Blade II (2002) or, The Vampire Ass-Kicker 2

11/16/2013

Blade II (2002) or, The Vampire Ass-Kicker 2

♥♥♥

Intense-looking, black-dressed Wesley Snipes flashes his long sword on the poster for Guillermo del Toro's Blade II

The vampires have shifted around in their power structure, and a new, threatening virus is out. Half-human/half-vampire Blade aka 'the Daywalker' will have to go vampire-berserk once again to put things straight!

Blade II is written by David S. Goyer (Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)) and directed by great Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Cronos (1992)). It is the 2nd film in the Blade trilogy, coming after Blade (1989) and before Blade: Trinity (2004), based on the Marvel Comics character.
Del Toro has made the sequel to Stephen Norrington's amazing first film very worth watching, - and yet it is far from the originality that made the first movie so special. Blade II is clearly a post-Matrix (1999) action film for better and for worse: Blade flies around now, and a good deal of innovative gore effects have been pushed out to make room for fight scenes. - A lot of fight scenes!
The visuals are less red and atmospheric, but there are still incredible sets; the sewers, the vampire castle and the house of pain. (Nice work by production designer Carol Spier (Eastern Promises (2007)).)

Wesley Snipes (Drop Zone (1994)) still slays vampires with a steely expression, but the new cast also includes a few welcome fresh faces: Ron Perlman (Drive (2011)) is a human, Nazi-reminiscent vampire-killer, and Thomas Kretschmann (The Pianist (2002)) is the new vampire lord.
But perhaps the most memorable thing about Blade II is its new virus-plagued vampire monsters. These 'reapers' look seriously scary. Talk about cleft palate issues! (See evidence below)
The eclectic hiphop/rock/electronica pumping score (by Marco Beltrami (Deep Water (2022))) makes no real impression besides being loud, and the characters have less particulars and flesh (no pun intended) to them than in Blade. Lastly, the ending of Blade II is annoyingly sentimental, something that is often the case in del Toro's films.

Other Blade trilogy entries: Blade: Trinity (2004) or, The Vampire Ass-Kicker 3

Blade (1998) or, The Vampire Ass-Kicker
Guillermo del Toro: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) - Øvredal's ascent to big budget moviemaking gets by on weird horror sequences (co-writer)

The day after the day after ... the 2018 Oscars

The Shape of Water (2017) - Toro's strange monster romance is mostly an amusing fantasy
Pacific Rim (2013) or, The Monster Resistance
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - Jackson's megalomania gives birth to the first third of an enormous fantasy whopper (co-writer)
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010) or, What Creeps in the Dark (co-writer)
Julia's Eyes/Los Ojos de Julia (2010) - Decent Spanish horror with good craftsmanship, little else (co-producer)

Pan's Labyrinth/El Laberinto del Fauno (2006) - Horrors of Franco era in Del Toro fantasy ride

Hellboy (2004) - Del Toro's super-antihero is a tiring blast

2001 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Top 10: The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The Devil's Backbone/El Espinoza del Diablo (2001) - The excellent Gothic genre-mix that is Del Toro's best film so far

Watch a 5-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 54 mil. $
Box office: 155 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 2.87 times its cost)

[Blade II premiered 21 March (USA) and runs 117 minutes. Shooting took place from March - July 2001 in London, England, Toronto, Ontario and in Prague, Czech Republic. The film opened #1 to a 32.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#4-#5), grossing 82.3 mil. $ (53.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 13.1 mil. $ (8.5 %) and Germany with 10.3 mil. $ (6.6 %). Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Blade returned in Blade: Trinity (2004). Del Toro returned with Hellboy (2004). Snipes returned in Undisputed (2002). Blade II is rotten at 57 % with a 6.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Blade II?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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11/16/2013

Blade II (2002) or, The Vampire Ass-Kicker 2

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