Blade II (2002)

Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Starring Wesley Snipes, Leonor Varela, Norman Reedus, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, Luke Goss, Thomas Kretschmann, Danny John-Jules, Matt Shulze, Karel Roden, Marit Velle Kile, Daz Crawford, Donnie Yen, Tony Curran, Santiago Segura. [R]

Sleek, black-ice production design, stylized posturing, and some visual flair courtesy of director Del Toro is about all this sequel has going for it, but it’s marginally watchable most of the time (when the thudding mechanics of the rote plot get out of the way). Snipes is back as the part-human, part-vampire “daywalker” Blade—Kristofferson, too, although the script labors to make his return even remotely plausible—and this time he has to make an uneasy truce with the vampires so he can join forces with them to hunt even worse creatures known as “Reapers,” and stop the virus that creates them from wiping out vampirekind. Mindless entertainment served up to meet the expectations of undiscriminating fans of the first film, but the sheer pleasure of seeing the twisted undead get wasted in creative ways is undermined by uneven CGI and fits of incoherent strobe-like editing. A handful of unsurprising surprises reset the conflict for the final act, but it’s harder to care about any of these characters’ plights than it is to get dried bloodstains out of all the shiny leather and shades on display. In a movie about a war among vampires, vampire-human hybrids, and parvovirus-infected vampires, the most far-fetched scene is when Snipes declines to smoke a little weed with Reedus’ obnoxious weapons specialist. Yen, who has a small role as one of the elite bloodsuckers, also served as fight choreographer. Followed by Blade: Trinity.

55/100