Much
like it's predecessor, BLADE II ($30) is an action movie wrapped
up in the trappings of the horror genre. Of course, this is not a bad
thing since BLADE II kicks some serious booty and proves to be
high-energy entertainment. The movie is non-stop action Rollercoaster
that features beautifully choreographed martial arts; full throttle stunts
and some very cool CGI work. In BLADE II, Wesley Snipes returns
to the role of the half-vampire comic book character named Blade, who
is called "The Daywalker" because of his ability to exist in
sunlight. Although Blade remains on his crusade to exterminate all vampires,
BLADE II opens with Blade's rescue of his mentor Abraham Whistler
(Kris Kristofferson), who has been kept in stasis by the creatures he
despises.
After
curing Whistler of his vampiric infection, Blade is approached by representatives
of the vampire hierarchy, who wish to enlist his help against a new common
enemy that will exterminate both humans and vampires alike. As it turns
out, a new strain mutant super-vampire called Reapers has suddenly arisen.
The Reapers have begun feeding on their fellow vampires are increasing
their own numbers exponentially. Unfortunately, the Reapers will eventually
run out of other vampires to feed upon, turning to humans as their new
source of sustenance. This forces Blade to form an uneasy alliance with
a team of commando vampires, who were originally in training to exterminate
The Daywalker himself. The cast of BLADE II also features Norman
Reedus, Leonor Varela, Ron Perlman, Luke Goss, Daz Crawford, Matt Schulze,
Donnie Yen, Karel Roden, Danny John-Jules and Thomas Kretschmann.
New
Line Home Entertainment has made BLADE II available on DVD in 1.85:1
wide screen presentation that features the anamorphic enhancement for
16:9 displays. This being a brand new big budget movie and a New Line
Platinum Series title, it should come as no surprise that BLADE II
is an absolutely gorgeous looking DVD. Of course, considering that BLADE
II features incredibly dark and stylized cinematography, getting the
DVD to look this good had to require Herculean effort, so my hat is off
to the folk's in New Line's DVD mastering department.
The
image is impressive, appearing quite sharp and highly detailed. Additionally,
shadow detail is exemplary, especially during the darkest sewer-bound
sequences, in which the characters black costumes remain distinctive from
dark backgrounds. Colors are strongly rendered, especially the reds, without
a hint of noise or smearing. As I've indicated, black are dead on perfect,
whites are pure and contrast bounces between smooth and stylistically
harsh. The film element used for the transfer displays very few blemishes,
although the darkness of the cinematography did introduce noticeable grain
at various points during the course of the movie. First rate dual layer
authoring keeps digital compression artifacts hidden in the shadows.
BLADE
II features 5.1 channel soundtracks
in both the Dolby Digital and DTS flavors. It should also be noted that
both are EX and ES encoded for 6.1 channel playback, should one's audio
equipment offer those options. Okay, let's not pull any punches about
the sound mix- it's demonstration quality all the way. You want to show
off your sound system, then pop BLADE II into your DVD player and
crank up the volume until something explodes, or the neighbors call the
police. The mix is highly aggressive and renders each sound with astonishing
clarity and detail. Sound effects pan effortlessly between channels, yet
almost seem to be doing back flips as the wiz around the highly cohesive
sound field. There is almost always an enormous amount of activity in
the sound mix, yet the film's dialogue is always cleanly rendered with
excellent intelligibility. The bass channel is guaranteed to rock you
world, or at the very least your entire house. Additionally, the film's
score and source music are reproduced with maximum fidelity and genuine
sonic distinctiveness. An English Dolby Surround soundtrack is also encoded
onto the DVD, as are English subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s stylish
interactive menus. Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene
selection and set up features, as well as the supplemental features, which
have been spread across two DVDs. Disc one features two separate audio
commentaries, the first features director Guillermo del Toro and producer
Peter Frankfurt, while the second includes writer David Goyer and star
Wesley Snipes. Both commentaries have their points and make interesting
listening for fans. An isolated score is also presented on disc one in
Dolby Digital 5.1.
Disc
two contains the main body of the supplements and requires dual layer
authoring to contain all the features. Starting in the Production
Workshop we find The Blood Pack, an eighty-three
minute documentary on the making of BLADE II. Certainly not the
fluffy PR program one usually gets on a DVD, this detailed look at the
making of the movie is presented interactive fashion, with access to even
more material whenever a special vampire glyph appears on the screen.
Sequence Breakdowns actually takes six sequences from the
movie and allows the viewer to disassemble them, revealing the nuts and
bolts of each. More than an hour's worth of material can be found in Visual
Effects, which looks at both the practical special effects, as
well as things that could only be achieved through CGI. Notebooks
offers a look at the director's personal notes, the script supervisor's
notes and unfilmed script pages. The Art Gallery provides
five subsections of material broken down into Sequence Concepts, Props
& Weapons, Costume Design, Set Design, Character Design, and Storyboards.
About
twenty-five minutes of material comprises the sixteen Deleted And
Alternate Scenes that are present on the DVD. This feature has
the option of director's commentary, as well as a video introduction.
Promotional Material includes trailer for the XBOX and PS2
video game, theatrical press kit, theatrical trailer, theatrical teaser
and a music video for the song Child of the Wild West by
Cypress Hill and Roni Size. BLADE II is also DVD-ROM enabled, offering
the script-to-screen option of looking at the screenplay, as well as the
theatrical web site and other web links.
BLADE
II is an action/horror tour de
force that is certain to entertain the pants off genre buffs. On top of
that, New Line has made BLADE II another killer DVD that offers
astonishing audio/video quality and a wealth of supplemental features
that are actually worth experiencing. This is a must have DVD for action
fans, horror aficionados or anyone that wants the latest demo quality
DVD to show off what their home theater system can do.
Much
like it's predecessor, BLADE II ($30) is an action movie wrapped
up in the trappings of the horror genre. Of course, this is not a bad
thing since BLADE II kicks some serious booty and proves to be
high-energy entertainment. The movie is non-stop action Rollercoaster
that features beautifully choreographed martial arts; full throttle stunts
and some very cool CGI work. In BLADE II, Wesley Snipes returns
to the role of the half-vampire comic book character named Blade, who
is called "The Daywalker" because of his ability to exist in
sunlight. Although Blade remains on his crusade to exterminate all vampires,
BLADE II opens with Blade's rescue of his mentor Abraham Whistler
(Kris Kristofferson), who has been kept in stasis by the creatures he
despises.
After
curing Whistler of his vampiric infection, Blade is approached by representatives
of the vampire hierarchy, who wish to enlist his help against a new common
enemy that will exterminate both humans and vampires alike. As it turns
out, a new strain mutant super-vampire called Reapers has suddenly arisen.
The Reapers have begun feeding on their fellow vampires are increasing
their own numbers exponentially. Unfortunately, the Reapers will eventually
run out of other vampires to feed upon, turning to humans as their new
source of sustenance. This forces Blade to form an uneasy alliance with
a team of commando vampires, who were originally in training to exterminate
The Daywalker himself. The cast of BLADE II also features Norman
Reedus, Leonor Varela, Ron Perlman, Luke Goss, Daz Crawford, Matt Schulze,
Donnie Yen, Karel Roden, Danny John-Jules and Thomas Kretschmann.
New
Line Home Entertainment has made BLADE II available on DVD in 1.85:1
wide screen presentation that features the anamorphic enhancement for
16:9 displays. This being a brand new big budget movie and a New Line
Platinum Series title, it should come as no surprise that BLADE II
is an absolutely gorgeous looking DVD. Of course, considering that BLADE
II features incredibly dark and stylized cinematography, getting the
DVD to look this good had to require Herculean effort, so my hat is off
to the folk's in New Line's DVD mastering department.
The
image is impressive, appearing quite sharp and highly detailed. Additionally,
shadow detail is exemplary, especially during the darkest sewer-bound
sequences, in which the characters black costumes remain distinctive from
dark backgrounds. Colors are strongly rendered, especially the reds, without
a hint of noise or smearing. As I've indicated, black are dead on perfect,
whites are pure and contrast bounces between smooth and stylistically
harsh. The film element used for the transfer displays very few blemishes,
although the darkness of the cinematography did introduce noticeable grain
at various points during the course of the movie. First rate dual layer
authoring keeps digital compression artifacts hidden in the shadows.
BLADE
II features 5.1 channel soundtracks
in both the Dolby Digital and DTS flavors. It should also be noted that
both are EX and ES encoded for 6.1 channel playback, should one's audio
equipment offer those options. Okay, let's not pull any punches about
the sound mix- it's demonstration quality all the way. You want to show
off your sound system, then pop BLADE II into your DVD player and
crank up the volume until something explodes, or the neighbors call the
police. The mix is highly aggressive and renders each sound with astonishing
clarity and detail. Sound effects pan effortlessly between channels, yet
almost seem to be doing back flips as the wiz around the highly cohesive
sound field. There is almost always an enormous amount of activity in
the sound mix, yet the film's dialogue is always cleanly rendered with
excellent intelligibility. The bass channel is guaranteed to rock you
world, or at the very least your entire house. Additionally, the film's
score and source music are reproduced with maximum fidelity and genuine
sonic distinctiveness. An English Dolby Surround soundtrack is also encoded
onto the DVD, as are English subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s stylish
interactive menus. Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene
selection and set up features, as well as the supplemental features, which
have been spread across two DVDs. Disc one features two separate audio
commentaries, the first features director Guillermo del Toro and producer
Peter Frankfurt, while the second includes writer David Goyer and star
Wesley Snipes. Both commentaries have their points and make interesting
listening for fans. An isolated score is also presented on disc one in
Dolby Digital 5.1.
Disc
two contains the main body of the supplements and requires dual layer
authoring to contain all the features. Starting in the Production
Workshop we find The Blood Pack, an eighty-three
minute documentary on the making of BLADE II. Certainly not the
fluffy PR program one usually gets on a DVD, this detailed look at the
making of the movie is presented interactive fashion, with access to even
more material whenever a special vampire glyph appears on the screen.
Sequence Breakdowns actually takes six sequences from the
movie and allows the viewer to disassemble them, revealing the nuts and
bolts of each. More than an hour's worth of material can be found in Visual
Effects, which looks at both the practical special effects, as
well as things that could only be achieved through CGI. Notebooks
offers a look at the director's personal notes, the script supervisor's
notes and unfilmed script pages. The Art Gallery provides
five subsections of material broken down into Sequence Concepts, Props
& Weapons, Costume Design, Set Design, Character Design, and Storyboards.
About
twenty-five minutes of material comprises the sixteen Deleted And
Alternate Scenes that are present on the DVD. This feature has
the option of director's commentary, as well as a video introduction.
Promotional Material includes trailer for the XBOX and PS2
video game, theatrical press kit, theatrical trailer, theatrical teaser
and a music video for the song Child of the Wild West by
Cypress Hill and Roni Size. BLADE II is also DVD-ROM enabled, offering
the script-to-screen option of looking at the screenplay, as well as the
theatrical web site and other web links.
BLADE
II is an action/horror tour de
force that is certain to entertain the pants off genre buffs. On top of
that, New Line has made BLADE II another killer DVD that offers
astonishing audio/video quality and a wealth of supplemental features
that are actually worth experiencing. This is a must have DVD for action
fans, horror aficionados or anyone that wants the latest demo quality
DVD to show off what their home theater system can do.
