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After the events with Deacon Frost, Blade continues to destroy as many vampires as he can. Reapers, a new breed of super-vampire that feed off humans and vampires, emerge with plans for world domination and Blade must team with the Bloodpack, an elite team of vampire warriors specifically trained to hunt him, in order to defeat this new menace.
No one seems to be having much fun, with the possible exception of Kris Kristofferson, who is back as Blade's venerable human sidekick, Whistler. The film finds few variations on the themes of run, kick, chomp and gulp.
Del Toro's aim is brutally simple: to give your adrenalin glands a bootcamp work-out. Granted, the spin-dry visuals and hectic tempo mean the style is the content -- but what style, what energy and what a bloody great sequel.
Del Toro is a stylish horrormeister, and he has created an evocative, foreboding atmosphere. But only a fan of this kind of mayhem could find a way into the story. And only a critic, sworn to serve, could stick it out to the end.
The original Blade movie was a chilling, gory vampire story, energetic and stylish -- all in all, a bloodthirsty success. The second one's chaotic and dumb and almost completely without thrills.
In the inventive fight scenes, [Blade's] sword clangs, and there are sluicing sounds when it finds its target, all in keeping with the unapologetic bang! blam! pop! comic-book spin director Guillermo Del Toro brings to the film.
Blade II is a better vampire movie than recent entries such as Queen of the Damned or Dracula 2000. That said, Wesley Snipes' return as slayer of the undead still is fairly anemic.
It's a fabulous-looking package, elegantly orchestrated by del Toro, who has an unerring eye for undead iconography, which he takes to visually imaginative extremes.
Blade II is certainly not without interest... But mostly, it looks and feels so much like a video game that some members of the audience will feel their thumbs twitching before the final reel.
There's no script to speak of, but del Toro devises every battle to wow even the most jaded martial-arts mavens; the dissolutions and implosions are beautiful.