*** out of 5

Rating: Null/10 (22 September 2002)

I was first introduced to the characters of Blade and Whistler through a more recent Spiderman cartoon. So when a big screen rendition of the character was made I knew right away that I had to see it. It had non-stop action, just like the sequel. It had buckets of gore, just like the sequel (though not quite as extreme as one would have expected). It had a touch of witty, dark humour, just like the sequel. It ran to long, just like the sequel. It was a wild, entertaining, thrill-a-minute, roller coaster ride...this is where the comparison stops. The film starts off strong with an explosive action sequence that screams of the first Blade but then slowly looses itself it the stupidity of the story. This time around Blade must team up with his vampire enemies to take on a new breed of "super" vampire known as Reapers. The story is so dumb and such a far cry from the original that it will have you wondering when Steven Dorff will pop up and the real story will begin, but that doesn't happen so we are left with a story that drags on and doesn't possess one lick of logic. Wesley Snipes is again ultra cool and ultra stylized as our title character (the main reason to view the film). Kris Kristofferson is also back as Whistler but the absence of Steven Dorff as Deacon Frost takes a huge toll on the final product (maybe they should have resurrected Frost, that probably would have made more sense than this). With a change in director comes a change in style. Director Guillermo Del Toro seems more worried about how big and high tech he can make everything look than providing the sheer entertainment value of the original. He also relies to much on computer generated effects during fight scenes making the battles look more like watching a video game than an action flick at times. Don't get me wrong, Del Toror is a talented director. Some of his techniques could have worked wonders in the first film but he doesn't seem to realize that things need to be taken one step at a time and not just have everything thrown in a viewers face all at once3 and still expect them to have a good time. So in the end it was a fair attempt that is worth seeing for Snipes' super cool performance and the mind blowing intro but other than that, as a Blade fan I was expecting much more than I got.