"Blade II" opens with fire and fangs. I'd not seen
"Blade," though I recall wanting to see it. Knowing
little else about the sequel other than it was a
Wesley Snipes action flick ... I strolled into the
screening. Well, there's certainly no shortage of
violent combat, mutant death, and computer-assisted
flips and twists.
Blade is half human, half vampire (I didn't know
that). He still has the craving for blood, but
injects a serum to keep him civilized, though his
work schedule has, but one task: kill a whole lot of vampires.
Anyway, there's a bit more plot, like the vamps
inviting him (the enemy) into their lair in order to
fight a "common enemy" which is some horrible
tough-to-kill mutant that eats both humans and vamps.
But, the scheming is only an excuse to give Blade and
others a different reason to kill and that's
perfectly fine because it's pretty cool to watch the
action. There's almost a moment there where Blade
contemplates his condition along with a pretty little
vamp ... but it's fleeting.
Nicely done: Bullfighting motorcycles, Blade
indulges in an aerial double back flip (which the
camera miraculously 360's over and under) landing on
the back of the motorbike, slicing its bloodsucking
driver with a silver blade then reaching through the
carbon burnt remains to the handlebars. Yet another
sweetly choreographed and set bout swings into the
film via ceiling rafters. Infer-red-eyed vamps flip
and trapeze "Cirque du
Soleil" style into the Blade-Cave and spar
with him in front of a wall of lights. Very sweet and
artfully produced.
The mutants have jaws that split at the chin,
cheekbones flapping to the sides like batwings, a
fleshy second mouth reaches out to bite the victim.
The biology of that design and realization on screen
are both excellent. And in fact, the sliced-up,
burning-carbon-ember, dropping-bone method in which
the vamps die - that's pretty darned cool too.
But, an hour and a half of slashing gets to be a
bit much (I was exhausted after the film). Nothing to
write home about in the in-betweens, the structure
and emotive arc of the film play a bit discontinuous.
And Blade's entire dialogue could be consolidated to
a single paragraph (though Whistler had a few good
lines). Still, if you love carnage, gooey flesh, and
dead vamps ... you'll have a fine time.
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