Blade 2 (2002) Dir: Guillermo del Toro

Instagram post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CwhxdnaMHF5/?igshid=NjIwNzIyMDk2Mg==

Having only recently watched the epic 90s original, I was very keen to watch this 2002 sequel, directed by Guillermo del Toro - which is almost always a good sign. For the most part, this was a worthy sequel to the prior effort, although it was certainly not without its faults.

My biggest issue was with the CGI used in the action scenes. It looked straight out of a videogame, and not in a good way. The only saving grace was that it was used pretty sparingly.

The story was solid, but not quite as much as the first film. That said, it still had a lot of really cool moments, as well as plenty of interesting little subplots, even if those weren't explored as fully as I would have liked.

The majority of new characters were not all that memorable, and could have done with a lot more fleshing out. The film continued the trend of a great soundtrack, keeping the intense thumping tracks that make the action scenes so enthralling and fun to watch.

Wesley Snipes returned, as you'd expect, to his most iconic role, and delivered another badass, yet slightly cheesy, performance that left me very entertained. Snipes hits the mark with the serious and the subtle comedy of his role, and never fails to look the part.

Norman Reedus was such a pleasant surprise in this film. I didn't know he was in this, but I'm so glad he was. He was one of the standouts of the film, and showed hints of what would come later with his iconic role in The Walking Dead.

Kris Kristofferson returns, and while he doesn't provide anything particularly new in his performance, I wouldn't say that's really a bad thing. I thought he was just as notable as in the first film that's for sure.

Leonor Varela was one of the new faces that could have done with a little more depth. She had a lot of potential, helped by her relatively strong performance, but ultimately her character felt lacking compared to the other key protagonists.

Luke Goss made for an interesting, but definitely underutilised, antagonist. His performance was good, but he really could have done with more to work with, particularly because his character had a lot of potential.

Ron Perlman is so good at playing arrogant men, particularly at this point in his career. He was in his element again in this, and provided a worthwhile supporting antagonist for the film.

I'll also give quick mentions to the likes of Donnie Yen, Danny John-Jules, Matt Schulze, Marit Velle Kile, Tony Curran and Daz Crawford.

Overall, this was a pretty decent follow up to an epic 90s action horror, and made sure to keep a lot of what made that first film so good. All-in-all, I enjoyed this quite a bit.