SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Blade II was released just about four years after the first film. The very late 90's to maybe about 2011 or so is a pretty iconic time period for me personally, and this franchise certainly played a major role in forming the culture of that time period. For movies, I feel as though it was the perfect time of combining CGI with practical effects like makeup, legit sets, and actually filming at locations and not just utilizing pure green screens. Nowadays many bigger epic films just feel like glorified cartoons. There isn't the same attention to detail anymore and it's a shame. Of course there's always exceptions. There are still some good films with wise ways of using CGI nowadays, and there are films from 1998-2011 that used CGI poorly, but in general I believe what I say is true for the most part. In some cases, modern CGI looks worse than films from the 2000's! This issue has even been occurring in video games.
Anyway, I think Blade II does an above average job at combining practical effects that films from decades prior mastered, with modern CGI to create a very visually appealing movie!
In this sequel, Blade has to basically fight a wicked looking new form of vampires that are stronger than normal vampires. Sorta kinda in between his own strength and a regular vampire's strength. They are called Reapers. They pose a threat because of their strength, are immune to many traditional vampire weaknesses besides sunlight, and their infection spreads wickedly fast. They have incredible hunger and can infect both vampires and humans.
The action in this sequel is non-stop and high caliber in that it's just intense and gnarly. The Reapers themselves feed in a very ugly, gruesome, and alarming fashion. Their whole jaws expand and they look highly unnatural and alienlike. Frankly, as a horror fan, it is pretty awesome. This franchise does a great job at never ever being shy about being equally traditionally horrifying, traditionally action packed, and even traditionally superhero like. Once again these strengths are on display in a super admirable way in Blade II as they were in Blade. This franchise's versatility is so memorable and top notch!
Now, I do like the first one better for a mixture of reasons. I think this second one missed an opportunity to expand on Blade's background/lore a bit. I also was mildly confused about what happened to Karen Jenson, the woman from the first film. I actually think she did a great job and was a cool character. It was mildly lame that Abraham Whistler was brought back to life from a storyline perspective. I think it made everything feel sort of inauthentic, like the consequences in the Blade universe aren't legit. Don't get me wrong his character is awesome, but it just felt a bit lazy to bring him back in my opinion. Combining Karen's disappearance with Whistler's reappearance it just felt pretty odd and out of place.
In general the storytelling felt a bit basic and rushed in this second installment. Super vampires that are basically pretty zombie-like in their attacks. Not that interesting of a concept. It had potential but I feel like they fumbled it a bit in their execution.
The action was solid, I wasn't too bored but it did feel a bit repetitive for awhile. Sorta like a shooter style video game where you're just infinitely killing bad guys, progressing to the boss. I know this is how many hero movies go but it just felt quite predictable.
There were some enjoyable twists though. Scud turning out to be a bad guy, thinking he outsmarted Blade, only to have it be revealed that Blade outsmarted him was cool. Damaskinos and the Bloodpack essentially utilizing the Reapers as an elaborate way to capture Blade was a nifty little storyline for sure as well.
Ron Perlman plays a cool role in this one. While it's a different character entirely, it's cool to see him in this knowing that Hellboy, another favorite film of mine in basically the same genre as Blade, was to be released two years later! What a time to be alive!
Hellboy and Blade! That would be a SICK duo!
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I had mildly higher expectations for this one, it had good strengths but also noticeable, sort of stale weaknesses.
All in all though it's very watchable and still a lot of fun! No doubt about it! It didn't ruin Blade for me.
I gave the first a very strong 9.5 rating and I stand by it! That first one was awesome!
I had trouble thinking of a number for this one, so I ended up producing a bit of an oddball number.
Blade II gets an 8.875/10!
So through two of the three films, the series has just about a 9.19/10 rating. Can't wait to finish the trilogy!