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In Blade II, the half man, half vampire has a new breed of enemies to deal with, known as the "Reapers". As you've come to expect, these are by no means the most friendliest or attractive creatures that you've ever seen, either. They're kind of a mix of predators and vampires, sporting pale white skin and bald craniums, lurking in the city's sewers with a desire to wipe out the entire vampire race... and, of course, Blade, the famous day walker.

With a high number of impressively choreographed battles, a thrilling continuation of the story, and lots more blood, Blade II has the right formula for a successful sequel. Snipes, once again, has a fantastic physical screen presence, like any self-deeming action hero should; the film's main scenes are appropriately scripted for action to take priority over logic (which suits me just fine).

Even with all the fighting, though, there is still time for the story to tap into the pathos of the character, and evoke our thoughts to what it was like for Blade to grow up caught between two different worlds. All in all, it's very intriguing stuff.

As far as the other characters are concerned, Kris Kristofferson is back as the long, white haired father figure Whistler, who the fans came to know and love in the original. There's also a memorable performance from Ron Perlman (who I hated in Alien Resurrection, by the way) as one of the head vampires forced to team up with Blade to fight the reapers -- his chemistry with Snipes produces some genuine moments of comedy. And Luke Goss must be commended as he manages to make a vampire flick scary again via his portrayal of the vicious Nomak.

Blade II does more than satisfy the blood lust of the comic book geeks, fans of the first film, and action movie lovers in general. Arguably, it surpasses the original with its fearfully dark imagination, offering a kinetically charged feast of freakish battles that are high entertainment value to even the casual moviegoer. It definitely achieves what it first desired -- scaring and exciting the audience. Therefore, you gotta love it.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2009.