Blade II (2002) Review: Del Toro Sharpens the Fangs

Is Blade II worth watching?

Mostly yes. Blade II is a gleefully gruesome vampire action film that works best as a Guillermo del Toro creature feature, with monster designs and gothic atmosphere far richer than the franchise needed. Wesley Snipes remains an imposing, stone-faced action lead, and the premise of forcing Blade to team up with the vampires he hunts gives the story an enjoyable spikiness. The reservations are paper-thin characters, macho dialogue, and early-2000s digital effects that have aged badly in some of the biggest fights.

What is Blade II about?

Blade II brings back Blade (Wesley Snipes), the half-human, half-vampire warrior who hunts the undead, along with his gruff mentor and armourer Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) and a new young technician, Scud (Norman Reedus).

A new threat has appeared: the Reapers, a mutated strain of vampire that feeds on vampires as well as humans and spreads its infection with every bite. The vampire nation is so frightened that its ruler, Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann), proposes a truce and sends his daughter, Nyssa (Leonor Varela), to recruit Blade. He is forced to lead the Bloodpack, an elite squad of vampire warriors originally trained to kill him, including the brutish Reinhardt (Ron Perlman) and the silent Snowman (Donnie Yen), on a hunt through the city’s underworld. Luke Goss plays Nomak, the first of the Reapers.

Del Toro directs an American production in English, and it runs 117 minutes.

Del Toro’s monsters steal the film

The Reapers are the film’s triumph. Pale, hairless and hungry, they hide a horrifying secret in their faces: jaws that split open to reveal a mouth like something from a biology textbook. Del Toro, who would go on to become one of cinema’s great monster-makers, designs them with real anatomical imagination, and a sequence in which the heroes examine one on an autopsy table is as fascinating as it is disgusting.

He also gives the film a darker, grimier texture than its predecessor. Sewers, rain-slicked alleys, vampire nightclubs and gothic chambers are lit in sickly greens and blood reds, and the whole thing feels closer to horror than to the average superhero film of its era. Nomak, played by Luke Goss with a haunted sadness, is a more interesting antagonist than the usual comic-book villain.

An uneasy alliance with plenty of bite

The team-up premise pays off. Blade’s distrust of his new allies gives the story tension, and the Bloodpack is a colourful gang of bruisers whose loyalty is always in doubt. Ron Perlman is a highlight as the sneering Reinhardt, and his running feud with Blade supplies much of the film’s dark humour.

The action mixes martial arts, gunfire and swordplay, and the best fights have real snap. Donnie Yen, who also worked on the film’s fight choreography, gets only brief moments as Snowman, but they are among the film’s most fluid. Snipes moves with a dancer’s control and a total lack of expression that is somehow always entertaining.

Where it shows its age

The film’s biggest weakness is its reliance on digital doubles in several major fights. Characters suddenly turn into rubbery computer-generated figures that bounce and fly unnaturally, and those moments look far worse today than the practical makeup work around them. The script is also thin: characters are types, the dialogue leans heavily on tough-guy posturing, and the plot’s twists are easy to see coming. Leonor Varela’s Nyssa is the only character given much of an inner life.

Who should watch Blade II?

It is for fans of horror-action hybrids, creature features and comic-book films from before the modern superhero era, and for anyone interested in del Toro’s early work. At just under two hours, it is a brisk watch. The violence is extremely gory, with lots of blood and body horror, and the language is strong, so it is strictly for adults.

For more monsters in the dark:

• Aliens, the model for any story about a squad of hard cases hunting monsters in the dark.
• The Shape of Water, del Toro’s later creature feature, which trades gore for romance but shares his love of monsters.

The verdict

Blade II is a gory, stylish vampire film that gets a big lift from Guillermo del Toro’s imagination, especially in its unforgettable Reapers. Its characters are thin and some effects have dated badly, but as a fast, nasty genre ride it still bites.

Rating: 3.5/5