I think to have a plot form around this mutated vampire Reaper strain, was highly imaginative. Bringing back Kris Kristofferson as Whistler was a huge plus. Having a better director, was the key piece of the puzzle.
The reason why I liked this Blade more than the first. Is it felt like it took a more serious believable concept. Even it's acting was taken more seriously, you didn't have Blade popping out those cheesey lines as he did in the first film. Blade 2 definitely has a lot more action here than in either Blade or Blade trinity.
Guillermo del Toro is one of my more favorite director's of dark action films. Other movies of his such as Mimic and Hellboy, I thought were just as excellent.
Wesley Snipes, known for his action roles in other movies such as Passenger 57, Demolition Man, Drop Zone, and The Art Of War. Coming back as the daywalker superhero, Blade... not so heroic looking with all the blood and deaths in Blade 2. Wesley Snipes with his new tattoos and fighting techniques definitely kicks more a** in this movie than in any other of his films.
Kris Kristofferson I think gave this movie all of the humor it had. He's never the star actor in any of his movies, but he definitely gets your attention in this Blade.
Luke Goss... a guy I only know as Nomak, head of the Reaper vampires. I think was one of the best villians ever on screen... it's better to have a actor who we're unfamiliar with as your villian. Like Ray Park was playing Darth Maul in Star Wars. Or even Stephen Dorff playing Deacon Frost... the half blood vampire taking power into his own hands in Blade 1.
Finally Ron Perlman, not known as a star actor always playing that guy full of jokes. In such movies as Enemy at the Gates, and Alien Resurrection... got his huge start here in Blade 2. Going on to start his own title with Giullermo del Toro as the superhero Hellboy.
The dvd is perfect. A 2 disc set with deleted scenes, commentaries, and art galleries all around. With the best 6.1 DTS ES surround sound. What else could you ask for in a dvd?
If you love vampires, this director, these actors, any action movie and horror movie... then watch this. This movie is a cancer with a purpose.

Two things are prominent in this fast-paced, gory, adrenaline pumping sequel: the action is non-stop and the Reaper vampires are some of the ugliest creatures committed to cinema, and impressively real-looking. Wesley Snipes returns as Blade, the half-vampire/half-man killer who is recruited by a Nosferatu like vampire (played with quiet relish by Thomas Krestchmann) to rid the world of these mutant vampires who are impervious to silver, stakes and garlic; sunlight seems to be their only mortal enemy. Snipes reunites with Kris Kristofferson and takes on nerdish Norman Reedus to join forces with "normal" vampires to wipe out these deadly new creatures.
BLADE 2 moves like a tornado, with dazzling fight sequences, lots of flashy gore, and tremendous atmosphere from director Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy). Ron Perlman is on hand as a particularly nasty vampire whose cockiness and macho bravado is properly put in its place finally. And Leonor Valera is beautiful as the vampire Nyssa. Luke Goss gives fierce delivery to his role as the original Reaper. There are a few surprises at the end, which gives BLADE 2 a powerful presence as a genre film.

Human tots have a lot to worry about come sundown: vampires, werewolves, nasty squishy monsters that lurk in the dank dark depths of their closet.

Vampire kids don't worry about prosaic things like that. They've got *really* scary things that live in *their* closets.

Sun comes up, coffin lid closes, and---if we can believe the portly Mexican mastermind of the Macabre and Blade 2 director Guillermo Del Toro---the young Vamp mind starts worrying about something called the Reaper, a new breed of vampires that looks like the love-spawn of Max Schreck's ratty-faced Nosferatu, the Predator, and a leech after a rotgut-fueled all-nighter at a cheap Arizona interstate hotel.

The product of that wild and fun-filled romp---nah, I'm kidding, actually the product of some friendly neighborhood Vampire Corp genetic shake-&-bake and a whole lotta attitude and angst---is the hemi-vampire Nomak (played in solid, workmanly fashion by Luke Goss, who proves he has plenty of presence).

That's NOMAK, the nasty Reaper critter who tells us early and often that he hates vampires---not NOMAD, the annoying beepy floaty war-death-robot-machine thing from Star Trek. It's funny, because Uber-Machiavellian Vampire Overlord Damaskinos (German actor Thomas Kretschmann doing dat immortal thang) said the same thing: "NOMAD? Why is my eternal slumber disturbed by that annoying blinky floaty stupid Star Trek robot???"---and then his surviving henchmen made it clear it was NOMAK. The, er, REAPER overlord, Sir, not the annoying floaty robot from Star Trek.

I'm kiddding, that didn't really happen in Blade 2. Del Toro revs up the splatter/action quotient here, dispensing with sleek, sexy, super-plotting corporate and rave-club bloodsuckers in favor of the Max Schreck baldies: slick, shiny, gummy, watery, lamp-wick white horrors with serious---I mean SERIOUS---cases of cleft palate.

Worse, they want to cleave YOUR palate, the Reaper way, and vampirism of any strain being the b*tch it is, that means you get to trade in your sleek trendy nightclub immortal looks to be---well, to be a shiny, gummy, death-white baldheaded monster with a jaw an Alien Queen would die for.

The Super-sexy Prada-wearing Vamps wake up just in the nick of time after Nomak turns a Prague blood-bank into an abbatoir, realize they've been spending *wayyyyyyy* too much time at Broadway show post-parties and following the oil and bond market, and dispatch a special squad of super-soldier vamps---called the Bloodpack, those subtle vampires---to deal with the growing Reaper threat.

Being that the Bloodpack was originally trained to terminate our fave Brotha-from-anotha-Planet Blade (Wesley Snipes, doing his his shrugging/sneering/slaughtering thing just fine), Damaskinos decides to send daughter Nyssa (Chilean beauty Leonor Varela, who can't act her way out of a paper coffin but---well, she's hot) and Major-Domo Asad (Danny John-Jules, the Cat from Red Dwarf, if that trips your light fantastic, as it didn't mine)as ambassadors to bring the Daywalker on board.

Unfortunately the Vampire Nation may have great stock tips, but it has yet to perfect the simple art of PR and good-neighborship. Rather than send a nice card or e-mail, they send Nyssa and Asad into Blade's hide-out in full Ninja getup, right down to night-vision goggles, Samurai katanas, and really obvious CGI. Blade isn't ever in a good mood, and he's even in less of one having just had to bring mentor and good-ol-a**-kicking boy Whistler (the great Kris Kristofferson) back from the other side---and the approach, ultimately successful, initially sets things off on the wrong foot and just creates bad blood.

Hehhheheh, "bad blood"; sorry. Anyway, The rest of the flick you can probably write yourself: ample splatter, bloodletting, Blade and the Bloodpack chasing the baldy brigade through murky halls, streets, sewers and tunnels, plenty of tension between Bloodpack uber-honcho Reinhardt (Ron Perlman, who made me BELIEVE even when Blade 2 ratcheted its absurdity to LEVEL 10)and Blade. Which is bound to happen if (Reinhardt) you're constantly muscling up in Blade's face or pushing Whistler around, or if (Blade) you affix a bomb to Reinhardt's shiny pate.

It's completely ridiculous but absurdly fun. Del Toro and writer David Goyer (who directed the third installment) keep the foolishness moving along at a rapid clip, so while your brain will stall somewhere in the first 15 minutes, and start to decay and rot perhaps five minutes later, you'll never miss it. Trust me. Cinematographer Gabriel Berstain (Blade: Trinity, S.W.A.T., lots of other pretty action-flix) makes everything look good, which pulls off the final successful insult to your brain. Like a lobotomy, there might be serious consequences, but after it's done are you really gonna care?

There are plenty of silly things that take away from the Cool Factor, which, for Blade 2, is a NINE out of a maximum TEN: for instance, you might go "?" when Nyssa warns Blade (before taking him to a Vamps-only club) "you'll see things---things our people do in privacy"---and then you're all ready for something wildly impressive, the club doors open up, and it looks like Goth-night on a slow Thursday at the raver-bar of your choice. Whoopee. Or the Vamp Nation goon squad, with their silly bullet-bike helmets and their stun-batons---I mean, you're bringing down monster immortals, guys---mebbe a little napalm or silver chainsaw action is in order, guys?

It may sound like I'm knocking Blade II---don't be fooled. Del Toro keeps a tight ship, the dialogue is smart and snappy, the flick looks great and moves along. Frankly, it does what more films *should* do: whisks us away from the Hell we call reality for two hours and dazzles our eyes.

Mission accomplished, with a side dish of (bloody red) steak Tar-Tar.

JSG

just as powerful and shocking as the first one
see this
it will shock you just as much as Blade did

it's awesome
have seen it 2 times already on my dvd player

count on it staying a true classic over the next 90 years
it really does terrify and entertain you
Snipes is the perfect vampire night killer

The daywalker known as "Blade" ( Wesley Snipes) is back! but this time, there is a race of powerful vampire creatures known only as "Reapers", they are parasitic genetically enhanced vampiric beings that suck the blood of both humans and vampires alike as they are bent on draining the lives of both races. A new order vampire clan joins up with Blade and Whistler ( Kris Kristofferson)as they both must be with the clan to exterminate these new breed bloodsuckers.

An electrifying and ultraviolent sequel to the 1998 hit based on Marvel Comics vampire flick that reunites Wesley Snipes and Kris Kristofferson with of course a new cast most reconigizably Ron Perlman from Hellboy and City of Lost Children as one of the vampire warriors. Director Guillermo Del Toro's style for this movie is just impressive as it triumphs over the original in anyway with more action, more vampires ( but some different ones this time), more gore, better acting and fantastic martial arts sequences that are cherographed nicely.

The 2-Disc DVD has great stuff like crisp picture & Sound, two audio commentaries, isolated scroe, Deleted/Alternate scenes with commentary, galleries, documentaries, music video, trailer, and DVD Rom content. This is a must have DVD for the fanatics of horror movies, action, comic book movies, and vampire flicks alike, you won't regret it.