What's new

*** Official "BLADE 2" Review Thread (1 Viewer)

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
Moderator
Patron
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 1998
Messages
67,604
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Robert
This thread is now the Official Review Thread for Blade 2. Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.
Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!
If you need to discuss those type of issues, please post your discussion comments in the Official Discussion Thread.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Crawdaddy
 

Aryn Leroux

Screenwriter
Joined
Aug 19, 2001
Messages
1,514
This was God Aweful of a film. I enjoyed the first one and will admit alot of the effects are well done in the sequel if they don't surpass the original alltogether. But please there was not one original idea in the whole movie. Cliche after Cliche. And when we had fighting scenes with the Reaper (very original name)completely meaningless/useless. i don't wanna give away any spoilers but c'mon have some real fighting where we as an audience give a damn. This project serves the purpose to keep wesley snipes career afloat for abit longer thats about it. Huge Disapointment.
 

L. Anton Dencklau

Second Unit
Joined
Mar 23, 2000
Messages
250
I will try to avoid giving away any spoilers but just in case...
[c]SPOILERS FOLLOWING[/c]
Blade 2 is a movie that follows the tried and true formula of every sequel genre movie. That is to say make everything bigger and just plain _More_.
Makeup FX, CGI, camera opticals, quasi-"bullet-time" FX, wire stunts, martial arts, speedups and and slowdowns, bizarre costumes, cavernous and claustrophpbic sets... this movie is a giant stew of stuff. Its hard to really say if there is a plot. "Whistler" from the original Blade is resurrected in typical comic book fashion and takes a few moments in between blade's bass-filled punching of bad guys to show off some new gadgets (co-developed by a new sidekick). Ron Perlman drops in to play a riff on his Alien:Resurrection character. And that's pretty much it. Bad guys come, Blade beats them down, repeat.
I would think that fans of the first one will appreciate it, and gorehounds will find more to like here than in Resident Evil. I think it will be intersting to see if debates about which movie to see (RE VS. Blade) break out at the box office.
 

Raul_H

Grip
Joined
Jul 13, 2001
Messages
20
So I went ot see Blade II this afternoon and I honestly came away unimpressed. Funny thing is though that I am still trying to figure out why that is.

Maybe it was the ugly looking CGI that was used. Particularly the first fight in front of the large lights with the two bloodpack members. The fight was going so well until they decided to use that CGI. That looked horrible in my opinion. Like a badly done video game fight.

Or maybe how they totally wasted Donnie Yuen in this film. Why did they put such a gifted martial artist in the film and then hardly even use him? I mean we didn't even get to see the guy die for goodness sakes "LoL". One minute he is alive and the next that lighthammer guy is eating him.

The story seemed lacking as well. It was pretty coherant but it just seemed kinda weak overall. I enjoyed the parts where we got to see into the Vampire underworld and how they've adapted because of Blade but whenever the Reavers came on the film just plain bored me.

It seemed like all the interesting characters were on the "good guys" side. I think a film of Blade going at it against the bloodpack woulda been cooler. Except minus all those ridiculous WWF wrestling B.S. moves Blade started pulling near the end.

Soo overall I thought the film was ok. Not as grandiose as I was lead to believe by some of the online reviews I've been reading. Maybe I've just seen way too many HK Martial Arts/Action films "LoL".

I guess the reason I enjoyed the first film more was because at the time of its release there wasn't too many American Action films attempting to recreate that HK Action style. Or maybe it was because it had those cool japanese girls rapping in school girl outfits.
 

Phil Florian

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 10, 2001
Messages
1,188
Just a note on Donnie's use...I agree, I wanted to see more of him, but in a way, we do. He did the choreography for the fight scenes and, CGI fighting aside, it was quite good. Glad to see him on the Western film frontier.

Phil
 

Alex Spindler

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2000
Messages
3,971
I saw it, and thought that it was okay, although not nearly the complete package that the first one had.
The movie opens with a real bang to be sure, with some extremely promising action and what appears to be a very strong visual style. Unfortunately, that level of intensity is only approached at the very end of the movie, which has a very brutal physical conflict (and some strange wrestling influences).
The characters in the film range from good to poor. On the good side of things, we have most of the members of the Blood Pact, sort of a motley anti-Blade squad. Of them, Ron Perlman is given the most character to work with, and he makes the most out of it. On the other end of the spectrum is the new Scud character, who is a complete waste of time. Not only is he a fifth wheel in every scene he is in, but he provides practically nothing to the story.
On the story, the basic concept has some promise, but it gets promptly dropped later in the film. I mean, the concept of Blade allying with his enemies against a new threat has a lot of promise, some of which is explored in the film. Unfortunately, it becomes obvious that they don't have much of an idea on how to explore the premise and the film loses a lot of steam. Then the film veers back to a very uninteresting alternative plot.
The special effects are certainly enhanced in this film, and many of the fight scenes are enhanced with computer effects, mostly to good effect. This gives the fights a completely different feel from the first film, although I liked the style used in the first film a lot better.
Overall, the movie wasn't bad. The audience was certainly enjoying it. But this is not near the film the first was, and shows it's sequel trappings all too often. The movie could have used a more focused plot and be more well paced to keep the flow better. As it stands, I would rate it as :star: :star:
The movie is also full of plotholes, but I don't think it is fair to knock it because of them.
 

Jay W

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 5, 1999
Messages
551
Saw this tonight, and though as someone mentioned it didn't have the humanity of the first it was quite the spectacle. Aside from that fight at the start with the two people (those who've seen it will know what I'm talking about), I enjoyed the fight scenes and effects (that particular one was terrible mind you).
Lots of style, cheesy scenes / lines and a great night's entertainment. I was going back and forth between a 3 or a 3.5 for this, but given that I enjoyed this right through I was a little generous :), unlike Resident Evil (which wasn't too bad either) it was interesting right throughout and didn't take itself too seriously - Del Toro seems to strike a decent balance here.
***1/2 (out of 4)
 

Patrick Sun

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1999
Messages
39,660
I have to admit, I was literally LOL when the climatic battle took place. It was a WWF-like performance all the way. Blade got in a few good lines, and so did Whistler. The actress playing Nyssa (Leonor Varela) was awful, I was amazed by her lack of acting skills in many scenes. Ron Perlman did what he could with what he was given (which wasn't much).

The fight scenes varies from really entertaining to downright embarrassing (CGI-enhanced did very little enhancing and proved more distracting). The story seemed to truly miss some meat on the bones, and it weakened the movie. The comedic bit of humor were funny, and some of other CGI effects were grisly and gruesome (kudos on that front).

If you're an action junkie, you'll get your money's worth. Otherwise, you most likely be disappointed in the superficial screenplay and plot.

I give it 2.5 stars or a grade of C+/B-.
 

TerryRL

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2001
Messages
3,977
I thought it was mindless fun. Was it great? By no means, but it was a cool movie. The acting was laughable in some scenes, but there were some kickass action sequences.

Overall, I thought it was a fun flick and I do plan on getting the DVD.
 

Chris Harvey

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 30, 2001
Messages
267
I really dug it, moreso than BLADE I (guess I'm in the minority here). Although the CG stunt-doubles were readily obvious, it didn't matter much to me -- I loved how they completely defied reality with a lot of the moves, and realy showed stuff I'd never seen before. It seemed like a comic book panel come to life.

Loved a lot of the DARK CITY/NOSFERATU stylistic choices as well.
 

Luc D

Second Unit
Joined
Apr 29, 2000
Messages
301
For someone who LOVED the first film I thought this was a big disappointment. It's remarkable how boring and it actually is. For a film that goes on for almost 2 hours it feels like absolutely nothing happens. Every character, including Blade, look like they have nothing to do besides wait for the next fight to break out. Each moment between the principle characters feel forced and lack any kind of urgency or real conflict. The same goes for the dialogue. It's not that it's bad (I mean of course it's bad, but you expect it), it's boring! The dialogue in the first one wasn't good, but at least it kept you somewhat interested between the fight scenes.
For all the hype this film had in terms of Del Toro's involvement I thought Norrington did a much better job with the first one. Blade II is ugly, noisy, and panders in the worst way to get you involved in the fight scenes by using atrocious CG, incomprehensible editing cued by shit spinning around and flying all over the place. Personally I found the style with which the fights were shot to be aggravating and so over the top that it becomes almost impossible to lose yourself in the film. Blade 1 had a kind of B-movie elegance to it. It took itself seriously just enough to keep you from losing interest. At least you could tell what was going on during the action.
Big thumbs down from me. :thumbsdown:
 

Scott Weinberg

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2000
Messages
7,477
Blade 2 - :star::star::star: (out of :star::star::star::star::star: )
"If you liked the first one, odds are you'll have a ball with Part 2." You'll hear this analysis rather often where several sequels are concerned, but it's never been more true than in the case of Blade 2. More of a less plot-heavy remake than an actual story continuation, Blade 2 is not interested in anything beyond quick-cut, flashy action sequences and CGI bloodletting. And to the millions adored the original film...there's nothing wrong with that.
One would be somewhat insane to expect something of cinematic substance from a movie called Blade 2, but while this sequel features more than its share of exciting action scenes and deliriously creepy gory bits - it's woefully lacking in the narrative department. Blade 2 is all premise and no plot, which makes the numerous scenes that occur in between the action sequences the pinnacle of all things tiresome.
But why carp about the dialogue and plot exposition of a comic book/horror sequel that's meant as nothing more than a slick and slimy gorefest? Fans of Blade will undoubtedly appreciate the further adventures of the tortured vampire hunter and this sequel's gleeful reliance on gross-out carnage may win over a few new fans of its own.
If the original Blade displayed a slight over-reliance on bloated backstory, the sequel goes completely in the opposite direction; Blade 2 has virtually no plot whatsoever. The movie is a barely-connected series of sleek, bloody and kinetic action sequences. Given the sheer lack of anything else substantial, it's a damn good thing the fight scenes are really freakin' entertaining.
As is often the case in genre sequels, the plot can be described in one sentence: Blade is reluctantly forced to team up with a squadron of vampire commandoes in an effort to thwart the wholly disgusting Reapers. Since these new creatures love nothing more than to snack daily on vampire blood, it's logical that the undead feel the need to defend themselves. Blade steps in because after all the vampires are gone, humans will undoubtedly be next on the buffet.
While the concept of a 'vampire squadron' would seemingly lend itself well to a sort of 'undead Dirty Dozen' vibe, none of the supporting characters are fleshed out or made the least bit interesting. A series of admittedly exciting vampire attacks manages to whittle down the number of undead commandos, thereby setting the stage for a big Blade vs. Boss Reaper death-match.
Wesley Snipes returns to the role as Blade, and he's required to do nothing more than sneer, slice and kung-fu chop to his heart's content. Given Snipes' relatively meager acting chops, it's no wonder he enjoys playing the rather dimensionless hero. Kris Kristofferson returns to the thankless sidekick role as Whistler for no logical reason - other than he was in the original. Ron Perlman has some fun as the most outspoken member of the vampire squad, while Leonor Varela is stone-cold wooden as Blade's potential undead love interest.
Guillermo del Toro (Mimic) takes over directorial duties from Stephen Norrington (Death Machine) and the transition is (for the most part) a successful one. While the original Blade seemed notably more sleek and shiny, the sequel is a decidedly darker affair, with most of the action taking place in dark hallways and drippy sewers. Much like the original, Blade 2 benefits greatly from a cranium-pounding techno-rock score which lends the comic-book carnage a frenzied and rousing pulse.
On the whole, Blade 2 is a tough movie to knock because it does manage to deliver the goods, particularly for fans of bloody cinematic mayhem. Some movies coast along solely on the strength of their "good parts" and Blade 2 certainly fits that classification. The film has a laundry list of minor shortcomings, but the numerous scenes of gory mayhem are worth the price of admission...if "gory mayhem" is your idea of a good time.
 

Josh_Hill

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 6, 2002
Messages
1,049
I for one liked this flick. I am a big fan of the original and was looking forward to this one with great anticipation. I believe it was beautifull designed, the sets were great, and the F/X was damn good. The fight scenes were very well choreographed. The acting was rather good. I really dont see much of a problem with it. Oh yeah, and Wesley Snipes is just Badass as Blade!! :)
:star: :star: :star: 1/2
 

David Oliver

Second Unit
Joined
Apr 12, 1999
Messages
327
Well someone mentioned if you liked Blade, you will love Blade II. I would add this caveat, if what you liked about didn't include subtlety, character development, sexiness and style, then I agree. {i]Blade II[/i] is simply a very shallow excuse of a movie to be bloody and violent, quite often in what I would consider a gratuitous way (yes, gratuitous bloddiness in a vampire movie). The whole plot, in my mind, is simply ridiculous. As others have mentioned a lot of the CGI was absolutley horrible, so bad I was questioning if it was even CGI, it looked more like animated cells.

And let me count the similarities:

1) Dance club scene where Vampires hang out and dance and do other things. Done much much much better in the original.

2) Blade having to comfort someone he cares for as they are about to die.

3) Blade put into some sort of torture device that is supposed to drain his blood.

and so on. This movie stinks.
 

Kirk Tsai

Screenwriter
Joined
Nov 1, 2000
Messages
1,424
Just to go against what was said previously in this thread, I didn't like the first Blade that much, but I sure had a great time at Blade II.

One element that I think not enough people have touched upon in reviewing this movie is that the filmmakers know they're making a B-movie. It's violent, gory, sexy, ridiculous, laughable, and it's glorious. The movie has tremendous self-awareness; it doesn't give you some low blow comedy like The Mummy series does, but it just flat out lays it all out--this is campiness at its best. Take, for example, another genre bending, martial arts galore fantasy, Brotherhood of the Wolf. When watching "Brotherhood," I was constantly on the border of bursting into laughter because of the tremendous pretentiousness it has. Every slow motion is given seriousness; in Blade 2, I always had a smile on, because this movie knows it's silly, so it's free to do anything that is purely for the sake of coolness.

Excessive CG, sometimes terrible CG, MTV style cuts (which are done rather well considering how short each shot is), the melodrama, as well as gratuitous shots and cinematography all give this movie more energy than all the B-movies-with-big-budget last summer combined. It uses its ridiculous actions scenes to push this movie into a pure fantasy realm--this is a great video game movie, even though it's not even based on one. The movie has tremendous atmosphere; one set inside the vampire headquarter is particularly interesting both in terms of visual and scenario. It has a few scares, but it generally does not try to shock the audience. Instead, it's a constant creepiness that we're no quite sure of. Wesley Snipes, like in the first movie, looks great. Besides Christopher Reeves, is there a better translated looking comic hero on screen? And lastly--I don't think del Toro would want us to overlook it--this movie has many moments that are indeed of pure coolness. Normally coolness for coolness sake is worthless, but sometimes it is irresistable.

A great B-movie, and that's actually saying something these days.
 

William DAnnucci

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 7, 2001
Messages
55
First off, I avoided BLADE when it first came to theaters a few years back. I'm a full-blooded Guillermo Del Toro fan and my horror movie dollar went to MIMIC at the time (I still think it's underrated). When I heard he was doing BLADE II, I was disappointed but got more and more curious as I heard what they were developing. I caught the original BLADE on DVD a month or so ago and felt it was a mixed bag at best. I enjoyed some of the action sequences, visuals and concepts. But I felt the movie needed to take far too much time screaming exposition at me with truly awful dialogue (constant profanity does not make a writer David Mamet or give your film a hip edge). I also found the villains seriously lacking, wishing that Udo Kier had dispatched with them to bring some Euro-cool to all this LA noise. So, BLADE fans, I had some fun with some of the sequences, but I just couldn't get into it.

Last night I saw BLADE II in the packed Loews Astor Plaza 70mm theater in Times Square.

Wow! I had such a great time!

Yes, the dialogue, characters, and plot are still generally awful. But this one really cranks up the fun factor. It's a mean machine, hitting you hard with tons of kung-fu fights, horror sequences, and special effects. This time, the main threat is genuinely scary. We get real monsters here, folks. I won't spoil it for you, but it was a treat to hear a whole audience genuinely freak out when the monsters attacked.

A lot of credit should go to Donnie Yen (IRON MONKEY, ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA 2), who choreographed the wonderful fight scenes. These fights keep coming and coming, like out of some kind of macabre MGM musical. Yen also has a nice supporting role (I wouldn't call it a character), but he leaves way too soon.

Del Toro wisely got Carol Spier to do his production design. She has been working with Cronenberg for years and did Del Toro's MIMIC. Her work here is wonderful. Where the first BLADE was very slick and Los Angeles in tone, this one is dark, murky, scary, and very much reflecting the setting in Prague.

I think the advantages here were the director and the fact that he was not saddled with explaining all the exposition of the Blade mythology. Make no mistake. This film is as deep as a dime. Del Toro did not set out to make another thoughtful moody classic like THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE. Is this a step down, a sell out? Well, I don't really think so. He intended to give us a popcorn flick, and a damn fun one. He overwhelms us with some of the best horror and action sequences in quite some time, so we barely have time to think about how shallow it all is.

If this is for you, check your brains in at the ticket counter and have a blast.

Hell, I was even a little moved at the end. I didn't see that coming!

-Bill
 

Najib_H

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 31, 2002
Messages
77
I saw Blade 2 last night and i don't know if everyone saw the same movie as I did. I loved the movie. I thought it was great. Everyone in the theater was getting in the movie and was clapping at the end of the film. I think people who did not like it are just nit picking it to much, and little things to. Yes the CGI looked fake but over all it was entertaining and thats what counts. Star wars was no good as a story but I still loved it. The story was entertaining. I think you people are being a little to harsh, watch it and enjoy it.

Najib_H
 

Todd H

Go Dawgs!
Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 27, 1999
Messages
2,269
Location
Georgia
Real Name
Todd
My brother and I saw Blade 2 today (the women didn't want to see a "karate" movie as they called it). It delivered everything I expected and then some. Del Toro managed to mix comics, kung-fu, and horror into one hyperactive thrill ride. Was it perfect? Of course not. But this isn't supposed to be Citizen Cane. It's supposed to be a hokey B-movie about vampires. And on that level it works. All I can say is bring on Blade 3!
 

Raymond Johnson

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 22, 2002
Messages
62
I saw this tonight & thought it was pretty dam awsome!
I wasn't expecting much & the pre-credit sequence had me wondering just what to expect & for a moment thought i was in for a really disapointing sequel & then slowly durring the first fight sequece i felt i was right,just was'nt into it(yet).....and then soon was getting pumped uo & just blown away by the film!
Sure the CGI was bad & note to Hollywood....please use REAl prothetics for standard bodily mayhem..it's much more effective & looks much better...while this film it looked on the amautrishly cartoonish side.
Still the movie did deliver...it & was just a wild,over the top B movie fun...& very violent & gruesome as well to my suprise since most R rated movies have gotten tamer now,but this one truly feels like a 'real' R rated film. Now if only the MPAA would loosen up some,then we'd have more rightfully R rated films again & i don't mean for violence either..but nudity & language as well which seem to get NC-17's easily today for the tiniest amount & mostly non-sexual/suggestive to boot!
The humor was right on,very fun...even though it seemed like it took itself more seriously than the first(which i have'nt seen in awhile)....it did have alot of in your face attitude which made me laugh at the pure macho BS of it all...& i think that was part of the plan...go all out & be as ridculousas possible & have some fun with it which i did:)
I loved the ending as well!
Now if only Jason X can live up to what the trailer promises..a wild over the top camp fest.
 

Marty Lockstead

Second Unit
Joined
Mar 4, 2002
Messages
275
Just saw it on Friday night and enjoyed it, though not as much as the originol film. First off I'll mention my problems with it: I agree with the fact that they used a little too much CGI in certain scenes, the villains weren't quite as entertaining as Frost or Quinn, I didn't like the score as much as the great songs in the originol, and, although it's a minor point, it bothered me that the film is presented in 1:85 not 2:40 to 1. The action scenes seemed really "claustrophobic" at times. Now to the good points, I like that fact that Blade was forced to team up with his enemy's in order to battle other vamps, the "bad guy" vamps were alot more tough than regular "suck-heads", it had a surprisingly good sense of humour at the right times, the filmakers didn't even really try to beat the "blood bath" opening sequence in this one, and last but not least, dislike it if you will, but it was alot better the "QUEEN OF THE DAMNED"!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,814
Messages
5,123,666
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top