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Blade II

Blade IIis a 2002 Americansuperhero filmbased on theMarvel ComicscharacterBlade,directed byGuillermo del Toroand written byDavid S. Goyer.A sequel toBlade(1998), it is the second installment in theBladetrilogy.The film follows thehuman-vampire hybridBladein his continuing effort toprotect humans from vampires.Blade must join forces with an elite group of vampires to fight against mutant vampires who plan a global genocide of both vampire and human races.

Blade II
Blade standing opposite his opponent, wearing his traditional jet black special suit and sunglasses, wielding his Titanium made, acid edged sword, with a negative background image around him showing the face of an evil vampire. Near the bottom are the film's name, credits and billing details. Wesley Snipes' name is written on the bottom.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGuillermo del Toro
Written byDavid S. Goyer
Based on
Blade
by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyGabriel Beristain
Edited byPeter Amundson
Music byMarco Beltrami
Production
companies
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • March 22, 2002(2002-03-22)
Running time
117 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$54 million[2]
Box office$155 million[2]

Blade IIwas released in the United States on March 22, 2002, and was a box office success, grossing $155 million. It received mixed reviews from critics, earning praise for its performances, atmosphere, direction, and action sequences, although its script and lack of character development have been criticized. The final film in the trilogy,Blade: Trinity,followed in 2004.

Plot

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InPrague,Bladesearches for his mentorAbraham Whistler,who was thought dead after being attacked byDeacon Frost,[a]but was instead turned into a vampire and held prisoner by them for two years. After interrogating vampire Rush on Whistler's whereabouts, Blade rescues Whistler and cures him of his vampirism. Whistler meets Scud, Blade's young, gifted new technician.

A pandemic is turning vampires into "Reapers", primal, mutant creatures with a ravenous thirst for blood and a highly infectious bite that transforms both humans and vampires alike. The original carrier of the Reaper strain and cause of the pandemic is Jared Nomak, who bears hatred toward the vampire race. To combat the Reapers, vampire overlord Eli Damaskinos sends his trusted servant Asad and his daughter, Nyssa, to strike a truce with Blade. Knowing humans will be the Reapers’ next target after vampires, Blade reluctantly allies himself with them.

He teams up with the Bloodpack, an elite group of vampires originally assembled to kill him, consisting of Asad, Nyssa, Reinhardt, Chupa, Snowman, Priest, Verlaine, and her lover, Lighthammer. As Reinhardt openly challenges him to fight, Blade, in response, attaches an explosive to the back of his skull to keep him in line. They investigate a vampire nightclub where they encounter the Reapers and discover they are immune to most vampire weaknesses except forUVexposure. Nomak arrives and tries to recruit Blade to his cause, but the latter refuses. Blade fights Nomak but cannot kill him due to his immunity to his weapons before the sun rises and Nomak retreats. Lighthammer is bitten but conceals the bite from the group while Priest is bitten and in the process of turning before being mercy-killed through exposure to sunlight.

Whistler returns to the group after locating the Reaper nest beneath the sewers. Nyssa dissects a dead Reaper and learns that their hearts are encased in durable bone. Scud and Whistler issue new UV weapons for the team and a UV-emitting bomb to take out the entire nest.

Entering the Reaper nest at dawn, Lighthammer transforms into a Reaper and kills Snowman. Verlaine sacrifices herself to kill Lighthammer by exposing them both to sunlight. Chupa turns on Whistler in retaliation for Priest's death, but Whistler secretly releases a cartridge of Reaperpheromonesinto the air, luring a horde that kills and devours Chupa. Asad and Nyssa are ambushed, and Asad is killed. Blade saves Nyssa and detonates the UV bomb, killing all the Reapers except Nomak. Nyssa and Reinhardt manage to evade the blast, but Nyssa is seriously injured until Blade allows her to drink his blood to survive.

Damaskinos' forces arrive and capture Blade, Whistler, and Scud. It is revealed that the Reapers exist due to Damaskinos's efforts to engineer a stronger breed of vampires devoid of their natural weaknesses. Nomak, the first Reaper, is his own son, whom Damaskinos considers a failure. Scud reveals himself to be one of Damaskinos'sfamiliars,but Blade, who already suspected this, kills him with the explosive he planted on Reinhardt earlier, which Scud originally thought was a dud until Blade secretly swapped it with a real explosive.

Damaskinos plans to harvest Blade's blood to develop an immunity to sunlight and create a new, invincible breed of vampires. Whistler frees himself, escapes Reinhardt, and rescues a weakened Blade. Reinhardt shoots at the two, but Blade falls into Damaskinos' blood pool, restoring his strength. He fights his way through Damaskinos' henchmen and kills Reinhardt.

Nomak enters Damaskinos's stronghold, seeking revenge on his father. Nyssa, seeing how her father holds no regard for his own offspring, betrays Damaskinos by sealing off their escape route, and Nomak kills Damaskinos after failing to negotiate with him. Nomak then bites Nyssa, infecting her with the Reaper virus. Blade and Nomak engage in battle, and he manages to stab Nomak through his encased heart. Wanting to end his suffering, Nomak kills himself with Blade's sword. Fulfilling Nyssa's dying wish, Blade takes her outside and embraces her as her body disintegrates from the sunrise. Sometime later inLondon,Blade tracks down Rush to a strip club booth and kills him.

Cast

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  • Wesley SnipesasEric Brooks / Blade:A half-vampire "daywalker" (aDhampir) who hunts vampires. Wesley Snipes stated that while such a character is not going to have much emotional depth, he also said that "there's some acting involved in creating the character and making him believable and palatable".[3]
  • Kris KristoffersonasAbraham Whistler:Blade's human mentor and weaponsmith.
  • Ron Perlmanas Dieter Reinhardt: A member of the Bloodpack who bears a particular grudge against Blade
  • Leonor Varelaas Nyssa Damaskinos: An unapologetic-but-honourable, natural-born vampire and daughter to Damaskinos.
  • Norman Reedusas Joshua Fromeyer / Scud: A young, pot-smoking weaponsmith who aids Blade in Whistler's absence.
  • Thomas Kretschmannas Eli Damaskinos: An ancient vampire who is obsessed with creating a superior race of vampires as his legacy.
  • Luke Gossas Jared Nomak:Patient zeroandcarrierof the Reaper virus. He bears a grudge against his father, Eli Damaskinos, for creating him.
  • Matt Schulzeas "Chupa": A pugnacious member of the Bloodpack who bears a particular grudge against Whistler
  • Danny John-Julesas Asad: A well-mannered member of the Bloodpack
  • Donnie Yenas "Snowman": A mute swordsman and member of the Bloodpack
  • Karel Rodenas Karel Kounen: A familiar, Damaskinos's human agent and lawyer.
  • Marit Velle Kileas Verlaine: A red-haired member of the Bloodpack and the lover of Lighthammer. The script originally said that she was the twin sister of Racquel from the first movie.
  • Daz Crawford as "Lighthammer": A hulking, hammer-wielding member of the Bloodpack with facial tattoos
  • Tony Curranas "Priest": An Irish-accented member of the Bloodpack
  • Santiago Seguraas "Rush": A vampire flunky in Prague.

Production

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Following the success of the original film,New Line CinemaandMarvel Enterprisesmade plans for a sequel in 1999. Goyer had planned to useMorbiusbut Marvel wanted to keep the character for a franchise of his own.[4]Goyer compared the story toThe Dirty Dozen.[5]Guillermo del Torowas hired to directBlade IIby New Line Cinema production presidentMichael De Luca[6]afterStephen Norringtonturned down the offer to direct the sequel.[citation needed]Goyer and Frankfurt both admired director Guillermo del Toro and believed his dark sensibilities to be ideal forBlade II.Frankfurt first met del Toro when Frankfurt's design company, Imaginary Forces, did the title sequences forMimic:"I admiredMimicand got to know Guillermo through that film. Both David Goyer and I have been fans of his sinceCronosand were enthusiastic about him coming on board. Guillermo is such a visual director and has a very strong sense of how he wants a movie to look. When you sign on with someone like Guillermo you're not going to tell him what the movie should look like, you're going to let him run with it ". Like Goyer, del Toro has a passion for comic books, in Goyer's comment:" Guillermo was weaned on comic books, as was I. I was a huge comic book collector, my brother and I had about twelve thousand comic books that we assembled when we were kids, so I know my background ".Tippett Studioprovided computer-generated visual effects, including digital doubles of some of the characters, whileSteve Johnsonand his company XFX were hired to create the prosthetic makeup and animatronic effects.[7]

Del Toro was tired of the romantic concept of "vampires being tortured Victorian heroes" and wanted vampires to be scary again.[5] Del Toro chose not to alter the script too much from the ideas created by Goyer and Snipes. According to del Toro: "I wanted the movie to have a feeling of both a comic book andJapanese animation.I resurrected those sources and viewed them again. I dissected most of the dailies from the first movie; I literally grabbed about four boxes of tapes and one by one saw every single tape from beginning to end until I perfectly understood where the language of the first film came from. I studied the style of the first one and I think Norrington used a tremendous narrative style. His work is very elegant ".

Stepping back into Blade's shoes was a challenge Wesley Snipes relished: "I love playing this role. It's fun as an actor to test your skills at doing a sequel, to see if you can recreate something that you did". Peter Frankfurt added that "Wesley is Blade; so much of the character was invented by Wesley and his instincts are so spot on. He takes his fighting, his weapons and attitude very seriously. He's incredibly focused, but he's also very cool and fun".

Del Toro said that "Wesley knows Blade better than David Goyer, better than me, better than anyone else involved in the franchise. He instinctively knows what the character would and wouldn't do, and every time he twists something around, something better would come out".

Filmingtook place in theCzech Republic,atPrague Studios[8][9]andBarrandov Studios,as well as London from March 12, 2001, and concluded on July 2 the same year.

Music

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Main article:Blade II (soundtrack)

A soundtrack to the film was released on March 19, 2002, throughImmortal RecordsandVirgin Records,and which featured collaborations between hip hop artists and electronic artists. This soundtrack appeared on four differentBillboardcharts,reaching number 26 on theBillboard200.[10]It spawned twosingles:"Child of the Wild West" and "Mind What You Say".[11]

Release

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Home media

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The New Line Platinum SeriesDVDcontains severaldeleted scenes,including a flashback sequence showing Blade's first meeting with Whistler, and a music video for "Child of the Wild West", performed byWest Coast hip-hopgroupCypress Hilland featuringdrum and bassperformerRoni Sizein the DVD special features on disc 2,VHSCapture, and the theatrical trailer.

ABlu-rayversion was released in 2012.

Reception

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Box office

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Blade IIwas released on March 22, 2002. This was during a period of the year (months March and April) considered to be a bad time for sequels to be released.[12]Despite this, the film became the highest-grossing film of theBladeseries,making $80 million in the United States and $150 million worldwide. In its opening weekend, the film earned $32,528,016 from 2,707 theaters,[2]but dropped 59% of its earnings in its second week, which brought in $13.2 million. The intake is believed to be affected (in part) by the pull of NCAA basketball Final Four games.[13]The film debuted in theUnited Kingdomat number one, making $3.6 million from 355 theaters[14]and held the spot for the following week, where it had earned $7.9 million, despite a 47% decline. The film was also number one inSingapore,making $214,000 from 30 theaters.[15]

Critical response

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OnRotten Tomatoesthe film has an approval rating of 57% based on 150 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's consensus reads: "ThoughBlade IIoffers more of what worked in the original, its plot and character development appear to have been left on the cutting room floor. "[16]OnMetacriticit has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100 based on reviews from 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[17]Audiences polled byCinemaScoregave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[18]

Roger Ebertgave the film three and a half out of four stars, stating: "Blade IIis a really rather brilliant vomitorium of viscera, a comic book with dreams of becoming a textbook for mad surgeons ".[19]James Berardinelligave the film two and a half out of four stars: "Blade IIis for those undiscriminating movie-goers who want nothing more from a trip to the multiplex than loud, raucous, mindless entertainment ".[20]

Accolades

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Like its predecessor, the film was nominated for bothBest Horror FilmandBest Make-upat theSaturn Awards.[21]

Video game

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A video gameBlade IIwas released for thePlayStation 2andXboxon September 3, 2002. Reviews were generally negative.[22][23]

Sequel

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Main article:Blade: Trinity

A sequel,Blade: Trinity,was released in 2004.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^depicted inBlade (1998 film)

References

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  1. ^"BLADE II(18) ".British Board of Film Classification.March 19, 2002. Archived fromthe originalon March 5, 2016.RetrievedApril 29,2015.
  2. ^abc"Blade II".Box Office Mojo.RetrievedDecember 13,2008.
  3. ^Bill Higgins (April 1, 2002)."A party with a bite".Variety.RetrievedApril 4,2020.
  4. ^Jason Myers."David Goyer: Stripped to the Bone: Interview".RevolutionSF.Archived fromthe originalon February 22, 2010.
  5. ^abCinefantastique Vol 34 No 2 (Apr 2002)
  6. ^Michael Fleming (March 25, 2002)."Helmer scales mountains".Variety.RetrievedDecember 24,2018.
  7. ^Ellen Wolff (July 21, 2002)."Artists flaunt character development at confab".Variety.RetrievedDecember 24,2018.
  8. ^Meils, Cathy (July 10, 2001)."Prague Studios gets $1 million upgrade".Variety.
  9. ^Steve Head (June 18, 2012)."Prague Studios to House $55 Million Blade 2".IGN.
  10. ^Min, Lilian (August 13, 2015)."The Hits and Misses of Marvel Comics Movie Soundtracks".Pitchfork.RetrievedNovember 1,2016.
  11. ^O'Neal, Sean (August 24, 2016)."The Judgment Night soundtrack foretold the rap-rock apocalypse".The A.V. Club.RetrievedNovember 1,2016.
  12. ^Variety staff (March 22, 2002)."Weekend Box Office Preview (March 22, 2002)".Variety.RetrievedJanuary 1,2020.
  13. ^Dave McNary (March 31, 2002)."Col's" Room "at the top".Variety.RetrievedDecember 13,2008.
  14. ^Don Groves (April 1, 2002).""Ice" the rage o'seas ".Variety.RetrievedDecember 3,2020.
  15. ^Don Groves (April 8, 2002).""Ice" ages well overseas ".Variety.RetrievedDecember 13,2008.
  16. ^"Blade II".Rotten Tomatoes.Fandango.RetrievedMay 10,2022.
  17. ^"Blade II (2002)".Metacritic.RetrievedDecember 24,2020.
  18. ^"CinemaScore".Archived fromthe originalon July 22, 2018.RetrievedDecember 25,2018.
  19. ^Roger Ebert(March 22, 2002)."Blade II".Chicago Sun-Times.RetrievedJanuary 6,2011.
  20. ^Berardinelli, James(March 22, 2002)."Blade II - Reelviews Movie Reviews".Reelviews.net.RetrievedJanuary 1,2020.
  21. ^"Minority Report&Lord of the Rings: The Two TowersWin Big At The 29th Annual Saturn Awards "(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on April 2, 2012.RetrievedMay 4,2020.
  22. ^"Blade II for PlayStation 2 Reviews".Metacritic.RetrievedSeptember 11,2021.
  23. ^"Blade II for Xbox Reviews".Metacritic.RetrievedSeptember 11,2021.
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