Y'all know the name...BLADE

Rating: 10/10 (23 March 2002)

"Blade II", the highly anticipated sequel to the 1998 action thriller of the same name, met every single one of my expectations. I expected "Blade II" to surpass "Blade" in almost every way and it did. This meant more weapons, more action, more vampires, and the best part of about this movie of course, Blade himself. There is a lot of shots of vampires being dismembered, blown up, and fried by sunlight.
"Blade II" takes place two years after the events of the first film. Blade(Wesley Snipes) is continuing his search for his long-dead friend Whistler(Kris Kristofferson), who has since become a vampire. Blade eventually finds his quarry with the help of another chain-smoking human, Scud(Norman Reedus). It isn't long before Scud and Whistler begin to go at one another for who is better at inventing vampire-killing weapons. Soon after, Blade is later informed of a truce that is being called between him and the Vampire Nation. The entire reason for the truce is that a rare mutation has occurred within the vampire strain. It seems that a new breed of vampire called a "reaper" has resulted from the mutant strain. These "reapers" are a kind of super-vampire. They have an insatiable thirst for blood, needing to feed every few hours. In turn they will feed on anything, even other vampires. They have intense strength, are immune to silver and garlic, but are still vulnerable to sunlight. They are led by Nomak(Luke Goss), the originator of the mutant strain. The Vampire Nation needs Blade's help in eliminating the reapers before they wipe out everything on Earth. To do this, the Vampire Nation allies Blade with the Bloodpack, a team of specially trained vampires who were originally training to kill him. The Bloodpack, which consists of Reinhardt(Ron Perlman), Chupa(Matt Schulze), Snowman(Donnie Yen), Lighthammer(Daz Crawford), Verlaine(Marit Velle Kile), and Priest(Tony Curran), are a very tough bunch. The group is headed by the vampire leader's own daughter, Nyssa(Leonor Varela). So together Blade, Scud, Whistler, and the Bloodpack set off to eliminate the reaper threat.
Make no mistake, this movie rules. It is far superior to "Blade" in almost every way. The reapers are very cool looking. You should also be on the lookout for one feature of the reapers that was not shown in the previews. "Blade II" is actually scary too. "Blade II" is also less dark in tone than the first film. "Blade II" also has a bit of humor, which is provided mostly by Norman Reedus and Ron Perlman. The acting here is great too. Wesley Snipes does a fantastic job in this movie. I had previously never heard of Luke Goss until I saw this movie. He is fantastic as the evil and twisted Nomak. I almost hate to say it, but he's even better than Stephen Dorff's Deacon Frost in the first film.
As I said before, "Blade II" is one exciting, scary and exhilarating action film. I can already see that this movie is going to be a smash at the box office, so don't be surprised.