Del Toro charges sequel headfirst; audience sustains concussion.

Rating: Null/10 (6 May 2002)

Contains Spoilers First of all, not to insult some people's intelligence, but after reading about half of the reviews for BLADE 2, it was more than a little obvious that a lot of you haven't the slightest idea who the hell Guillermo del Toro is. So let me preface this review with a bit of videostore-geek advice: if you did NOT see the first BLADE, rent that. If you have not seen or heard of CRONOS or MIMIC (the first one), hunt those down and rent them, too, if possible. If any of the aforementioned films is not your cuppa blood, go see THE SWEETEST THING, LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT or ICE AGE. Stay as far away from BLADE 2 as your local multraplex will allow.
Now, that THAT'S out of the way, how was the movie? As sequels go, I've definitely seen better. As sequels directed by Guillermo del Toro rate, it was nothing less than AMAZING. As with most Marvel/DC-oriented superhero film franchises these days, you always have to begin with the story of the hero's origins, and Stephen Norrington did a more-than-capable job of providing us with that in the first BLADE. Not a whole lot of character development, (but then what were you expecting, people? For God's sake, it's based on a COMIC BOOK!!) but Blade's origins, his mission and his relationship with Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), were firmly established.
With the preliminaries out of the way, it was time for a director to step in, who leaves his mark on a film in a way that few others can, and del Toro definitely ranks among the top twenty in this category. If you have seen any of his other work, you already know that whether the script is a sensation or a stink bomb, he still interprets it in his own unique way. To wit: you don't go to a movie by David Lynch or Oliver Stone expecting to see HEIDI: THE MUSICAL; you won't get that here, either.
With a penchant for painting pictures more with darkness than light, a fondness for the supernatural and all the oozy, slimy, slitheriness that goes with it, and an obsession with unearthing the ultraviolent subtext so obviously begging for further exploration in its predecessor, del Toro's BLADE 2 takes the audience and David S. Goyer's script, and shakes them both like a pit bull whose Kibble was recently laced with PCP.
Now that he's had a chance to get comfortable with the character, Wesley Snipes now walks and talks Blade as if he created the Daywalker himself, and much like Sean Connery as 007, you'll never be able to picture anyone else making the feeble attempt to essay the role in his place after this. Those looking for stunning dialogue and deeply constructed plot points had better look elsewhere; the plot here is all about providing every opportunity for Blade to kick undead ass, and he does so with a gusto I wish half the other working actors in Hollywood would bring to their roles in "A"-list pictures.
The story is thankfully very simple, and it wisely tackles the question on everyone's mind from the opening frames: if Whistler died in the first installment, what is he doing back in the sequel? After failing to take his own life and being captured by Blade's enemies, the Daywalker has been following his trail for a few years, bent on destroying those who kidnapped Whistler, and determined to bring an end to his mentor's suffering.
He finally tracks Whistler to Prague (good for the mythic locale and also the producers, since it's much cheaper to shoot there), where instead of outright killing the old vampire hunter, he helps cure him of his condition, assisted more or less by a new punky sidekick named Scud, (Norman Reedus, who channels David Arquette at his least quirky/annoying).
No sooner does the reunion take place, than an elite vampire squad finds the new hideout. Strangely enough, though, they're not here to eradicate Blade and company; they want to strike a bargain. It seems a new, mutant strain of bloodsuckers has somehow evolved, and their primary goal is to drain, infect or destroy all life on the planet, both vampire and human. The "pure-bred" vamps want to enlist Blade's help to stop the scourge, and there you have it.
Del Toro, who has a fondness for the themes of vampirism and the more unhealthy symbiotic aspects of man's dependence upon his technology and vice-versa, could not have been able to resist the opportunities this script must have presented, and he doesn't miss a trick here. Though the fight scenes could be categorized as "fantasy violence," he presents the set-pieces here with all the finesse and style of an EVIL DEAD remake with Jet Li as the star, scored with the sound of depth charges going off. The choreography is as sharp-edged as anything you've seen in THE MATRIX or CROUCHING TIGER, and the gore as prevalent and pustulent as a book of H.R. Giger's unused ideas for ALIEN or SPECIES. The makeup and visuals departments get to have a field day, especially with some biological traits displayed by the mutant vampires, that will have you wishing you'd skipped dinner before the movie.
One of the most outstanding special effects on display, however, isn't even a prop or a visual. Del Toro and other directors of his caliber, (like Jean-Pierre Jeunet) all share a fondness for using one incredible actor: Ron Perlman. The former BEAUTY AND THE BEAST-star has one of the most recognizable anti-leading man mugs in cinematic history; he makes Kristofferson look like the next GQ cover by comparison. And Perlman is nearly peerless in his fearless dedication to a full exploration of how the most unsavory of characters is motivated, (with strong runners-up being the likes of Nicholson, Walken, Hopper and Woods).
Which is how he nearly walks away with the movie as Reinhardt, the leader of the elite "Bloodpack" charged to help Blade hunt down the mutant vamps' leader (as opposed to their original mission, which was to hunt down and kill Blade.) A vampire with a fascist outlook and bloodsucker-supremacist leanings? What a truly sick, original idea. And what a magnificent opportunity for an actor of Perlman's gifts to pull it off. Only someone with Snipes daunting ability for manifesting his physical presence on-screen, could even hope not to be overshadowed, and their physical and verbal sparring matches make you wish that del Toro had made room for more such moments throughout the movie.
Thomas Kretschmann and Luke Goss are impressive as the main antagonists of the piece, and Leonor Varela as the comely non-mutant vamp Nyssa kicks butt with the best of the guys, but is given little to do otherwise, especially in a painfully underdeveloped romantic subplot involving Blade, which rings really false later in the finale, shot as beautifully as a Calvin Klein commercial directed by Anne Rice, and carrying about as much emotional weight.
If an all-out mega-assault on your senses is what you're looking for, BLADE is more than happy to oblige. But unlike similarly CGI-rich gorefests like RESIDENT EVIL, this one has one badass Daywalker to keep it (and the audience) riveted and reasonably centered amidst the chaotic designer mayhem.
And besides, where else can you hear an actor tackle a line like "You want us to spray ourselves with some suckpuppy's nut-juice?" with a totally straight face, and make it believable, even as you chortle at the purple outlandishness of the dialogue?