Blade II

Blade II is a 2002 American superhero horror film based on the fictional character Blade from Marvel Comics, directed by Guillermo Del Toro and written by David S. Goyer. It is a sequel to the first film and the second part of the Blade film series, followed by Blade: Trinity.

Blade II
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGuillermo del Toro
Produced by
Written byDavid S. Goyer
Based on
Starring
Music byMarco Beltrami
CinematographyGabriel Beristain
Edited byPeter Amundson
Production
company
  • Marvel Enterprises
  • Amen Ra Films
  • Imaginary Forces
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • March 22, 2002 (2002-03-22)
Running time
117 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$54 million[2]
Box office$155 million[2]

The film follows the human-vampire hybrid Blade in his continuing effort to protect humans from vampires, finding himself in a fierce battle against a group of mutant vampires who seek to commit global genocide of both vampire and human races. Blade and his human allies are coerced into joining forces with a special elite group of vampires.

Blade II was released on March 22, 2002 and was a box office success, grossing over $155 million. It received mixed reviews from critics, earning praise for its performances, atmosphere, direction, and action sequences, although its script and lack of character development have been criticized.

Plot

Blade searches Prague for his mentor Abraham Whistler, who was thought to have died after being attacked by Deacon Frost but was instead turned into a vampire. Blade rescues Whistler and cures him using an accelerated retro-viral serum, as his transformation was still incomplete. Whistler meets Scud, Blade's new weapons and vehicle technician.

A pandemic known as the "Reaper virus," is turning vampires into "Reapers", stronger and harder to kill than common vampires, almost invulnerable to any weapon with the exception of sunlight. They have a ravenous hunger, requiring more feeding than vampires, and anyone they bite, Human or Vampire, becomes a Reaper. In order to combat the mutants, vampire overlord Eli Damaskinos sends his minion, Asad, and daughter Nyssa to find and strike a truce with Blade, who reluctantly allies with the vampires. He teams up with the Bloodpack, an elite group of vampires originally assembled to kill him. The group consists of Asad, Nyssa, Reinhardt, Chupa, Snowman, Verlaine, her lover Lighthammer and Priest. Blade plants an explosive on the back of Reinhardt's head to keep him under control.

They investigate the House of Pain, a vampire nightclub. They encounter the Reapers and discover they are immune to most vampire weaknesses. Nomak arrives and holds Nyssa hostage. Nomak tries to recruit Blade to his cause, as they both hate vampires. Priest is bitten, transformed and mercy-killed, and Lighthammer is bitten but conceals the bite. Whistler disappears and Scud is attacked by several Reapers, which he drives off with UV lights. Blade fights Nomak, who is immune to Blade's anti-coagulant spikes. After a stalemate battle, Nomak retreats because of the sunlight. Whistler returns and reveals his finding of the Reaper Nest down in the sewer. Nyssa dissects a dead Reaper to learn more about them. Scud and Whistler make ultraviolet weapons for the team.

Entering the Reaper nest, the group spreads out. Lighthammer transforms into a Reaper and kills Snowman. Verlaine sacrifices herself to kill Lighthammer by exposing them both to sunlight. Chupa and Reindhart appears to taunt Whistler, in which Chupa begins to physically assaulting Whistler, who sprays Chupa with a Reaper pheromone. This attracts a horde which kills Chupa, while Whistler runs off. Asad and Nyssa walk into a nest, but they are ambushed, with Asad being pulled underwater and killed. Blade saves Nyssa and uses a UV-emitting bomb which destroys all of the Reapers except for Nomak. Nyssa and Reinhardt manage to evade the blast, though they are seriously injured.

Damaskinos' forces betray and capture Blade, Whistler, and Scud. It is revealed that the Reapers' exist as a result of Damaskinos' efforts to create a stronger breed of vampires. Nomak, the first Reaper, is his own son. Scud reveals himself to be one of Damaskinos' familiars after admitting that the explosive he made to be placed on Reinhardt's head was a dud. In turn, Blade reveals that not only has he known since Scud was turned but that Reinhardt's bomb wasn't a dud. He then presses the detonator, killing Scud. Believing the Reapers are gone, Damaskinos plans to dissect Blade to learn the secret behind Daywalkers. He has Blade placed to drain his blood. Whistler escapes Reinhardt and frees Blade, killing Damaskinos' human lawyer Karel Kounen. Whistler takes Blade to the blood pool where Damaskinos drinks blood. Blade falls into the pool, restoring his strength and fights his way through Damaskinos' henchmen and kills Reinhardt.

Nomak enters Damaskinos' stronghold seeking revenge on his father. Nyssa betrays Damaskinos by sealing off their escape route to the heliport. Damaskinos is killed by Nomak after failing to negotiate with him. Nomak then bites Nyssa, infecting her with the Reaper virus while drinking her blood. Blade confronts Nomak in a brutal fight. Blade stabs Nomak in his only weak spot. With his revenge complete, and wanting to end the suffering, Nomak pushes the blade further in, killing himself. Fulfilling Nyssa's wish of dying as a vampire instead of as a Reaper, Blade takes her outside and embraces her as she dies while watching the sunrise.

Cast
  • Wesley Snipes as Eric Brooks / Blade: A half-vampire "daywalker" who hunts vampires. Wesley Snipes stated that while such a character is not going to have much emotional depth, he then stated: "there's some acting involved in creating the character and making him believable and palatable."[3]
  • Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler: Blade's human mentor and weaponsmith.
  • Ron Perlman as Dieter Reinhardt: A member of the Bloodpack, who bears a particular grudge against Blade.
  • Leonor Varela as Nyssa Damaskinos: An unapologetic, natural-born vampire and daughter to Damaskinos.
  • Norman Reedus as 'Scud': A young, pot smoking weaponsmith who aids Blade in Whistler's absence.
  • Thomas Kretschmann as Eli Damaskinos: An ancient vampire who is obsessed with creating a superior race of vampires as his legacy.
  • Luke Goss as Jared Nomak: Patient zero and carrier of the Reaper virus. He bears a grudge against his father, Eli Damaskinos, for creating him.
  • Matt Schulze as 'Chupa': A pugnacious member of the Bloodpack who bears a particular grudge against Whistler.
  • Danny John-Jules as Asad: A "well-mannered" member of the Bloodpack.
  • Donnie Yen as 'Snowman': A mute swordsman and member of the Bloodpack.
  • Karel Roden as Karel Kounen: A "familiar", Damaskinos's human agent and lawyer.
  • Marit Velle Kile as Verlaine: A red-haired member of the Bloodpack and the lover of Lighthammer. The script originally said that she was the twin sister of Racquel from the first movie.
  • Daz Crawford as 'Lighthammer': A hulking, hammer-wielding member of the Bloodpack with facial tattoos.
  • Tony Curran as 'Priest': An Irish-accented member of the Bloodpack.
  • Santiago Segura as 'Rush': A vampire flunky in Prague.

Production

Following the success of the original film, New Line and Marvel made plans for a sequel in 1999. It is said that the film was going to introduce Hannibal King and Frank Drake in the series as well as a time travel storyline where Blade goes years in the future. Guillermo del Toro was hired to direct Blade II by New Line production president Michael De Luca[4] after Stephen Norrington turned down the offer to direct the sequel. Goyer and Frankfurt both admired director Guillermo del Toro and believed his dark sensibilities to be ideal for Blade II. Frankfurt first met del Toro when Frankfurt's design company, Imaginary Forces, did the title sequences for Mimic. "I admired Mimic and got to know Guillermo through that film", says Frankfurt. "Both David Goyer and I have been fans of his since Cronos and were enthusiastic about him coming on board. Guillermo is such a visual director and has a very strong sense of how he wants a movie to look. When you sign on with someone like Guillermo you're not going to tell him what the movie should look like, you're going to let him run with it". Like Goyer, del Toro has a passion for comic books. "Guillermo was weaned on comic books, as was I", says Goyer. "I was a huge comic book collector, my brother and I had about twelve thousand comic books that we assembled when we were kids, so I know my background". Tippett Studio provided computer-generated visual effects, including digital doubles of some of the characters, while Steve Johnson and his company XFX were hired to create the prosthetic makeup and animatronic effects.[5]

Del Toro chose not to alter the script too much from the ideas created by Goyer and Snipes. "I wanted the movie to have a feeling of both a comic book and Japanese animation", said the director. "I resurrected those sources and viewed them again. I dissected most of the dailies from the first movie; I literally grabbed about four boxes of tapes and one by one saw every single tape from beginning to end until I perfectly understood where the language of the first film came from. I studied the style of the first one and I think Norrington used a tremendous narrative style. His work is very elegant".

Stepping back into Blade's shoes was a challenge Wesley Snipes relished. "I love playing this role. It's fun as an actor to test your skills at doing a sequel, to see if you can recreate something that you did", Snipes says. Peter Frankfurt adds, "Wesley is Blade; so much of the character was invented by Wesley and his instincts are so spot on. He takes his fighting, his weapons and attitude very seriously. He's incredibly focused, but he's also very cool and fun".

"Wesley knows Blade better than David Goyer, better than me, better than anyone else involved in the franchise", adds del Toro. "He instinctively knows what the character would and wouldn't do, and every time he twists something around, something better would come out".

Filming took place in the Czech Republic, at Prague Studios[6][7] and Barrandov Studios, as well as London from March 12, 2001 and concluded July 2, 2001.

Music
Main article: Blade II (soundtrack)

A soundtrack to the film was released on March 19, 2002 through Immortal Records and Virgin Records, and which featured collaborations between hip hop artists and electronic artists. This soundtrack appeared on four different Billboard charts, reaching number 26 on the Billboard 200.[8] It spawned two singles: "Child of the Wild West" and "Mind What You Say".[9]

Release

Home media

The New Line Platinum Series DVD contains several deleted scenes including a flashback sequence showing Blade's first meeting with Whistler, a music video for "Child Of The Wild West", performed by west coast hip-hop group Cypress Hill and featuring drum and bass performer Roni Size in the DVD Special Features on disc-2, VHS Capture and theatrical trailer.

A Blu-ray version was released in 2012.

Reception

Box office

Blade II was released on March 22, 2002. This was during a period of the year (months March and April) considered to be a bad time for sequels to be released.[10] Despite this, the film became the highest-grossing film of the Blade series, making $80 million in the United States and $150 million worldwide. In its opening weekend, the film earned $32,528,016 from 2,707 theaters[2] but dropped 59% of its earnings in its second week, which brought in $13.2 million. The intake is believed to be affected (in part) by the pull of NCAA basketball Final Four games.[11] The film debuted in the United Kingdom at number one, making $3.6 million from 355 theaters[12] and held the spot for the following week, where it had earned $7.9 million, despite a 47% decline. The film was also number one in Singapore, making $214,000 from 30 theaters.[13]

Critical response

Reaction to Blade II among critics was mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 57% based on 151 reviews, with an average rating of 6.04/10. The site's consensus reads: "Though Blade II offers more of what worked in the original, its plot and character development appear to have been left on the cutting room floor."[14] On Metacritic it has a score of 52 out of 100 based on reviews from 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[15] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[16]

Roger Ebert gave the film 3½ stars out of 4, stating: "Blade II is a really rather brilliant vomitorium of viscera, a comic book with dreams of becoming a textbook for mad surgeons."[17] James Berardinelli gave the film 2½ stars out of 4, stating: "Blade II is for those undiscriminating movie-goers who want nothing more from a trip to the multiplex than loud, raucous, mindless entertainment."[18]

Video games
Main article: Blade II (video game)

A video game of the same name was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox on September 3, 2002.

Sequel

A sequel, Blade: Trinity, was released in 2004.

See also

References
  1. "BLADE II (18)". British Board of Film Classification. March 19, 2002. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  2. "Blade II". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 13, 2008.
  3. Bill Higgins (April 1, 2002). "A party with a bite". Variety. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
  4. Michael Fleming (March 25, 2002). "Helmer scales mountains". Variety. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
  5. Ellen Wolff (July 21, 2002). "Artists flaunt character development at confab". Variety. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
  6. Meils, Cathy (July 10, 2001). "Prague Studios gets $1 million upgrade". Variety.
  7. Steve Head (June 18, 2012). "Prague Studios to House $55 Million Blade 2". IGN.
  8. Min, Lilian (August 13, 2015). "The Hits and Misses of Marvel Comics Movie Soundtracks". Pitchfork. Retrieved November 1, 2016.
  9. O'Neal, Sean (August 24, 2016). "The Judgment Night soundtrack foretold the rap-rock apocalypse". The A.V. Club. Retrieved November 1, 2016.
  10. Variety staff (March 22, 2002). "Weekend Box Office Preview (March 22, 2002)". Variety. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  11. Dave McNary (March 31, 2002). "Col's "Room" at the top". Variety. Retrieved December 13, 2008.
  12. Don Groves (April 1, 2002). ""Ice" the rage o'seas". Variety. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
  13. Don Groves (April 8, 2002). ""Ice" ages well overseas". Variety. Retrieved December 13, 2008.
  14. "Blade 2". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  15. "Blade II (2002)". Metacritic. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
  16. "CinemaScore". Archived from the original on July 22, 2018. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  17. Roger Ebert (March 22, 2002). "Blade II :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
  18. Berardinelli, James (March 22, 2002). "Blade II - Reelviews Movie Reviews". Reelviews.net. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
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