Father Geek here, well, BLADE 2 had its World Premiere at Austin's vintage 1915 motion picture palace, The Paramount, where the original DRACULA opened in 1931, where Garbo, and the Marx Brothers, and Kathrine Hepburn, and other cinema legends have appeared live on stage. This is where Robert Rodriguez premiered FROM DUSK TO DAWN and THE FACULTY, where Ron Howard premiered ED TV, where just last week Peter Bogdanovich premiered THE CAT'S MEOW, where the 1966 version of BATMAN premiered, and where on Friday night Robbie Robertson premiered the Scorsese restored, remastered surround sound kick ass concert film THE LAST WALTZ. Annnnnd ol' Father Geek has been to all those premieres and more since I moved to Austin to go to The University in 1965. This stunningly beautiful Rococo Theatre has an absolutely huge screen, seats 2000, and thanks to some good friends out in Hollywood has a totally awesome state of the art sound system. It was here within all this history that Director Guillermo del Toro and actor Ron Perlman chose to unveil their fine Action/Horror film BLADE 2 to a packed and eager audience.
BLADE 2 quite simply ROCKS! It could possibily be the best Action/Horror film ever made, especially if you place ALIENS into the SciFi/Action genre. In my 50 years of Horror, ScienceFiction, and Action movie going, and I promise you I've seen them all, only Aliens measures up to this one for pure gut-renching thrills. I've seen it twice now, the first time was the rough cut Guillermo showed some of us at his home in South Austin several weeks ago, and I love this flick. Not in the same way I love the more cerebral Del Toro films THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE and CRONOS, but in that nonstop thrill a second Horror Rollercoaster ride way. This is a film I can, and will, see over and over again. Fast-paced action, thrilling makeup designs, great sets and lighting, a compelling storyline, and kickass performances had the crowded theatre jumping out of their seats and cheering... now here's what massawyrm has to say about it...
Hola all. Oh My God! I had no idea. I feel like Jodie Foster in Contact. "I had no idea. They should have sent a poet. So Beautiful..." Holy fucking shit, this movie kicked my ass. Blade II is everything it needed to be and everything I needed to see this season.
First I need to qualify where I'm coming from, because vampire movies are a tricky thing indeed. I'm a long time vampire fan. No, not just a vampire movie fan. Not just a vampire comic fan. But I'm also one of those weird, role-playing Vampire: The Masquerade fans. Yes, many hours have I spent at the dining room tables of the world, rolling dice, faking accents and well, as a good friend of mine once put it, killing everyone and taking all the treasure. No, I'm not one of those all black wearing, fingernail painting, porcelain tooth wearing freaks who quote Anne Rice and wish more than anything that a vampire would show up to bite their faggoty ass in the hopes that they'll never see the light of day again.I just happen to know way too fucking much about vampire lore. From all the stuff everybody knows like Garlic, sunlight, holy water to the slightly more obscure silver (which I must note was a major part of the vampire myths in the Marvel Universe leading to it's inclusion in the Blade movies) all the way to really odd stuff like the requirement in some myths to decapitate the vampire, stuff it's mouth with Catholic Eucharist and then bury it on Hallowed ground. It's just been one of my little obsessions since I was a kid. Now, why did I mention Vampire: The Masquerade? Well, notably because I know some of you out there are as big fans of it as I am (right down to having watched Fox's pathetically lame attempt to bring the game to the small screen with it's six episodes of Kindred: The Embrace for which Mark Rein-Hagen will forever burn in hell for producing. Daywalking after you feed? What were you thinking? C. Thomas Howell? Are you serious?) and you look at every vampire film in the same light as I do. Often you ask the same question walking in: "How are they gonna fuck it up this time?"
Now as a gamer, I had issues with the original Blade. There were elements of the film that seemed to borrow heavily from V:TM. Clan meetings, herds, club culture, powers. Stephen Dorff played a perfect Brujah leading a mixed pack of Brujah and Gangrel in a clash against the rigid order of the Camarilla. If you have no Idea what I'm talking about, it's okay...just skip the rest of this paragraph as it's not for you, but the rest of this review is, I assure you. Now, for all you Clan Fans out there who were upset at the inclusion of V:TM ideas without actually sticking to it all the way and who thought they were trying it again here with what you saw in the commercials, forget about it. Those are not Nosfaratu, nor are they Blood Brothers or even Tzimice. Guillermo del Toro checked all that at the door. In fact, I doubt he's even played the game. Don't worry about Any sort of atrocity against cannon. You can't even really classify what character is what clan in this because you really don't get a chance to. I'll get more into that later.
Now the thing about both Blade movies and From Dusk Till Dawn before them is that these are Vampire movies that really aren't vampire movies. Yes, they have blood sucking villains that are called vampires and that call themselves vampires, and they play by the rules of certain vampire myths but they ARE NOT REALLY vampire movies. They don't play by vampire movie rules. They play out more like zombie survival movies with smarter and harder to kill zombies (but not much harder to kill.) Is this a bad thing? No. What these movies lack in genuine creepiness and mystique they more than make up for in action, body count and sheer fun factor.
Now I had issues with the first Blade. I liked it, it was fun, but there were too many holes that didn't quite sit well with me. I mean an ancient, thousands of years old temple built beneath a metropolitan American city? What? But holes withstanding, Wesley Snipes really managed to capture the Blade of my youth and put him on the screen. Not the image I grew up with, but the spirit. Now, like I said, I'm a big vampire fan. One of my prized possessions as a child was my copy of Marvel's Tomb of Dracula #8, Blades first appearance, with this beautiful man in his green trenchcoat and full on afro jumping out of the water and throwing a wooden knife at Dracula on the cover. Man I loved that comic. Blade was a badass, Marvel's answer to the blaxsploitation explosion, the John Shaft of the comic world. When he was resurrected into print in early '90's in the Midnight Sons storyline (which included the return of Ghost Rider and several other long forgotten '70's icons) I rejoiced. His new look was great (pretty much the look Snipes gives him) and he was back kicking ass. But I felt for the Blade movie the same way I felt for Singleton's "Shaft": fun, worth the watch, but not the hero of my childhood.
So New Line Studios okayed a second one and I thought "Okay, it could be fun. Maybe." Then I saw they hired del Toro and I thought, "Alright, this is interesting. Now I have to see it." And then I saw it, and it blew me back in my chair. Is it a vampire movie? No. This is something completely and totally different. This is something unbelievable. This is a comic book movie. An amazing comic book movie. A fucking four color whirling dervish wonderland of a comic book movie that takes you frame by frame through the comic book action sequences of your wildest dreams and leaves you panting in your seat. These are the sequences you envisioned while reading Wolverine and praying someone would make a movie out of the series.
Blade II is a bloody rampage of vampire-fucking up the likes of which you have never seen. Remember that club scene that was so freaking cool in the original Blade? Don't you wish you could see a movie that was just 2 hours of that only twice as cool and moody. Well, that's pretty much Blade II. Plot? Character Development? Deep meaningful interaction revealing the true nature of self? Are you kidding me? No, not really any of that here, although there are slight hints of it during the few moments del Toro gives you to breathe between action sequences. No, he showed us he can develop characters and creep us out in "The Devil's Backbone" and "Cronos". This time he set out to make a movie that in his words let you "Munch on some popcorn and turn to your buddy to say 'Whoa!'" And that's what you do. That's all you can do aside from yell, shout and send your fist flying through the air out of sheer jubilation. del Toro refuses to give you the time to do anything else.
There are two types of scenes in this movie. Scenes where someone or something is getting fucked up and scenes in which someone or something gears to fuck someone or something else up. That's it. What little exposition there is comes out in those few quiet moments where people are "gearing up". I guess the best analogy is if a film like "Cronos" or "Dracula" is to "Alien" then "Blade II" is to "Aliens". Yeah, there's some horror elements, and a great fucking bughunt sequence, but this thing is just sheer action. A mile a minute explosion of images that will leave you writhing around in your chair, your mouth agape at it's sheer velocity and brutality.
Guillermo's ability to direct action becomes apparent here as he proves he has mastered the ability to sequence action in such a way that when all hell breaks loose you not only can tell absolutely everything that's going on and care about the outcome, but he does so in certain cases with several situations and characters at once. One scene features 4 different fights in four different sections of a building, plus one outside the building. All at once. No scene is a second to short nor a second too long. Never are we wondering what the hell is happening back at point A while we watch the fight at point B. There's no Episode 1 just-get-back-to-the-saber-duel moments here. You want to see at every moment what Guillermo wants to show you and just how he wants to show it to you.
Snipes is cool as hell in this, although he really doesn't say much or do anything other than kick lots of ass and occasionally wrestle with his humanity. He's very physical in this and does most of his acting with fists, but it's not something you notice while you watch. I mean, if you've seen Blade, then you know the character, you understand why he's doing what he does and you don't care that he's really not further developed. I have to say that all is forgiven as far as the hour and a half of my life wasted on "The Art of War" is concerned. Wesley, we love you man, just don't do that to us again. Keep working with people like del Toro. He made you look good. Real Good.
The real star of this film, who Guillermo brought with him to the World Premier and was surprisingly shorter than I thought he would be, is Ron Perlman. He is so bad ass in this that it's almost criminal. He is youthful, vibrant and both a likeable anti-hero and a detestable villain (at the same time.) I have been almost a lifelong fan of his work from his role on "Beauty and the Beast" the T.V. show, to his numerous appearances in small films (like his great bit in Happy, Texas, one of the best parts of the movie, in fact) to his narration of the awesome RPG video game series "Fallout". But most notably I love it when he plays, despite the fact that I've used the phrase repeatedly in this review, a badass. But this film left me wondering: why is it that only foreign born directors seem to be able to make Ron a true force to be reckoned with? Only Jeunet before del Toro had managed to make him so freaking cool. This is the Ron Perlman of Alien Resurrection, only more so. Now he's a vampire and he's clever as all hell. Guillermo was so happy with him, he's announced that he wants him for Hellboy. And having him stand right next to me, seeing his profile firsthand, imagining the broken horn (or horns) and hearing him speak, I could see why del Toro wants him. Oh yes. This is Hellboy. Part of me still pines for Vin Diesel in the role, but Perlman is the perfect choice that I would have never in a million years considered on my own. His ability to radiate cool shines here in Blade II. If del Toro can get this out of him with this role, I can't wait to see him as Hellboy (God willing).
Now, the only thing wrong with this film is a few effect shots that bugged me (and a few of my buddies who saw the film.) One fight between Blade and a Vampire is obviously CG. It cuts back and forth between the actors and the CG "No Way can anyone really do that" moves and it's not to subtle about it either. Now there were a few obvious CG moments in "The Devil's Backbone" that conveyed the same feeling to me. These movies were both too good to suffer such a sad flaw meaning one of two things: either despite how good a director del Toro is, he hasn't managed to perfect his integration of CG into his films or someone needs to give him MORE MONEY so he can afford to smooth these glitches out. I really am starting to think it's the latter. Everything I've seen of del Toro thus far just lends itself to this conclusion. I sure hope it's the latter. Will someone PLEASE give him more money so we can find out? Please?
Anyhow...this is the movie we needed to kick off this really exciting, geek o' licious year. Go see this with friends. See it on Friday, with a crowd in a packed house and get ready to be excited about something again. Buy tickets for the midnight show so you can hoot and holler with the best of them then walk out into the dark afterwards. This movie is sheer pleasure from start to finish. You won't be disappointed.
Until next time friends, smoke 'em if ya got 'em. I know I will.
massawyrm@hotmail.com
Father Geek back with another look at BLADE 2 from a premiere viewer...
Jumpin' Jehosaphat here with a brief take on Blade, the second. After a couple of weeks of taking in fair- to good documentaries here at SXSW, it sure was good to see this film. There have been only a few times in my movie-going life when I have had as much fun as I did last night at the Paramount. When I lived in San Francisco, the Coronet theatre was always this frantic, raging temple of geek worship. Loud, huge, and joyous. Those were the days of the STAR WARS SE releases, where the crowd was bat shit loopy over Luke's "Tosche Station" line, completely overtaking the gazillion watt sound system. Those were the times of trailers like VOLCANO, where the Bay Area audience would cheer at LA's obliteration by fire and lava. This is where it was at. It may still be and sure hope it is. This digression is merely to point out that I've felt my time of just having an all out, life-is-amazing party at the movies has passed me by. I'm not getting younger, you know. People, BLADE II was fun packaged up in a blood stained, ashen silk wrap.
Sure, it was the "World Fucking Premier" with the director and Ron "Hellboy" Pearlman in the house. Sure, Guillermo asked us to be a great audience, and we all wanted that for him. But... Jesus! This movie was a shock. It was better than the first -- not a question in my mind about that.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS for PURISTS
When we start off with sprays of red-red blood on green-white tile and tendrilly-mouthed villians in the first 3 minutes, before the brief reintroduction of the Blade story, and why there's a second part... That, my friends, just sets you on edge. What keeps you there is (in Guillermo's own words) kick ass action. What THE MATRIX has done for the comic book type of film, BLADE II has solidified. You have a black- on black- on black color palate for costumes, sets, and night sky and you have it look as though it was inked by the hands of comic-dom's finest. You have stylized deaths so pretty and so überviolent that it makes you squirm and shout "Fuckin' A!" You have all this, and still the director hasn't forgotten the fun. The whole point of this kind of movie: Fun.
The only real complaint I had with this film was Leonor Varela. She was a little too deadpan and stiff. Cute as all get-out, but the only one on screen who didn't seem to have any fun being there. Kris Kristofferson will be under appreciated, I fear. I just love how he can take a line which includes the term "nipple head" and make the vernacular seem as easy to the tongue as saying, "shit". Listen to Kris, you actors out there. He's got the cheesy line delivery down. The dialog, overall, was what I expected it to be: A bare-bones vehicle for the action. That's okay here. It's a comic. Ron Pearlman, you were in the house last night, and that is influencing this statement, I know. You are cool, Sir. Just cool. I can't wait to see what you do with HELLBOY.
That's the encapsulation of what BLADE II means to me. Go, people. Have fun. Get grossed out. Do it because it feels good.
I'm off! Jumpin' Jehosaphat.
