Best of the Blade films

Rating: 9/10 (7 December 2009)

To some people the release of Blade was a watershed in comic book films, leading to a more serious tones in the genre. I personally think the real watershed film was Bryan Singer's X-Men, but that doesn't stop the first Blade film being an enjoyable film and still important film the vampire and action genres. The first Blade film was very successful with only a modest budget, a sequel seemed to make good business sense. New Line ensured that it kept their star and writer of the first film and comic book fan David S. Goyer. They also hired a top director, Guillermo del Toro to ensure it was more then a simple cash-in.
Two years after the events of Blade, our hero (Wesley Snipes) is on the search for his mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) in Eastern Europe. Whisper had been held hostage by the vampires, who Blade assumed had killed himself to avoid becoming a vampire. Blade is able to rescue Whistler and reform the team with their new member Scud (Norman Reedus). Within the vampire world a new enemy has be born, the Reapers. The Reapers feed on vampires, have all their strengths, but can resist garlic and silver. Sunlight is their only weakness. They are lead by Jared Nomak (Luke Goss), but the Reapers are an almost zombie like creature, needing to feed daily to survive. The vampire nation offers Blade a truce; to help them destroy the Reapers before they become a threat to humanity. He offered to lead a team called the Bloodpack, a special team that were meant to kill Blade. Included in this team are Nyssa Damaskinos (Leonor Varela), daughter of the vampire leader, and Reinhardt (Ron Perlman), a vampire who has a particular dislike for Blade. The teams unite to stop the powerful Reapers.
They is a good mix of a dark serious tone that made the first film really good, but with a decent mix of humour and one-lines to balance things out and make Blade II a excellent action film. Del Torro directs some fantastic action and fight sequences, but also brings his own style to the film. It shows he has a good eye for this type of film. He also adds some horror moments which another strength of his. He makes a first paced, entertaining film.
The theme of enemies uniting to face a greater foe is nothing new. It was done in X-Men 2 (which was released a year later), in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series, in computer games like the newer Sonic games, Bond films, the lists goes on. But it was done well in this film, and there are plot twists and betrayals in this film. There is also good interplay between Wesley Snipes and Ron Perlman (who latter works with Del Torro in Hellboy).
The first Blade film deals with a almost religious element of the vampire world with the re-birth of the Blood God. In Blade II Goyer tackles the issue from the other direction, a scientific view of vampirism as a virus, and the idea of evolution. We also get to see more of the vampire's world in this film and less of the human world. I like the idea of modernising the vampire myth.
There is a good cast. Wesley Snipes is perfect as Blade, both as a somber character, as a fighter and knows how to deliver a one-liner. Kris Kristofferson returns to the mix and is decent. Ron Perlman as already mention a fine member of the cast, so is Luke Goss as the villain and the fine German actor Thomas Kretschmann as the leader of the vampires.
Finally the soundtrack is very fitting for the film.
An entertaining film for Blade, comic book, material arts and vampire fans.