A very meaningless sequel with little redemption value...

Rating: Null/10 (5 June 2003)

I could be wrong, but there's not a lot of plot going on in this follow-up to the surprise '98 hit `Blade.' Again, Blade (Wesley Snipes), the half man, half vampire, gets to save humanity from a blood-drenched Armageddon in a very violent, round-about way. Here, Blade aligns himself with a militant group of vampires (The Bloodpack) -- originally trained to kill him -- to battle a new genetically-enhanced strain of super-vampires called Reapers who feed on both vampire and human. The hunt takes Blade into the compound of vampire overlord Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann), where he meets Nyssa (Leonor Varela), Damaskinos's exotic daughter. His infiltration unveils many secrets of the vampire sect, but not too much more, unless you consider fighting scenes a crucial part of the narrative. To the film's credit, super-Reaper Jared Nomak (Luke Goss) is highly entertaining, and del Toro creates some pretty stunning visuals, like the vampire autopsy and the Reapers who have a scar down the center of their chins that spreads out into retractable jaws. Outside of that, the only redeeming factor is Blade's mentor, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), as crusty and bad-mannered as ever. The film actually throws in a useless, unrelated subplot just to have Kristofferson back for the ride -- he didn't die, but was instead infected with the vampire virus and taken overseas (of course!). Still, `Blade II' is nothing like the first installment  instead, it's all flash and blood and guns and `Matrix' kicks. The first brought `humanity' into the picture; this one ignores it. For example, when Blade's industrial unit is attacked by messengers from Damaskinos, a ten-minute fight ensues before the invaders  risking death -- stop and let Blade know they're just stopping by to deliver a message (maybe have some blood and crumpets). And the characterization is horrible  the Bloodpack is easily one of the worst and least-memorable collection of heavies I've seen since 1997's `Con Air'  bombastic, predictable, stereotypical, and pumped full of steroids. Furthermore, outside of the physical stunts, this couldn't have been a very challenging role for Snipes (he only has five minutes of dialogue scattered throughout the film at best). Why bother using an actor at all  just digitally generate Blade in the next flick! Oh, and did I mention that everyone in the film knows some type of martial-arts must be a vampire pre-requisite or something? I hear those late-night vampire karate-schools are all the rage out in LA!