Blade, or the Daywalker as the vampires call him, is contacted by the vampires because the Reapers pose a threat not only to vampires, but to humans as well. Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann, The River), the head of the vampires clan, requests Blade's vampire-killing expertise and assistance in eradicating the Reapers, especially their carrier, Nomak (Luke Goss), before he finishes off all the vampires and starts in on the humans. Blade is forced to team up with the Bloodpack, a team of elite vampire warriors led by Damiskinos' own daughter, Nyssa (Leonor Varela), and he must descend into the world of the vampires in order to stop the Reapers, all while fighting the urge to kill them all.
The partnership between Blade and the Bloodpack is tenuous at best, since they all hate each other, despite being united to fight a common enemy. While Nyssa and Blade eventually form a friendship and perhaps something more, Reinhardt (Ron Perlman) is a continual thorn in Blade's side. Other team members include Priest (Tony Curran, Underworld series), Snowman (Donnie Yen), Chupa (Matt Schulze), Lighthammer (Daz Crawford), Asad (Danny John-Jules, Red Dwarf), and Verlaine (Marit Velle Kile). When Blade encounters Nomak, he learns that the vampires may not have been as truthful with him as they first appeared. As Blade, Whistler and Scud soon learn, they'll have to watch their backs if they are to survive the ultimate battle between the Reapers and the vampires.
Blade II has a different feel than Blade, which is to be expected with two different directors. Director Guillermo del Toro infuses a lot of horror with the intense action, including some truly ghastly imagery. The film is a great combination of comic-book action and graphic novel horror awash in a color palette of amber and red. Everyone plays their roles perfectly, especially Snipes, but I really enjoyed seeing a much younger Norman Reedus annoying the hell out of Whistler. Their banter was fun.
The transfer of Blade II to Blu-ray looks really fantastic, except for one or two scenes where it's a bit pixely, but this can't really be helped due to the nature of the outside scenes. Overall, the transfer looks fantastic and the CG and practicals come through beautifully in high def, without looking the least bit cheesy. I do wish some of the darker scenes had more of an inky black look to them, but they still look quite good. Surround sound is okay for most of the time, except during the rainy fight sequence, where it is excellent. There's also a fantastic soundtrack in Blade II with some great techno music.
If the transfer to Blu-ray wasn't enough, this disc comes filled to the brim with special features. There are three separate audio commentaries with Guillermo del Toro, Producer Peter Frankfurt, Writer David S. Goyer and Wesley Snipes, featurettes on nearly every aspect of the film that you can imagine, a documentary on the making-of including breakdown featurettes on everything you can think of, deleted/alternate scenes with optional commentary, tons of stills, photo galleries and scripts, a music video, plus something called Director's Notebook, which is a visualization of del Toro's actual notebook where you can click on highlighted vampire glyphs to see additional information. Mainly, it's just cool to see his actual notebook and drawings, as it is referenced numerous times in the other featurettes. A lot of what's here in the special features isn't for the casual viewer, but if you are a true Blade fan or an aspiring filmmaker, there's a lot to love here. Literally several hours of content aside from the commentaries.
If you haven't yet added Blade II to your movie collection, now is a good time. The transfer is beautiful, the movie is fun, the action is intense and it is chock-full of special feature goodness. At only $13.99, it's a bargain.
