Blade II (2002)

Blade II (2002)

Release Date: March 22, 2002

Today, we will be looking at our first sequel, Blade II. “But wait!” I hear you say, “Haven’t you only just done Blade 1?” That is true, but that is because I am covering these films in release order, and there happens to be only one film between Blade 1 and Blade II. There will be a bit more of a gap between this one and Blade 3. After the success of the original Blade film in 1998, a sequel soon became expected. The first film’s director, Stephen Norrington, declined to return for the sequel, so the position was filled by Guillermo del Toro, he of Pan’s Labyrinth and Pacific Rim fame.

Two years have passed since the events of the first film, and in that time, Blade has learned that Whistler did not die when he shot himself in the first film, instead turning into a vampire. Blade finds him and cures him of his vampirism. The next day, Whistler is introduced to Blade’s new sidekick, an obnoxious stoner named Scud who smokes marijuana and watches the Powerpuff Girls while he works. At least he makes up for it by being a funny obnoxious stoner and having good taste in cartoons. Whistler gets along with his replacement about as well as you’d expect, but before things come to blows, a pair of ninja vampires break into the hideout to announce a truce with Eli Damaskinos, current leader of the vampires, who is not at all secretly evil in any way, no siree bob.

I mean, just look at how not evil he is!

Blade and co. visit Damaskinos, who tells them that a new breed of vampire has risen: the Reapers, vampires who feed on other vampires, turning them into Reapers. Damaskinos has been training a group of vampire assassins called the Blood Pack to defeat Blade, but the Reaper crisis has led him to propose a truce, asking Blade to be the leader of the Blood Pack and defeat the Reapers. Blade reluctantly accepts, and decides to stick a bomb to the head of one of the members, Rheinhardt, as leverage. Life lesson for any readers out there, sticking bombs to peoples’ heads is not a good way of making friends, unless you’re a terrorist.

The team go to look for the Reapers at a vampire rave. (What is it with vampires and raves? It’s a wonder that they get around to threatening the fate of the world when they spend so much time being party animals.) There, they meet several Reapers and the original Reaper, Jared Nomak. The Reapers wipe the floor with the Blood Pack, thanks to their superior evolution making them immune to silver and garlic. Not even Blade’s exploding blood needles work, since that power-up is so last season, darling. In the battle, two members of the Blood Pack are bitten, but they do manage to defeat a few Reapers, since their weakness to bright light remains. Whistler wandered off instead of helping, but he is able to find the Reapers’ hideout, complete with Reaper who got stuck in the tunnel and starved to death, so he is forgiven.

The gang go back to base to prepare for their next mission, which will take place the next day. One of the Blood Pack members, Nyssa, performs an autopsy on the dead Reaper and discovers that their hearts are encased in bone, meaning that it can only be pierced from the side. Whistler and Scud bond over the creation of UV light grenades, while everyone else tools up. In the tunnels, the rest of the Blood Pack are all killed, with the exception of Nyssa and Rheinhardt, but Blade is able to detonate a box full of UV grenades, wiping out all of the Reapers, except for Novak, who was able to escape. Their success is short-lived however, as an army of soldiers with tasers, led by Damaskinos’ slimy lawyer, are waiting for our heroes, ready to capture them.

When Blade and pals come to, Damaskinos reveals that he and the Blood Pack really were evil after all! He explains that he wanted to make super vampires that had none of the traditional vampire weaknesses, so he experimented on his son Novak, giving him immunity to silver and garlic. Crucially, bright light still affects him. As Meatloaf once sang, two out of three ain’t bad, but that wasn’t good enough for Damaskinos, so he decided to get Blade’s blood and figure out a way to get his immunity to sunlight from that. Novak is naturally a bit miffed to find out that his dad considers him a failed experiment, while Damaskinos’ daughter Nyssa is alienated by his evil monologue and defects to Blade’s side, for realsies this time, not just as the token good teammate of the Blood Pack. She stops Damaskinos’ escape, giving Novak the chance to chow down on him, but Novak is hungry for seconds and bites her too. Meanwhile, Scud reveals that he was a mole for Damaskinos all along, so Blade blows him up with the bomb on Rheinhardt’s head, and cuts Rheinhardt in half vertically. Poor Whistler is saddened at the betrayal of his new friend, so he takes out his grief on the lawyer, shooting him dead. Blade then catches up with Novak and is able to stab Novak in the side. A depressed Novak decides that he’s sick of life and pushes the blade in further, piercing his heart. After Novak’s death, Nyssa asks Blade to kill her before she turns into a Reaper, so he carries her outside as the sun rises. Whistler lets the two have some alone time, since it gives him time to do his own grieving- lighting a joint and settling down to a Powerpuff Girls marathon.

The action scenes in Blade II have improved since the original. The characters are more acrobatic while fighting, and the action seems to be slightly faster paced. Blade also takes regular opportunities to strike a cool pose, particularly when he tosses something. This film having a different director from the original provides a slightly different tone from the original, but it is still recognisable as a follow up. Del Toro commented at the time that Japanese animation was an inspiration for him, so it is likely that the faster-paced action and greater use of movement in combat can be attributed to achieving this feel, which works pretty well.

The Reapers are quite different to the vampires from the first film. The reapers are anorexic, agile creatures, who can climb on walls and jump large distances. Whereas the scenes of vampires feeding in the first film seemed to have a sexual connotation, this time vampirism is portrayed as like a drug addiction. The drug connotation is made more explicit than the sexual connotations of the first film, with the Reapers even being described as like crack addicts at one point.

There is a cut along the Reapers’ chins which allows their mouths to split open along the sides while another mouth comes out and gives their victim a faceful of disgusting vampire mouthface, a design feature reminiscent of the monsters in the Alien franchise and The Thing. The scene in the Reaper Lair also pays homage to Aliens in the tone and atmosphere it creates, which makes it quite an effective scene. The special effects have also improved since the first film. The vampire disintegration effects have been touched up slightly so that they look more like the vampires are burning, and the horrible Reaper mouths look nauseating, as they should.

“Give us a kiss, love!”

In all, Blade II is better than the original. It’s faster paced in both action and storyline, the fight scenes are more exciting to watch and the villains pose more of a threat this time. This one is recommended for those with a strong stomach.

Next Time: Marvel’s most iconic hero swings into action.

Bonus: The opening sequence for The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror XXIV was directed by Guillermo del Toro and featured references to a number of his films, with Blade II being no exception. Look out for Reaper Homer and Carl dressed as Blade.