PopHorror Let's Get Scared
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 15 years since Blade II hit the heaters in March of 2002. The highly anticipated sequel to the first Blade took a different approach to the first movie. Rather than Blade (Wesley Snipes: White Men Can’t Jump 1992) and Whistler (Kris Kristofferson: A Star Is Born 1973) fighting vampires, this time he must co-exist with them to fight a whole new terror. Blade II was directed by Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth 2006) and written by David S. Goyer (Batman Begins 2005), Marv Wolfman (Justice League: Doom 2012) and the late Gene Colan (Guardians of the Galaxy 2014).
The writing becomes an integral part of the movie as the characters are introduced. Blade travels to Russia to spring the once thought to be dead now very much undead Whistler and cure him. While Whistler was gone, Blade recruited Scud (Norman Reedus: The Walking Dead TV series) to be his new gadget man. When Whistler returns, he’s none to pleased to see Scud. Before they get to duke it out, they’re ambushed by Asad (Danny John-Jules: Red Dwarf 1988) and Nyssa (Leonor Varela: Odd Thomas 2013). Rather than try to kill Blade and his cronies, Asad comes with a job offer.
Apparently there’s a brand new strain of vampire that’s far deadlier than the one we all know. The head of the Reapers is Jared Nomak (Luke Goss: Hellboy II: The Golden Army 2008) and he feasts on both humans and vampires. Their victims don’t die; they turn into Reapers themselves. Blade and his crew are brought to the lair of the head of all vampires, Eli Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann: King Kong 2005), and his trusty familiar lawyer Kounen (Karel Roden: Hellboy 2004). Blade is asked to work with a special forces group of vampires that was originally put together to hunt him (awkward!) to put an end to the Reapers.
We’re introduced to Lighthammer (Daz Crawford: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series), Verlaine (Marit Velle Kile: The Girl in the Cafe 2005), Priest (Tony Curran: Pearl Harbor 2001), Snowman (Donnie Yen: Ip Man 2008), Chupa (Matt Schulze: Fast and The Furious 2001) and Reinhardt (Ron Perlman: Hellboy 2004). Its established very early that Reinhardt and Chupa flat out hate Blade and Whistler while the others merely tolerate them to various degrees.
Blade asks Nyssa where vampires hang out so they can catch some Reapers and she suggests the House of Pain. Eventually the Reapers attack and its revealed conventional weapons do not work. Snowman’s martial arts skills are put on display as well as the ruthlessness of Chupa, but Priest is turned and killed by Blade. These Reapers mean business, folks.
I don’t want to spoil too much but Blade II is the definition of a popcorn flick. The plot isn’t too hard to understand, the action sequences are fun, the characters range from undeveloped to absolutely hilarious and the CGI isn’t too bad when it comes to the Reapers. Blade II has an all-star cast that puts in fantastic performances. Once the preliminary characters are gone, you are bound to watch the rise or demise of the remaining. The jackhammering conclusion with Blade battling Nomak for vampire supremacy will leave you clapping by the end. I suggest anyone reading checks out Blade II because it is well worth it.
