Blade II

Yep this is the best one, we're done here.

Story time! When I was a young bean a bit before my teen years I saw Blade 2 many times, and I never saw the first one so this was my introduction to the character and the world. My God, what a great entry to be introduced to. So big shock, we get nothing but improvements in the sequel being an unlikely but entirely superior sequel which is already a rare category, as we pick up awhiles after the first film with Blade in Russia working in tandem with the vampiric council (insert What We Do In The Shadows joke here) trying to stop a new vampiric strain that targets both humans and vampires. Great, taking a basic premise and expanding upon it with new ideas and better production, good times be here. You may be a bit surprised Guillermo del Toro directed this, before Hellboy and even Pan's Labyrinth, bringing his visual style of direction in full force, I mean it's almost night and day the style between the first and second film. With a lot more camera movement, lots of great wirework, super slick at times editing where even I had to rewind to fully appreciate it, and visual effects that you don't forget. I think they knew exactly what to give in this movie, they double down on the action cause that's what people want to see, they want to see vampires get dead and this movie by God delivers, while still keeping a good pace and letting the story have it's moments too. I think Wesley is on top form, greatly outdoing himself in the previous movie and being more badass than before. I must give hardcore props to Luke Goss who plays our main villain, I can't fully put my finger on it but I feel he's just a compelling and even slightly tragic villain with his own motives that don't revolve around Blade all the time, he knocks it out of the park for me. Leonor Varela on the other hand, I...can't tell if she just can't give a good line delivery or if her character is supposed to be more on the monotone side. You know we don't bad talk actors, I don't like doing it, but man did her performance fall so flat for me. Another extra special guest appearance we get Ron Perlman, and Norman Reedus which is wild to see him before he became a household name in recent years. Some people give good grief that Ron Perlman plays a complete f***face but I attribute it to his acting talent but I am firmly in the camp of seeing him as a goodie and not a baddie. So cast 9 times out of 10 is solid. The effects got a lot better, it does have moments where you're like, "Whew boy that looks like a PS2 game." and it is rough but that is a rare thing, most other times it is pretty dang good and holds up I think excellently. The soundtrack isn't as bumping though, but a few of the rap tracks got me so no foul there. Yeah, it's a very solid entertaining film and I don't think it's gonna be outdone, they play their cards as good as they can and I really don't got much to complain about. 4 stars, 7.5/10, this is the one to see for sure and God I was hoping I could avoid him. Alright Ryan, come on in you fffffff- friendly guy.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Man I feel like an asshole for waiting over 10 years to see this movie.

No really, Hellboy 2 is a sequel that may not surpass the original but is done just as great with tons to love and enjoy. So we pick up a few years after the first, the big red lug and Liz are a couple, Abe is still the same old Abe, and the world actually comes in contact with Hellboy. No out of focus photos, or rumors, I mean eye to eye on camera for all to see. I greatly like that the movie expands on the first mobie and does new things, like any true sequel should and the stuff they do warrants more love and attention for this movie. The fact that we get more fantasy influence in this, with elves, trolls, goblins, and even stone giants like in The Hobbit, even our main villain looks like King Thranduil, brings a lot to the table! You see more creature effects, new environments, interesting lore, I mean del Toro does it again and brings his stamp of quality on all aspects of production. Sets are well constructed and detailed, practical effects are commonplace with computer graphics used when necessary, a very good story made almost exclusively for the movie with no comic book history. The big reason I had an absolute blast with this movie is not only is the comedy more pronounced, you know with the first one it was a fairly serious story with bits of comic relief but with this one while still telling a very good story and knows when to be serious has a lot of laughs. There's a scene where Hellboy and Abe get drunk on beer and sing a love ballad, and it is utterly fantastic. It sounds ridiculous but when you watch the movie you're really gonna enjoy it. I love how they progress the characters, Hellboy is much of the same but is maintaining a relationship with Liz and gets some news before all is said and done, Abe is still the best part of both movies and I love him to death and even gets a girlfriend which is you know wonderful, Liz gets more character and time devoted to her, we even get this weird class 3 full roaming vapor in a steampunk robot suit with a german accent and you know what, I rolled with it pretty quick! I mean once you see as much as I have seen, you grow accepting of things no matter how ludicrous they are. So yeah solid sequel, fun abound for all, great quality in production and acting, and it's such a shame this movie came out one week before The Dark Knight. Yes, I'm serious. If Dark Knight was pushed back even 2 weeks, we'd probably have Hellboy 3 today. And boy howdy, is this new one going to have to impress me. Granted I'll keep an open mind but when Hellboy looks and kinda acts like that dweeby bounty hunter in Ready Player One I'm not holding high expectations. But dear lord, I've been proven wrong tons before on this show and it won't stop anytime soon so see you Friday.