Blade II (2002)

Spent a bit of time yesterday in the library, went through some reviews about this movie. (yeah, for some reasons, I was not kicked out even my booking time on that specific PC had finished).

Hmm, seemed as Blade I was not that great (but some said differently! Since I can't be sure that I had watched that specific movie, I have no idea one way or another!).

I, however, was impressed with the amount of blood, martial art and explosive weapons, etc, used in this second movie. Wesley Snipe was good in his role (as Daywalker, the vampire hunter). He did look real big, dark, dangerous, cool, unemotional (almost) and quite competent in the role of helping the world get rid of all vampires independently.

Didn't like too much of all the grostesque scences, in which Reaper vampires (a hideous species who was a mix of the famous monster Frankenstein and people who got inflicted with incurable consuming diseases and on their way to the gate of hell!), who only attacked vampires, and turned them into reaper vampires by biting their's victim's tounge (thus, passing the infected blood/saliva?).

The weapons used in this movie (to combat the vampires and reaper vampires) were quite interesting too. Not only garlic, sunlight, UV light, silver plated weapons, etc were mentioned, but also bullet/explosive device with UV flashbang. I was surprised to see EDTA, a chemical which could thin out blood, was mentioned, and used as part of weaponaries against vampires, (but it seemed as this EDTA thing had no effect whatsoever on the Reaper species (as it had on the normal vampires)).



Plot:

Daywalker, the vampire hunter, successfully rescued his mentor, Whistler (Krist Kristofferson) from the enemy. With Scud, (Daywalker's sidekick, whose main task was to create weapons for Daywalker to destroy the vampires), they later were asked by the vampires to help them out in the new war: destroying the Reaper vampires, who seemed to intent to attack only the vampire species.

(Krist Kristofferson was pretty good in the role of a "father figure" and "mentor" to Daywalker. His frail, old, and weary presence, seemed to balance out the ruthlessness, unreal and bloodiness of the movie some how).

Daywalker was reluctant, but agreed at the end. He was constantly keeping vigilant against their new team mates (a group of vampire warriors, whose previous task was to hunt Daywalker) while joining them searching for the Reaper vampires, (led by Nomak). The movie was full of suspense moments, for it was not a simple war between Daywalker's team and the Reapers, but a war between Daywalker and all the potential enemies around him. Daywalker could trust only himself and his intuition until he could figure out what really went on. In the mean time, he had to listen patienly to Scud's repeated warnings about the potential that Whistler might have been converted into a vampire (or least, defecting to the enemy's side) due to his long captivity.

The presence of the vampire's leader's daughter, Nyssa (Leonor Varela), gave the movie a touch of implied romance, a sort of sweet attraction between two immortals, both of them full of good intentions.

Among the aggressive vampires, Nyssa represented freshness, honesty, good intention, etc. Perhaps that was why our hero Daywalker was always very caring towards her (especially towards the end of the movie).

When the Reapers were almost wiped out, Daywalker was captured by the vampires. The leader of these vampires wanted to improve his species, using Daywalker's blood (with all of its special genetic codings?), to invent a better vampire species which could withstand the daylight like our hero. Turned out that Nomak, the original Reaper vampire, was the latest result of an experiment went wrong by this very same vampire leader. Nomak however, did not forgave "his father" for creating him, then cast him away so fast. Thus he only aimed to attack the vampires as revenge.

Realised that her father was prepared to sacrify her, his only daughter, and that he himself was the reason for the birth of Nomak, Nyssa became very angry. Found out that her father used Daywalker to destroy Nomak's species, then later, captured Daywalker for his own purpose, Nyssa decided to help Nomak (her so-called "brother").

Nomak successfully revenged the vampire leader as well as attacking Nyssa. He was later destroyed by Daywalker.

Nyssa's wish to die under the sunlight was fulfilled with Daywalker's help.


The movie was quite entertaining, but perhaps not for anyone who dislikes the scenes of huge amount of blood spattering out every where, with sickly bald men opening their huge mouth (and it promptly turned into some sort of terrible, disgusting and bloody thing, reaping people apart (or whatever... I tried to not looked at these repulsive scenes whenever they happened!)). I admired however whoever that imagined and put together the inside of a supposed Reaper vampire: the organs inside remided me of all the beautiful sea creatures, a mixture of corals, star fish, octopus, etc.