betrayal of a cast member and the mystery of the lost and found Whisperer, made this one of the hottest movies around!


Plot? What plot?   April 1, 2002
 11 out of 17 found this review helpful

Blade II (Guillermo del Toro, 2002)

Those who loved the original Blade for the martial arts work are going to adore this movie. Those who loved it for the plot are going to be sorely disappointed. I fall in the latter camp, so you can probably skip the rest of this review right now.

Blade (Wesley Snipes) is back, and this time he's teaming up with the vampires against a common enemy, the Reapers, a mutant strain of vampires compared multiple times in the movie to crack addicts. (Gotta love those anti-drug messages being spouted while Blade is injecting that serum daily. Boo-yaa.) Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) is back, too, despite having died in the first film. Yes, folks, resurrection is possible! The two of them are joined by Scud (Norman [8MM, Mimic] Reedus), who took over Whistler's position in Blade's camp while Whistler was spending a couple of years dead (for tax reasons, one assumes), and the Bloodpack, a team of vampiric assassins put together, ironically, to kill Blade. The Bloodpack are headed by Reinhardt (Ron Perlman, reprising his role in The Island of Dr. Moreau right down to the facial expressions), who, while hunting Reapers, never forgets what he was trained for.

So much of this movie had potential. The tension between Reinhardt and Blade exists, but never really goes anywhere except to set up the predictable showdown between the two. Whistler, having been resurrected and kept barely alive by the vampires for two years, could be a turncoat-or could he? The film answers the question in the most offhand of ways eventually, but boy, plot development would have been nice here. While we're at it, the film's major plot twist will be obvious to any viewer who's seen three or more movies in his lifetime within ten minutes of the opening. Nice going, guys.

If Blade was to Snipes what The Terminator was to Schwarzenegger, Blade II is Snipes' version of Raw Deal. I'd rather stay home and watch the original Blade and Passenger 57 back to back. *