Blade II

Blade II

First, the comic.

Blade is half-vampire. His mother was bitten while he was in utero. Being half-vampire he has superhuman strength, agility and healing, like a vampire. Being half-human, he can go out in the sun, eat garlic, look on crosses, enter without permission.... the point being that he has none of the weaknesses of vampires, except the thirst for blood.

In classic self loather style, he decides to kill all the vampires, because.....well, they are vampires.

So, he gets a mentor/weapon smith by the name of Whistler, who whips up a serum to help him fight the thirst. He gets to to be the urban Van Helsing, complete with a fade hair cut, swords, a bandoleer of stakes, and a trench coat.

The problem with Blade in the greater Marvel Universe is that unless it's vampires, there is no reason for him to be there. He's kind of limited. He tends to stick around other 'evil hunters', like Ghost Rider, Brother Voodoo, and Doctor Strange. He is a C list hero. Which is maybe why Marvel took a chance with him on film. What can they lose?

There has never been a definitive Blade story, so my rating for the comic is based on his accumulated history

10/20

The Movie

Oh, Guillermo del Toro. You did something cool here. Following the not bad/not great first movie, del Toro focused on the horror aspect of the vampires. These were not only the brooding, pale vampires of the original film, but animistic bloodsuckers more akin to crackheads than to lofty immortals.

The plot is almost cookie cutter in its sequel formula. Movie 1: Beat the big bad. Movie 2: Join forces with the previous big bad to fight the thing that wants to kill you both.

In this film, it's the Reavers. Mutated vampires that attack humans and vampires both.

Thanks to del Toro's history with practical effects, the monsters look wet and realistic.

Snipes doesn't have to have a lot of dialogue. He can keep his sunglasses on all the time and try to be bad ass.

Stealing the show is Ron Perlman as a member of the Bloodpack, a group of vampire special forces that had been training, until the threat of the Reavers, to track down Blade. You can guess how that worked out.

The sequel is a greater movie than the first. While it contains a shift in style, it is a shift for the better. Solid performances from Kris Kristopherson, Perlman and even big bad Luke Goss.

del Toro ended up using Perlman for the title role of Hellboy and even used Goss as the big bad in Hellboy II. (Both recommended)

14/20