Marvel Movie Project #11 Blade II

Remember what I said a few weeks ago about sequels being tricky things?  Iron Man 2 showed us how sequels can go horribly wrong.  Blade II shows us how a sequel can build upon the foundation of its predecessor and actually exceed it.

Thanks to the fact that Blade did not suck, Blade II is able to do what every great sequel should: give you more fun with characters you already know and like.  Since the first film gave us all of the information on our principal characters and given circumstances, we can pick right back up with those characters and circumstances and get excited about what they do next.  As long as what they do next is interesting and not in conflict with what has been established (looking backwards at you IM2...).

Fortunately, Blade II delivers upon that promise.  A new breed of vampire has hit the streets and this one is a threat to both human and vampire alike.  This forces Blade to forge an extremely uneasy alliance with the vampire council in order to stop this new threat.  The nice part of a plot like this is that is puts our hero in a compromising position where he is regularly in conflict with his own principles.  He is also always in danger since his allies would also be just as happy to see him taken out.  This keeps the hero in the hot seat and puts him to the test.  Fans of Empire Strikes Back will recognize these themes.  Blade II keeps the tension high through smart pacing of the action and drama.  There are plenty of reversals, betrayals, and good old vampire smashing to keep the audience engaged until the credits roll.  Blade II is very satisfying from a storytelling standpoint.

Snipes reprises the role he defined in the previous film and is obviously very comfortable back in the trench coat.  He and Kristofferson make a dynamic pairing again and the inclusion of Scud is not as annoying as you might think, particularly as the plot thickens.  The villains are, again, very standard vampire villains and do a good job of exploding into dust when killed, exactly what you want and expect from villains in a film like this.

Blade II rises above it's predecessor because it manages to build upon the foundations of the first film while maintaining the spirit of it.  The plot is a fine-tuned and a little smarter than that of the first and manages to sneak in a few good twists.  The campiness factor is toned down a bit in this sequel, but Snipes keeps us entertained and makes Blade a fun hero to cheer for.  It's not exactly high cinema, but Blade II manages to deliver on every promise it makes and ends up being a very satisfying experience.

Aimee's Take:

Ok, I have very little to say here, other than this is a movie that exceeds the limitations of its predecessor and manages, at the same time, to recapture all the fun and excitement of the original film. Everything that was right about Blade comes back, while many of the problems--most notably the plot--are sufficiently addressed. This makes Blade II a highly satisfying effort for the franchise--although it will unfortunately remain the high note, thanks to Blade: Trinity. 

I enjoyed this film, but I'll admit right now that I don't feel qualified to comment too much more. I fell asleep during part of the late middle, and had to have Stan fill me in on what I had missed. Now, before you assume that my falling asleep was the result of poor film making, I would like to point out that during my viewing of Blade II I was suffering from early pregnancy symptoms and had no clue why I would ever fall asleep at 9pm. While I saw 90% and was able to argue for a good ranking, I can't feel comfortable railing or praising the way I usually do. It doesn't help that this movie is just quietly satisfying, without anything too annoying (like Ryan Reynolds, for example.)

Since Stan has it covered, here are two adorable cats: 

Marvel Movie Project #13: Blade

Chronologically, Blade is the first Marvel Movie of the modern era (1998 to The Avengers).  It broke the ground and laid the foundation for all Marvel movies until The Avengers.  (It is our firm belief that The Amazing Spider-Man will establish a new era)  Being the first of anything is tough.   You have to do a lot of work and take a lot of risks and ultimately make the mistakes that future films in your ilk will either learn from or die by.  With all of those potential strikes against it purely as a result of its timeplace, it is kind of surprising to find it this high up in the list.  With any vanguard there is usually a fatal flaw that mars it and keeps it from reaching the level of its predecessors, but Blade survives because it does the one thing no film before it has successfully done: it delivers EXACTLY what it promises.

How am I not relatable?

To be sure, Marvel sort of played it safe with Blade.  They didn't fully commit to a costumed do-gooder like Spider-man or Captain America with brightly colored spandex and secondarily colored villains.  They went, instead, with a grungy, pre-goth (it was only really taking hold in American pop culture by this time, get out your Dead Can Dance albums and let's go way back) vampire hunter decked out in leather and weapons.  It was the style at the time and it was pretty safe.  (see The Matrix the following year...)  They also went with a character who could fight common villains like vampires instead of hard to understand, and accept, villains like MODOK.  This allowed Blade to span two genres, super-hero/comic book and horror.  That way if it wasn't flying as a comic book movie, it could be sold as a horror flick based on a comic book.  Safe.

But as it turns out, none of that matters because Blade turned out to be pretty damn good.  The plot was kept simple.  A quasi-origin story (done smartly in flashback) that pits Blade against the very monsters that made him.  We join Blade in the heat of his fight against the creatures of the night as he and his partner hunt them down, always searching for the fabled first vampire whose death will signal the end for their kind.  Basically, we are just along for the ride as Blade goes up against Deacon Frost, a vamp baddie with big plans.  Thrown into the mix is the bitten maiden whom Blade must try to save before she fully turns.  It is all very standard vampire movie stuff (Vampires anyone?), and doesn't ask us to buy more than we normally would for a film of this type.  The good news is, it takes this standard formula and executes it at a pretty high level.

The real key to Blade's success, however, is Wesley Snipes.  I will accept no one else in the role of Blade until Snipes is WAY too old the play the character.  His take on the character is tough, serious, and just a little bit campy.  Snipes knows what he is doing.  He knows the score and knows that he is taking the audience on a trip.  He accepts that role and you can tell he is having a blast doing it.  Since Snipes' Blade is so genuine, it is easy to get sucked in and want to see where he is taking the role and the story.  The supporting cast is good.  I've never been a Kristofferson fan, but he is great as the grizzled old vet.  N'Bushe Wright is not as annoying as the maiden in distress as she could be and really fills the role without being terribly memorable.  The same can be said for Stephen Dorff's Deacon Frost.  He's a villain, you want him to be defeated.  It's good.  I realize these aren't glowing reviews for these two, but in a film like this, it is better to be bland than to be Parker Posey in Blade: Trinity.

I still have my foam promo throwing star from ComicCon the year Blade came out!

Like I said, Blade sits here at #13 because it manages to not screw anything up so badly that it fails in delivering on the promises it makes.  Blade is a solid film with solid performances and a standard plot.  It succeeds.  The charismatic work of Wesley Snipes is just icing on the cake.  Not too shabby for Marvel's first foray into super-hero movies since the 1990 Captain America.  And a pretty good start for the modern era of Marvel movies.

Aimee's Take:

You know, I was living in the late 1990's watching movies like The Matrix thinking, "Wow, I live in the freaking future!" Everyone was wearing sunglasses in the dark and wearing synthetic leather trench coats. I didn't manage to see Blade 1998 when it came out, but it has a definite Matrix feel to it... before the Matrix.

 

Blade is not a terribly well-plotted film but it certainly isn't unwatchable. The story is, in some ways, incredibly simple, showcasing an origin story and a parallel; but in other ways it gets bogged down in vampire society crap and can be a little confusing.

But, Blade is a character/actor driven piece, and if well-executed, the plot can become an afterthought. (Note that this did not work out for Wolverine.) Wesley Snipes owns the role playing it both cool and cheeky, spitting out one-liners that make you cringe and cheer. The action is intense and no-holds-barred, and carries the movie quickly through all the paces. All you need is Blade and Whistler to make this thing work. It really doesn't matter who the villains are--it's Blade and Whistler versus the vampires. 

Maybe we'll take a look at these films soon...

What could be cooler than watching Blade destroy dozens of raver vampires in underground vampire clubs? Nothing, really. Things want to be cooler than this, but they aren't. They are only going to be just as cool as watching Blade kill vampires. It's the unattainable standard. It's the reason why Blade Trinity sucked: not enough watching Blade kill vampires.

In all seriousness, Blade succeeds in setting a new tone for "comic book" films. Outside Marvel, at this time, comic book nerds were having to feast upon things like Batman & Robin in theaters. Which, frankly, is miserable. Nothing about this says it respects the genre.

So, whether I love or hate Blade I think we must give it props for taking mainstream comic book films out of the glow-stick bargain basement and into the the new century. Is Blade as popular as Batman? No. But perhaps that's why Blade was allowed to put the character through his paces. Blade was given just enough room to breathe; it's over the top but it didn't have to be--it merely does what seems natural. It's not my favorite film, but succeeds where others fail.

Trust me, this is better than Uma.

Marvel Movie Project #18: Blade Trinity

Blade Trinity feels like a spin-off movie with the Blade character appearing only as a cameo.  That is about how involved Blade and I are in this movie.  It is no surprise to read the trivia on this film and find out that Wesley Snipes was seriously pissed about the direction of this movie and his lack of involvement, frankly so am I.  As we will get into a little further up the list, Wesley Snipes is the most likeable thing in the Blade franchise, and he needs to be.  So when you make a Blade movie and you marginalize the best aspect of the series, you are setting yourself up for a problem.

Aimee will take up the dissection, perhaps evisceration, of Ryan Reynolds, but suffice to say that he is miserable and ruins the film pretty much single-handedly.   The rest of the performances of the "supporting" cast are equally forgettable and dismissed.  Jessica Biel is likeable enough, but not enough to carry the film or make a troubled plot and script enjoyable.

The other big problem is that after Blade II, the stakes were raised so high that finding a new vampiric menace for Blade to combat becomes next to impossible.  This latest threat is beyond comprehension and requires more suspension of disbelief than should really be expected of the audience.  Not to ruin it for you, but apparently Blade, armed with a vampire killing virus, must go after THE Dracula.  There are plot twists, but they are either too predictable or they fail to twist sufficiently to keep the film interesting.  The Nightstalkers sub-plot steals too much of the spotlight and as mentioned above, Blade is so marginalized that it is barely his story at all.  Never mind the miserable vampire serum plot or the complex vampire lineage that we are supposed to follow from Dracula down to the modern day vamps, this movie somehow tries to do so much and succeeds at doing so little.

It is no surprise that the Blade franchise dies with this film.  Snipes is enjoyable as always, but due to his lack of screen time is unable to salvage the last hurrah from this series.  As a matter of fact, both Snipes and Kristofferson are very likeable and have the chemistry that made the first two movies so much better than this one.  It is everything else that makes Blade Trinity #18 on this list.

Aimee's Take

My loving husband is, as usual, quite astute in summing up why a movie doesn't really work. I agree with him entirely. I'll even go so far as to say I liked Jessica Biel's role in this film, and I'll go so far as to say that Wesley Snipes is enjoyable, as always, in this film. All the problems Stan pointed out are too much, though. There just isn't enough Blade.

Now to eviscerate Ryan Reynolds. 

I've seen him around for years. He's got that look; could be wholesome like a boy next door, could be the boyfriend who is secretly controlling, or could just be a miserable smart-mouthed asshole. He could be all three. 

He's not particularly suited for "hero" roles, which is why it's bizarre to see him in so many. He's really best suited to be the jerk-off terrible boyfriend that the ingénue dumps at the last second for the friendly, cardboard "good guy". He does seem rather well-suited to be Deadpool, but I hate Deadpool almost as much as I hate Ryan Reynolds. There's no reason for either to exist, other than to make me sad.

Ryan Reynolds plays his role as "Hannibal" about as well as you'd expect. He has all the wit and timing of your drunk Uncle Larry at Thanksgiving, rolling right through obviously bad one-liners, one after another, never stopping for breath or laughter. It isn't necessary to pause for laughter, because nothing he ever says is funny.

That's pretty much how this character is played. He's the snarky, "witty" comic relief in a movie that really needs none. Given the general lack of Blade in this film, we wind up with the comic stylings of Ryan Reynolds pretty often, leaving me to wonder when the real relief will come. As in, when are they going to kill him? 

But they don't. They want to spin this shit off into a Ryan Reynold's vampire wise-cracking fest. Luckily for everyone, this movie looked bad and was bad, and there was no reason to ever put Ryan Reynolds in a movie again. At least, not into a movie anyone would voluntarily watch. And all was right with the world.

Plus this movie has this horrible bitch, who is actually Parker Posey, an actual actress who may not stink entirely, but who manages to be worse than Ryan Reynolds, AND in also in most of his scenes. The end.