Blade 2 is bursting with creative energy.
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As consistent as the Marvel machine has been about putting out movies and TV shows, there's one thing it hasn't be able to get right: Blade. After years of what can only be described as development hell despite a star and multiple directors attached, Marvel has scraped plans to bring the daywalker back to the big screen. Shit, Deadpool & Wolverine did that last year before Marvel even started shooting. That's embarassing. But the news made me pine for the violent thrills of the original Blade movies in particular it's superior sequel: Blade 2. So I thought I would revisit this movie again and see what popped this time around.
The Setup
After years of pursuing his mentor Whistler, Blade finally has his old friend back in the fold. Just in time too, because the Vampiric Council wants to team up with Blade to take out a brand new threat. An incredibly strong vampire that takes out human and vampire alike. But can Blade trust his lifelong enemies?
So first thing's first. This movie still rules. This was basically a mid-budget movie and you could put it against most modern blockbusters in terms of pure entertainment. There's so much action. It's so silly and sincere at the same time. It just gets it. But there's a few things that stand out this time that I may not have mentioned before...
Guilermo Del Toro's Recurring Themes
Something that might get lost in adding this to Del Toros filmograpy is just how early this is. This was only his fourth movie and came out before Hellboy did. So while he had already made The Devil's Backbone, most of the movies that define Del Toro's thematic obsessions haven't hit theaters when this came out.
And so many of them are there. The biggest one is Del Toro's affection for monsters and the notion that every "monster" is misunderstood in some way, even the villains. Blade is quite literally the blood of enemy of vampires that kills every one he meets and now he has to speak to one that comes across...pretty human. Just as the big bad Nomack, is actually a victim of the real villain is the head of the Vampire Council who tested a virus on his own son to see if vampries could become more powerful.
And holy shit we've got eugenicist fascist vampires, would you take a look at that. Oh Perlman's character name is Reinhart. Man how would anyone find this subtle. The goon squad Blade takes out towards the film's end reads real police statey too. And our hero is someone who views himself or part of himself as monstrous and quietly debates how human he is.
In his next movie Del Toro would...feature a monstrous lead character and a pale villain paired with fascists who dreams of creating a new terrifying world of his own imagination. With an unstoppable Nazi at his side. Who wields blades. Wait the outside of the Vampire Lair looks exactly like the Bureau of Paranormal Research. I love del Toro. Just freeforming his way through his career like one long concept album.
None of this is surprising of course. Del Toro has said that directors like himself "make one movie" for their entire career. Which is really his way of saying, of course I'm making variations on the same ideas over and over again. This is what I love and how I know to tell stories. I thought that was obvious. It's mostly just wild to see them in a far more commercial movie, a superhero sequel no less, before Del Toro was considered an auteur.
Action Variety
I already alluded to this, but you might forget just how much action is in Blade 2. The answer is alot! Now one of the problems with action heavy movies is that eventually it can be come white noise. Which why is variety, in the kind of action, the location and the goals are all needed to keep things exciting. Here's what I mean.
Action Scene #1: Blade Hunts for Whistler
Technically a two parter, but this is Blade running through a number of vampires to get to Whistler through some warehouses. He uses a combination of guns, hand held stakes and a throwable weapon and even silver wire and motorcycles to get things done. End of the scene he's got Whistler in tow.
Action Scene #2: Blade Fights the Blood Pact
This is a pretty even handed bladed martial arts bout that introduces the Blood Pack and Vampiric Council coming to Blade for help and establishes them as solid fighters before the rest of the Pack is introduced. It also takes places in the brightly lit base.
Action Scene #3: Blade and the Blood Pact fight The Reapers and Nomack
This fight happens on four fronts with varying levels of success as Blade and the blood pack learn just how ineffective so many of their weapons are. Scud barely survives a swarm of Reapers before killing them with light. Four sects of the Blood Pack battle reapers and half of them are either horribly injured or KO'ed. Donnie Yen gets to silently flex his skills before one of the Reapers disembowels itself before giving up. Priest is attacked and turned and has to be killed by his brethren. Reinhart and Chupa empty clips into a reaper and kill of a bunch of club goers before finally killing one. Hammer guy seems to win before he actually wins, but gets tagged. Blade also goes toe to toe with Nomack who wants Blade as an ally and nearly kills Blade despite fancy weapons with pure strength. Blade also shows affection Nyssa. All within an abandoned church, a nightclub, and a back of a kitchen or something.
Action Scene #4: Blade and the Blood Pact fight the Reapers in the Sewer
This time around the gang knows exactly what weapon will work, but getting to use it is something else entirely. Blade holds his own but almost all of the Blood Pact dies and many never get to fire their weapons. But of note, the only weapons that are used are ones we haven't seen before including a silver loaded submachine gun for Nyssa, bladed pistols for Reinhart and small fist pistols for Blade. He also uses a sword to amp up the light grenades. Nyssa is saved by Blade offering up blood. We're also...in a new location! The sewer.
Action Scene #5 (Kinda): Nomack Runs Roughshod Over Everyone
Nomack kills off almost all of the available guards to get to his father which both bolsters his villain credentials with melee brute force. We see him climbing this building's ladder and prime him for a second definitive face off with Blade.
Action Scene #6: Blade Murders A Bunch of Jackbooted Thugs
The best action scene of the entire movie is both a callback to the original movie which featured a similar scene that opens with Blade, who was on death's door, fully revitalized after diving into a pool of blood, who runs through a bunch of taser paton wielding thugs in comically over-the-top fashion with the Crystal Method plays. Looks like someone is ready to fight Nomack. Blade is so OP at this moment that he cuts off a Reinhart monologue and one shots him. We're also in an industrial sci-fi environment and blend in grappling, wrestling, and baton hits in with the martial arts.
Action Scene #7 (Holy Shit!): Blade vs Nomack Round 2
This is mostly a straight up hand to hand bout that looks kinda even until Nomack goes god mode and Blade has to find the video game weak spot to win. The hits here are gigantic and easily break bones or send Blade or Nomack across the room because this is basically a battle between two god like fighters of this world. We're also in a...big marble entryway that both fighters throw and bash each other into.
Seven action beats. All of which have a story function, occur in a unique place, feature a different combo/emphasis on weaponry and have stand out visual moments.
Production Design for Days
As much as I enjoy the original Blade it very much feels like a product of its time and era. The late nineties were an odd time for action movies stuck between the white martial arts stars and muscle heads of the eighties, the Die Hard-esque everymen characters, and a surge of interest in CGI heavy spectacle and the influence of anime and Hong Kong cinema that would gleefully merge martial arts and gun play with unconvincing but fun special effects.
Everything from the sound design, to the costumes, to the action feels like a bunch of random ideas put into a blender and mixed on high for 30 seconds which is how you get beats like Blade popping his shoulder out to grab a subway car blended with vampires being electrocuted to death turning into CGI skeletons that made Deacon Frost a blood god, before Blade has a speed edited swordfight etc.
It's as messy as its anime and Hong Kong inspired roots.
In Blade 2 there's a constant visual contrast between three elements: seedy undergrounds, technology and ancient/traditional structures.
Admittedly a lot of this is borrowed from the original film, for instance the vampire club looks a lot like the rave Blade broke up to open the first movie, but the contrast is cleaner here. Vampire existence for the regular vampires looks and feels like a criminal enterprise with secret codes to indicate where the spots are or drug deals happening in abandoned warehouses. This is also represented by the clothing which leans more heavily on flamboyant flash or goth vs. futuristic or of its era.
On Blade's side the emphasis is on technology. And there's so many fun ideas here. We have a shotgun that fires stakes, we have pistols with blades on the bottom and we have pistols so small that carrying a single bullet seems like a physical impossibility with a front that look like the grill of a car, And that's before we bring out the UV weapons and their blue hue, including the grenades which is one of the best additions to vampire hunter's arsenal I've ever seen.
For everything involving the Vampiric Council there's an uncomfortable blend of both, which demonstrates a leadership both trying to leverage the new and maintain the old order. They have technology so they can use it against their prey (humanity) but when you get to the leader's atrium, it's a library that's full of brooks that are probably centuries old. New and old power conspiring to take vampire domination to an entirely new level.
Which is part of why the original reveal of Nomack, who is dressed like a homeless man, tearing through all of the tech, tradition, and manpower with brute strength is so terrifying and often satisfying. The cold open with Nomack being taken in, clearly with the intent of being drained of his blood by Nazi-coded vampires, before cackling with laughter and slaughtering everyone en masse, is...exactly the kind of move Blade would pull, except he'd do it with more flair...as he demonstrates the next scene when he rescues Whistler.
Nomack's look is also representative of the vampiric council's arrogance, coming back to destroy it. A literal discarded son, made a walking virus by his own father, drenched in the dirt and grime of the underground the leadership appears to despise, burning through the old structures before literally flaming out.
And all a preview of the meticulous attention to detail del Toro would provide in every film from Hellboy to The Shape of Water moving forward.
Conclusion: This Much Fun, Requires A Lot of Effort
The thing that stands out about Blade 2 is that, like its protagonist, it feels like a contradiction. It is a giant silly comic book movie with lines like "You don't know...who you are FUCKING WITH!" and fight choreography from Donnie Yen, that also takes a lot of time into making each gun look cool, making each location feel real, and adding a bunch of twists and nuance to what's normally a very straight-forward genre.
There's care put into this movie from top to bottom, which means every silly indulgence feels earned because this is the world del Toro and company created. And it's an awfully fun world to revisit.
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