MARVEL REVISITED #5 - 'Blade II' (2002)

It would be in 2002 when the superhero film powder keg was about to explode with “Spider-Man”, but there was another film released just a few months before Spidey made his big splash. New Line Cinema unleashed “Blade II” and this time it was directed by Guillermo del Toro from a script by returning writer David S. Goyer.

In the new movie, a new breed of vampire has emerged known as the Reapers. They’re mostly characterized by their lower jaws that can split into two for a bigger bite and they are also known to feed on both humans and vampires. This is why the leaders of the vampire nation have decided to turn to their sworn enemy, Blade (Wesley Snipes), for help.

Blade has just recovered and cured his mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) after Whistler was attacked and turned in the original film. Blade has also taken on a younger weapons master known as Scud (Norman Reedus). They agree to help the vampires due to the fact that if the Reapers kill all the vampires, they know the humans will be next on the menu.

Blade tries to fight off the Reapers in 'Blade II'!

Blade is joined by the Bloodpack, a team of elite vampire soldiers that were trained to take Blade out but now find themselves aiding him. This includes Dieter Reinhardt, a smartass vampire that hates Blade and is played to perfection by Ron Perlman, an actor who frequently collaborates with del Toro.

Okay, I feel like I’ll be saying this a lot as I travel through these early superhero films, especially those that were released in the early 2000s. The special-effects have most definitely aged. In this movie, they wanted to show Blade and others doing supernaturally cool moves which meant making CGI models of the characters for some sequences.

However, these models feel like they have no skeletons with a sort of rubbery effect which is the best way I can describe them. I’ve seen various special-effects artists talk about these sequences and why they were so bad at the time as the technology just wasn’t quite there yet for some of the shots.

Ron Perlman squares off with Wesley Snipes' Blade!

On the flip side, I will say that they were nowhere near as distracting as I thought they’d be when I rewatched the movie. I think it is because these brief sequences with the CGI are quick enough to fly by before they really allow you to stop and notice them. The only time it was a true distraction was during the battle with Blade and Jared Nomak, the leader of the Reapers played by Luke Goss.

Beyond the sometimes janky CGI is another solid superhero entry and another great entry into the “Blade” series. I would say that I still enjoy this film more than the original, but I must also admit that this has changed with time. I remember when I watched this movie for the first time in 2002, I actually liked it more than the original. Today, I can say that they are neck and neck in terms of quality with the original film only slightly outshining this sequel.

At the end of the day, “Blade II” was another solid hit, earning more at the box office than the original against a relatively low budget of $54 million. Today, it gets caught in between “X-Men” and “Spider-Man” and all the films that came after it, but fans of the movie remember it fondly and I can definitely say that it holds up in spite of some aging flaws.