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7
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10 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
We
meet Jared Nomak (Luke Goss) in the lobby of a
Prague blood bank. Pasty white, with an unhealthy
cough, he appears to desperately need the money
being offered as an incentive to donate. He's
led deep into the building, strapped to a chair
and taunted by his hosts. They are (of course)
vampires and have found something odd about his
blood. They plan to take it all and leave Jared
a desiccated husk. Nomak dispatches his would
be attackers with great violence and announces
to the watching surveillance camera, "I hate
vampires."
Thus
opens Blade II, one
of the most successful film sequels in years.
We're told that Whistler (Kris Kristofferson)
didn't manage to kill himself before being turned
into a vampire in the previous film and Blade
(Wesley Snipes) has spent the intervening two
years tracking his captors. After finding and
freeing Whistler from both his prison and the
vampire virus, we meet Scud (Norman Reedus), Blade's
newest ally and weapons manufacturer. Whistler
and Scud dislike each other on sight but their
animosity is put on hold by the intrusion of two
vampire commandos. They claim to be messengers
from the governing vampire council, seeking a
meeting with Blade. He agrees to the conference,
and is told about Nomak and the virulent strain
of vampirism of which Nomak is the carrier. This
new species of supercharged bloodsuckers are called
"Reapers" and are as much a danger to
the Undead as to humans. Any wounded vampire becomes
a Reaper, spreading the infection. At the rate
Reapers are being created the entire human race
will be history in under a year. Blade agrees
to hunt down Nomak with a team of vampire soldiers
that were originally trained to kill Blade himself
— and this comic book horror/action hybrid takes
off like a rocket.
The folks behind this movie
did the near impossible. They made a sequel that
lives up to the original, and in some ways, surpasses
it. Just when you think the film has shown you
everything it's got, it hits you with something
new. Unlike many sequels this film seems to actually
improve on repeat viewings. When I saw this in
the theater I felt it was good but not as good
as the original Blade.
But my estimate of its quality went up after a
second trip to the cinema, and having watched
it a few more times on DVD I feel it's nearly
an equal to the first. I'm almost afraid to watch
it again for fear I'll forget the first film altogether!
The main reason for Blade
II's high level of quality is the one-two
punch of returning writer David Goyer and the
inspired choice of Guillermo del Toro as director.
Goyer proves once again that he is the perfect
man to be translating this tale to the screen;
del Toro was born to direct comic book films.
Since both men are actually fans of comics, they
bring a strong understanding of what can and cannot
be put convincingly on the screen. In the past,
far too many filmmakers with no love of comic
books have attempted comic adaptations, always
with a ham-handedness that leaves fans shaking
their heads in disgust. Even the most successful
of comic book films can cause that wee small 'fan
voice' to cry out in the wilderness: "Why change
a character and story that has been around for
decades? All you have to do is tell the story
as written!" Of course there are many reasons
that Hollywood changes things when translating
from page to screen, but often the changes made
to beloved characters are so unnecessary and arbitrary
that it's obvious no thought or care went into
the decision. Fans are willing to accept some
changes — just don't treat comic lovers as if
they're barely literate yokels. We love our stories
and appreciate a level of respect for them. We
know these stories aren't Shakespeare, but they
ARE modern myths and legends and should be seen
as worthy of some serious attention, not a hack
job done for a quick paycheck. I'd say the same
to any filmmaker... If you don't like the work
you're adapting, step away from the project!
Luckily with the Blade
films we have a group of people who love the medium
for both its form and content, so we've had two
very good films. With this one, all involved seem
to have felt that the basics have been laid out,
so now we can add depth and detail to this comic
book world. Del Toro brought along production
designer Carol Spier and fellow Mexican national
Gabriel Beristain as director of photography.
Together they create one of the most beautiful
and textured horror films in years. It is both
fantastically detailed and hyper-real, giving
a sense of an animated movie brought to (real?)
life. I've been an admirer of Carol Spier's work
for David Cronenberg for years but here she's
done some of her best work yet. She's built huge
sets combining futuristic technology with gothic
stonework architecture that seem so natural and
functional that I was shocked to see the seams
in the behind the scenes footage.
Another great element in Blade
II is not only the truly scary and shocking
design of the Reapers, but the brilliant decision
to use a combination of practical, physical special
effects and CGI post production effects to augment
and elaborate the on-set work. This nearly seamless
molding of effects makes the horrific moments
even more stunning, as they are accomplished with
none of the usual editing tricks we've all become
accustomed to over the years. No two-second cut
away of the victim's eyes to allow for the effect
shot to be placed into the scene — it's all right
there in one bloody shot. It still gives me the
shivers! Now that I've praised the CGI work in
Blade II, let me
also make note of my one real disappointment with
the effects. There is one shot (del Toro would
claim two) that really stinks; it yanks me right
out of the film every time. When the two vampire
messengers are fighting Blade in his hideout there
is an action sequence done with CGI that looks
like it floated in from a video game. Both combatants
are very crudely animated, with no weight or inertia.
It looks awful. I've read a lot of complaints
about the CGI work in the movie but this scene
is the only one I dislike. The rest flow very
well and are as close to perfect CGI integration
as I've seen... But that one 8 second sequence
is terrible.
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The
latest in New Line's Platinum DVD series, Blade
II is a flawless 2-disc presentation of the
film. I cannot imagine a better way of watching
this movie on video. The movie is letterboxed at
1.85:1, and with a choice of 5.1 Surround, 6.1 DTS
Surround, or simple stereo Surround any home theater
is going to sound fantastic. They've even thrown
in a 5.1 mix of the score on its own isolated track
and two separate commentary tracks. The first is
with director Guillermo del Toro and producer Peter
Frankfort and may go down as one of the funniest
such tracks ever recorded for DVD. Del Toro is an
amazingly funny man and his friendship with Frankfort
makes for a loose but very informative commentary
that shines light onto much more than just the film
at hand. Some of the things they touch on are that
New Line auctioned off all the props from the first
movie; the film was shot without a second unit at
del Toro's request and the name of the blood milking
facility in which Whistler is held prisoner. Generally
I feel that that once I've gotten though a DVD commentary
I'll probably never listen to it again, but I've
already gone back to listen to parts of this one
and can't wait for others to hear it. The second
track is by David Goyer and star Wesley Snipes.
While good (relating even more production stories),
it can't beat del Toro's profanity-laced comments
for sheer fun.
Now we come to disc number two...
where the MAJOR extras lie in wait! First up is
Blood Pact, an 83-minute documentary that
covers most aspects of the production from pre-
to post-production, even taking us inside the studio
when the score was being recorded. Blood Pact's
running time is deceptive, as at different spots
there are branching segments that can be accessed
when a vampire glyph pops onto the screen adding
at least another 20 minutes to the documentary.
Del Toro also pops up to introduce the Deleted and
Alternate Scenes section. This bit is 23 minutes
in length (viewable with or without commentary),
and though the director refers to most of it as
crap, it's still pretty interesting. Among the hours
of stuff on Disc 2 there is a 53-minute chunk of
the video progress reports the practical effects
team sent to del Toro to show how their work was
advancing; a reproduction of several pages of the
director's notebook detailing visual ideas for the
movie; an art gallery of storyboards and set design
artwork; the teaser and theatrical trailers; a Cypress
Hill music video and a 3-minute ad for the Blade
II video game touted as a 'survival guide'.
There may be more hidden away somewhere on this
sucker, but I finally had to stop myself... I didn't
even try to play with the DVD-ROM features! Films
like this are always going to have detractors, complaining
about one thing or another, but as far as comic
book movies go, this is a high water mark. Blade
II is a solid, very entertaining film that
makes no apologies for its pedigree and invites
viewers to go for a dark, violent and exciting ride.
I liked the film a lot, the DVD is simply great
and I hope the same team is able to pull off a successful
"Blade III" someday. 10/03/02 |
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