Don't Fear The Reaper(s)

Rating: 5/10 (22 January 2006)

Part two unquestionably is the best entry in the rather dreadful "Blade" series, simply because the director's chair was occupied by a gifted filmmaker for a change. Guillermo Del Toro might be a little overrated ("Cronos" and "The Devil's Backbone" really aren't that good...), from a routine and dull vampire movie script, he can make a remotely entertaining and visually impressive time-waster. With Del Toro in charge, it quickly becomes obvious how badly the first "Blade" and "Blade 3: Trinity" lacked a decent director. The story is also slightly better than in the original Blade, with our half man  half vampire hero teaming up with his enemies to battle an entirely new breed of bloodsucking species; the Reapers. These pale and caped monsters are seemly immune to garlic and other old anti-vampire tricks and  very interesting  they drink the blood of vampire victims as well as humans. There's still way too much hi-tech nonsense going on in this film and the fights between Blade and his vampire opponents now look like lame imitations of "The Matrix", but at least there's some relatively good humor in the script and Wesley Snipes is kept on a short leash by Del Toro. Kris Kristofferson reprises his role of cool old mentor but the best part is reserved for Guillermo Del Toro's buddy Ron Perlman. He's the leader of "The Blood Pact"; a squadron of eccentric vampires that are trained to kill Blade. Perlman is the real star of this movie with his impressive charisma and barbaric looks.