Gross beyond belief (but still cool)!

Rating: Null/10 (11 October 2002)

I thought the parts of the first Blade I saw were pretty cheesy, since the ending was filled with fake computer effects and sported a skinny villain who looked like he needed a tan. But the budget for Blade II is obviously much higher, so now we get insanely cool Reaper vampires who can suck the fluids out of you with their bowling ball-sized tongues and fight sequences that defy imagination. Sure there are the usual questions about the loose plot, but since you'll never get answers it is better to just sit back and watch the body count rise. I dug Blade as the hero, with his silver bullet uzi and Batmanish attitude towards others, the Blood Pack team (sheesh, even the name Blood Pack is cool by itself!), and especially that creepy, 1,000-year-old vampire who wants to breed invincible Dracula warriors (oops, spoiler!). There are one or two nice twists that I didn't see coming and again, the fighting is just as good as anything you'll see in The Matrix, if not better. Of course we get that one token slow-mo shot where the camera pans around the combatants, but who could refuse to do a shot like that in their action movie? Hopefully when the second Matrix movie comes out it will have something fresh for everyone to rip-off. Be warned, though, that this is a very gross movie, filled with exploding bodies, scenes of vampiric autopsy, gooey brains and much more, so the squeamish would definitely want to stay away from Blade II. Other than that, comic book fans and lovers of action should adore this movie. ***/****