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BLADE
II
5/10
USA
2002 : Guillermo del Toro : 116 mins
All-action
vampire sequel sees our half-human hero Blade (Wesley Snipes) on the mean
streets of Prague tracking down a new species of bloodsucker, known as
the reapers and led by Bros survivor Luke Goss - back from the dead in
the year’s most unlikely career revival. The Mexican director’s semi-arthouse
background has led some critics to hail this a kind of Crouching
Tiger with fangs, but while the Del Toro displays a loonily fetishistic
techno-geek obsession with gadgets and gizmos, he’s much less interested
in the nuts and bolts of storytelling and pacing.
The
result is an arbitrary string of desperately flashy set-pieces cobbled
together out of Aliens and/or The Matrix, likely to satisfy
few beyond the target audience of early-teenaged, WWF-crazed boys. While
the choreographed acrobatics of Snipes and co are undeniably impressive,
there’s a depressing lack of originality and wit to be found anywhere
in the story, the characterisations or the dialogue. So, despite all those
nifty moves, it’s disappointing to see Blade II end up just going
through the motions.
6th April,
2002
(seen 5th April, UGC Boldon)
by Neil
Young
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