A rare mutation has occurred within the vampire community. The Reaper. A vampire so consumed with an insatiable bloodlust that they prey on vampires as well as humans, transforming victims who are unlucky enough to survive into Reapers themselves. Now their quickly expanding population threatens the existence of vampires, and soon there won't be enough humans in the world to satisfy their bloodlust. Blade, Whistler (Yes, he's back) and an armory expert named Scud are curiously summoned by the Shadow Council. The council reluctantly admits that they are in a dire situation and they require Blade's assistance. Blade then tenuously enters into an alliance with The Bloodpack, an elite team of vampires trained in all modes of combat to defeat the Reaper threat. Blade's team and the Bloodpack are the only line of
defense which can prevent the Reaper population from wiping out the vampire and human populations.
Now for The Zone's Eye View
By Laura Alber
Well, if you take every special effect used in any kung-fu movie, Steven Segal film and The Matrix…mix in all the red food coloring you can find for blood, build extravagant vats by the dozen to hold all this blood and finally, add in every high tech gadget that would make even "Q" jealous, and you have "Blade II". If it wasn't so blatantly obvious that every aspect of this movie ripped off some other movie in some way, it could have actually been "ok". But, Guillermo del Toro chose to use all these "influences" and go more for shock value than an actual decent film. I had to keep reminding myself that this is all based on a comic book character, but even that didn't make it easier to sit through. I love Vampire movies, and am also a fan of action flicks, but
even I could see every stolen effect and fight sequence in every scene, right down to the "arm breaking" Segal is trademarked with.
The film would have been more aptly titled "8 Million Ways to Die", not to be confused with the original movie, but rather the way Blade II tried to use as many gory and "shocking" ways to kill vampires as he possibly could. The first ten minutes of watching these violent and creative death scenes may be entertaining, but to sit through 117 minutes of this is just unforgivable. At least in films like Friday 13th, Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street, we "expect" as much cheese as possible. But, I actually enjoyed the first Blade movie, and was so disappointed with the direction this one chose to go in. Not to mention that Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) is back, despite the fatal end we "thought" he endured in the 1st film. This alone makes no sense. Whistler knew of his fate if he was
to stay alive in the first Blade, and yes we even heard that fateful shot ring out as Blade handed him the gun. So, why would he jeopardize himself to the vampires knowing what he did? They brought him back in Blade II under the pretense that he didn't actually die, and the vampires "captured" him, fed off him for years, all to lure Blade back to them. Oh, give me a break! Wouldn't it have been more believable that Whistler was now a vampire himself and was the one that stalked and tried to kill Blade? Sounds like a much better story to me.
Well, since I had no part in the writing or directing of this film (thank god!), I guess these discrepancies and flaws can only be attributed to David Goyer and Guillermo del Toro. I also have the answer for those wondering why Blade is so quiet. He was too busy learning his choreographed fight scenes to learn any actual "dialogue"! I was actually rooting for the new characters known as "Reapers" to kill him off and put us all out of our misery.
I will attempt to give you some sort of plot, even though it may be difficult considering there wasn't much of one. Nevertheless, it seems that there is a new breed of vampires, the Reapers, who feed on vampires as well as humans. They have ridiculously oversized jaws (the better to snag a vampire with), no hair and looking like the offspring of Nosferatu himself. They are also immune to the "normal" vampire weaknesses like silver and garlic. They can only be killed by light.
With a new partner by his side, "Scud" (Norman Reedus), and Whistler in tow, Blade and a small army of vampires known as the Bloodpack, originally trained to kill Blade, are now on a mission to kill these "Reapers". It seems that not only do they feed off vampires and humans, but they also turn them into Reapers with their bite. In other words, the world is about to be infested with Reapers. The leaders of this elite fighting team of vampires are Princess Nyssa (Leonor Varela) and Reinhardt (Ron Perlman). Reinhardt is having a difficult time "not" killing Blade being so close to him, but he must unfortunately keep him alive to help them on their mission.
All in all, I'm at a loss as to why this movie is actually the number one selling DVD right now. I guess people are "hungry for blood". Blade II certainly doesn't have much more than that going for it. Granted, the effects were impressive, but good effects don't make a movie. (Waterworld? Battlefield Earth??) Blade II was nothing more than a much-wasted 117 minutes of my time. I'm sure not everyone will agree, but for those expecting a "good action film with a plot", don't say you weren't warned. The Zone can't rate this bloody waste more than a 2 out of 10.
