Blade II:
This is like Spiderman 2 and The Dark Knight, one of the few sequels that tops the original. The plot thickens as Blade rescues Whistler from a gang of vampires, with the help of his new sidekick, Scud (Norman Reedus of The Boondock Saints and The Walking Dead). Blade must now team up with a group of renegade vampires (who despise him) to stop a new threat, a new breed of evolved vampires who feed on humans and the creatures of the night. Not just this, but Blade's new female comrade is a vampire who actually respects him, and has an aging vampiric father, who may have devious plans for the vampire hunter. The acting is even better than the first. The first film was great, but had some over-the-top bad guys. The villains here are terrifying, and even Blade's new allies prove potential threats. It seems like, in the tone of The Dark Knight and The Empire Strikes Back, the heroes are singled out, no-one trusts them, and they are at their lowest point, and the villains are even more threatening than before. Wesley Snipes is always bad-ass as the vampire hunter of the title. Kris Kristofferson is always cool as Whistler. Norman Reedus is a cool stoner-type inventor, who Whistler is annoyed with. Ron Perlman as Reinhardt is threatening, as he is a physical match for Blade, and despises the hunter. Perlman would later play in another Guillermo del Toro comic book movie: Hellboy. Luke Goss (often type-cast as villains) is great as Jared Nomak, the leader of the new vampire breed, and the man who passes on the vampire virus from victim-to-victim. Leonor Varela as Nyssa Damaskinos is great, as a talented vampire princess who learns to respect Blade. Thomas Kretschmann as Eli, Nyssa's father, resembles Count Orlk from Nosferatu, an ancient vampire who has questionable motives about helping Blade stop Nomak. Stephen Norrington (director of the first film) is a good director, with movies ranging from good (Death Machine) to horrid (The League of Extraordinary Gentleman), but Guillermo del Toro (director of this film) has a near perfect track record. From Cronos and The Devil's Backbone to Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, and The Orphanage, del Toro is the master of blending suspense, horror, and fantasy, with Lovecraftian mythology, characters, monsters, and sets. He brings a breath of fresh air to Blade. This was his first comic book film before he took on the Hellboy franchise. Perfect directing choice. He previewed the awesomeness that was to come of those films. The special effects are fantastic, improving on the near-flawless effects of the first film. The CG is used sparingly, only when needed, the rest is prosthetics, stunts, and animatronics. If you liked Blade, but wanted more, see Blade II, it is an amazing feat in action movies, horror movies, comic book movies, and movies in general. 5/5.
Blade: Trinity:
This is the Spiderman 3 and Batman Forever to this franchise, but at least those films were dumb fun, this movie is just shitty garbage. It is actually directed by David S. Goyer, writer of the first two Blade films, and of Chris Nolan's Batman films. He is a great writer, so was he just brain-dead while writing this script? The plot is simple and stupid: Blade is discovered by the world, thought of as an insane vigilante killing innocent civilians (press and cops controlled by vampires). He is captured and Whistler killed right off the bat. He is then rescued by a new, young, hip team of vampire hunters, led by Hannibal King and Abigail Whistler (Whistler's daughter, born out of wedlock). Blade doesn't like them, and must hunt down his new, hipster-vampire enemies, and their new ally, the original Dracula. The acting is very mediocre. Wesley Snipes looks bored and has nothing to do, but is still bad-ass in the opening scene. Ryan Reynolds as Hannibal King is annoying, always cracking stupid jokes, and just having nothing to do. Hannibal King of the comics was a PI and vampire hunter, a bad-ass, I think of someone like Bruce Campbell, Kurt Russell, Patrick Swayze (he was alive in 2004), Sean Patrick Flannery, Christian Bale, or Aaron Eckhart as a PI or bad-ass vampire hunter. Jessica Biel is hot, but she fails in this role. She has nothing to do, and is just eye-candy for the audience. Dominic Purcell as Drake (Dracula) is a pretty-boy moron, he's not threatening (unless in ancient demon form) and nowhere near as cool as Deacon Frost or as threatening as Jared Nomak. Parker Posey is a great actress, so it's sad to see her in an annoying, and bitchy role (Danica Talos). Callum Keith Rennie as Asher Talos, who is a bland henchmen, and looks like Daniel Craig. Triple H is entertaining as the bumbling muscle of the villains, Grimwood. The villains are just comic relief, with little vampire puppies. The comedy is added by the language in the film. I'm not a moral crusader, but there is way too much swearing in this movie. I'm paraphrasing here, but basically, in the words of Mathew Buck of Internet series "Projector": "Swearing is a garnish, it's used sparingly for maximum effect in a statement, it's not effective if over-used." I can't agree more, not only is it not effective, it can come off as comedic. Kris Kristofferson is used so little it's insulting. The special effects are below-par, cheap, and there are no interesting vampire designs (unlike the second film), they're just people with fangs. The action is bland and boring, and the run-time is a bit shorter than the other two films, but feels way shorter. The plot feels too fast-paced, and boring, where the other two were well-paced and felt like the perfect length, and the plots were interesting. Skip this piece of shit. 2/5.
Here's a mini-review of Blade:The Series: Good action, some mediocre acting, Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones is good, but nowhere near as cool as Wesley Snipes, good effects, canceled because Spike TV, being new at the time, couldn't afford the cost of the special effects and large action set-pieces. 3/5 stars.
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