Comic Book Cinema
Blade 2 Review (Feat. Jon Automates, Lil Katie, & Reggie)
What's this Edward Cullen, right? First versus Wesley Snipes. Who do you guys think would win? (laughing) - Wesley. - I'm not answering that. I'm not answering that. Because look, I don't know much about the Twilight films, but I know that Edward had some powers too now. He might have gave old Wesley a run for his money. (laughing) - No, no, he wouldn't know. - It went off to the universe. (laughing) - None. Or just back to strange. Only one. There's one at a baby at all of them. (upbeat music) When I was growing up, there were only a few superhero films that I've watched very often. Tim Burton, Batman, Christopher Reeve, Superman. And that's pretty much it. There were some other films that came out in the mid 2000s. Some of them I watched, some of them I didn't watch. I watched Blade 2 once in my high school era, just once. And I remember liking it then, but I never went back and watched it. So myself now 35 year old Jonathan knows that I also liked their double when it first came out. So my judgment back then isn't the same. So I was fully expecting to think this movie might not be that great, but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised. And once again, I mentioned this on the first review that we had for Blade, the first Blade. Wesley Snipes is literally Blade. It's one of those actors that fully encapsulated the character so well. I think that Wesley really should be in those conversations with Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Hugh Jackman, as Wolverine. I mean, he is iconic. And I think that this film further cemented him as that character. - Yeah, in fact, it probably did even more than that. I think it made it so that Mahershala Ali's Blade was always going to have trouble when that was originally announced. Because it's very hard. And there's a lot of characters. You can replace the Spider-Man. I think that's fine. Like we all like Toby. Some people really like Andrew. There's a lot of people today, especially younger who like Tom and I get it. There's gonna be hard characters to replace in time. Logan being Hugh Jackman is gonna be hard to replace. Iron Man being Robert Downey Jr. is gonna be hard to replace. You can make the case Chris Evans as Captain America. Blade is gonna be one of those guys. Hard to replace. - Can't take anything away from that. That's very true. You wouldn't have announced Mahershala Ali for that role. I thought about it and I thought about the Spike TV, Blade series, that's the first thing I thought of. - Speaking fingers. - It just wasn't the same. - Nah. - Just wasn't the same. - Not even close. - But I watched it because I'm a Blade fan though. I watched it in the way. - I never watched that show. And you know what? Now that you've mentioned it, I might have to go back and do a review just to crap on it. - Yeah, it's not good. - It's not good. - You got one season, that was it. - One and done. I was really glad to see that a different director was in place for this one because one of my biggest issues with the first Blade film was the choppy editing. It made me feel like I had motion sickness at times. I mean, it was just so all over the place. And I wasn't a fan of the way that it was shot in the style of the first Blade film. This film, however, even the special effects, I don't mind, and it's probably because I'm a product of that era, but I don't mind those cheesy special effects that kind of reminisce of the one with-- - Jet Li. - Jet Li, I didn't think the special effects in this movie looked terrible. In fact, I thought that they were a decent improvement from the first Blade, which had a lot of issues in that department as well. - A lot of people criticized the first big fight scene on there, it blaze headquarters with the lights in the background 'cause you could really tell with CGI on some of those moves. But other than that, I thought the special effects of the reapers with the mouse opening things like that thought that was done pretty well for the time. - Here's a hot take. I think the special effects in this movie, when it comes to the fight sequences, like you were just talking about with the bright lights behind them, where you can tell that it's kind of CG, I think that those special effects look better than the first Black Panther movie when they're falling down the tunnel and they had the suits that were absorbing punches and stuff. - Yeah. - Do you guys agree? - I do. - I don't even like to talk about the Black Panther movie because quite frankly, Black Panther was done infinitely better in Civil War. - Yes, he was, he was Batman, like he was no nonsense. Like, I'm not talking to you, I'm not throwing out silly quips. I'm just getting straight to business. And now all of a sudden in the Black Panther movie, we feel like we have to turn this person into Spider-Man into whoever else. Like, we can have characters that are actually, that have diverse personalities. I don't know, but that's a whole another discussion. - Yeah. Guillermo del Toro did such a fantastic job, a very large imagination, I guess you could say, for lack of a better term. He's given us some really cool projects, Shape of Water, Pan's Labyrinth, just to name a few Hellboy, which we have not talked about on this show yet. He's a very creative individual. - I liked it though, I like him directing. I think that creativity actually is missing, or had been missing in a lot of MCU movies. I defend a lot of his movies, I rep a lot of his movies from Nightmare Alley, to Hellboy, to Pacific Rim. Like, I rep a lot of hands labyrinth, like I rep a lot of his stuff. - Yeah, I'm with you, Ned. All those movies are just named, I enjoyed every one of them. - I did too, especially Hellboy. Hellboy was always one that I was like, oh my God, it was so good. It's, I just, I love it. - Yeah, that was that one bit where, Wesley was on the motorcycle, and he pulls up, I think I know the answer to his question, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. Who was he kissing at? Was he kissing at himself when he saw his reflection? - The car. - Yeah, I thought it was the car. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was kinda thrown by that, I was like, was he like, saying that I'm sexy in, I know it. - I was used to car. - Okay. And that's a big, like a lot of people that I know, but from back home that love this film, that's one of the big reasons is because of that car. That car is his Batmobile, right? - Yeah, actually, yeah. - It's become iconic. I gotta say, it's a super cool car. - So, since then I've charged us just like the general lead where there's no all black, matte black. Similar to the car in Fast and Furious, I think that's a 1970 model, but. - In fact, they can't even find that car anymore. Because it was a big thing. If somebody sold it, or I think the studio sold it, and then all of a sudden, like somebody just took it and now you can't find it anymore. - The action sequences are awesome. It's definitely one of the high points of this movie. Sometimes the Kung Fu Matrix stuff is a little cheesy when Nomak is doing it, I think, but overall, it's really well done. You know, this set the bar in a lot of ways. In 2004, it really was a trendsetter, I think in a lot of ways. - It's Wesley Snipes. He's easy to do that stuff with, because he was already doing, how many Wesley Snipes martial arts films have we gotten by that point? It was just kind of incredible, the stuff that he would do. The art of war was like a big one that he had had a couple years beforehand. That was his real big martial arts movie. And he just kept doing them. And I think we all were with it. It was one of those, that era of the Chuck Norris's and the people give him black, but Steven Seagal and things like that. Like, it was that era. And I think too, with the extra sequences and just that style of film, we were shot, nothing else was like that at the time. Me and it really stand out too. - It definitely helps to have an actor that is physically capable, like you're talking about. - Right. - Norman Reedus, the most overrated actor in Hollywood today. - Oh. - Shot fired. - Oh yeah, shots are fired. And they will continue to be fired throughout the whole episode, because I think that Darryl Dixon is overrated. (laughing) - And honestly, here's an even hotter take. I'm not even that big of a fan of the Boondock Saints. (laughing) - That's just called classic film. - That is classic. - Which came out about a year before this movie, I believe. - When I actually recognized that that's who it was, I don't know, I think for the character, he just real butthole, you know? I was like, something needs to happen to him. I like when he was portrayed, but some of the lines were cheesy. - Yeah. - It's some of the dialogue that the head specifically for him, I get where you're coming from. - Yeah, they weren't quite as cheesy as they were in the first Blade film, but there was still a little bit of cheese. There were some moments, and we talked about this already on the other review. We talked about that main villain that Blade had in the first film. The same guy that was in Gotham, Donald Lowe, I think is his name. Good actor, but in that film, man, there were some moments. Like, there was one moment where he had, you know, he had his vampire teeth in, and it felt like he was just trying to show them off. And he was like, "Make him hurt, make him hurt." (laughing) That's the time. I know it's so weird. Like, we look at these things and we go, "What is going on?" That 1996, seven really, to about 2011, is one of the weirdest moments in just cultural history. 'Cause we have all sorts of things that was just a hodgepodge of like, what are we doing? We just kept trying everything. All new styles, everything was punk rock or heavy hip hop, because those were the two genres that ruled everything. It was like super, super techno, like the Matrix, or it'd be like super, super rock, or it'd be super, super hip hop. And that was what it was. And Spiked hair, baggy jeans, all of everything was all over the place. And Blade, like a lot of movies during that time, and you've said it before, like a lot of these things don't age well because of it. And that cheesiness, we thought was actually gotta cool back then. We have to admit it, just like even to this day, I still like see there in Nickelback. I'm a victim of my time, John, okay? Don't judge me. - Yes you are. - I'm a victim of my time. I don't care what anybody says. They say that a hero can say any of us was one of the best soundtrack songs ever, okay? I don't care what anybody says. - And that's why there's a lot of people out there that just claim that Nickelback sucks. I'm not one of those people. I'm not one of those people, but there are entire threads of people who are like, "Yeah, I can't stand this group." Let's be real. It became cool to hate Nickelback. That's the only reason that people hate Nickelback. So that's all I gotta say about that. - I don't get the hate, I really don't. - Like I said, Katie, it's because it became cool to hate Nickelback. It was at the point where if you didn't say that you hated Creed and Nickelback, you were uncool. You weren't good, that's fair. I'm really good at picking up on sound effects that were recycled in films. I know this has brought to us by New Line Cinema. This is a really deep cut that I'm pulling out right here, but you guys might know what I'm talking about. I noticed that one of these vampire creatures that was in the Nomak tribe, I forget what they're called. - The Reapers. - Reapers, okay, sorry. One of the Reapers had the same sound effect as Toka and Razar from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. I heard that (screaming) like I heard that same sound effect. (screaming) And I know what I heard. I'm really good at picking up on stuff like that. - I'll give you credit, that's impressive. I wouldn't know if I would have thought of it. - I had no idea. - Yeah, New Line Cinema also brought us - Recycling. - in his turtles, so. - Yeah, recycled content, that makes sense. They knew that a lot. As you guys know, I'm a huge fan of Superman 4 and I might or might not have interviewed the villain from that film, a nuclear man himself on my YouTube channel, but that electricity sound that nuclear man had, that they used often in that film. (dramatic music) They went on to use that sound effect a thousand different times in a thousand different movies. It's just one of my odd talents that I have, picking up on those same sound effects from older movies, but I digress. When Blade was toying with Reinhardt, it honestly gave me Doc Holiday vibes. Like, at the bar when he was twirling the cup, you know, I loved their rivalry in this movie. I thought it was so interesting and fun and it elevated the movie in a lot of ways. - It reminded me of the scene from "Blaze the Shadows" in order with the justice, in the situation. - So that's Ron Perlman at his best, you know, like that was when Ron Perlman was like really, really looking the part and kind of, and he's just such a unique looking guy, sounding guy, just overall where, hey, it worked. It worked really well. - He does have a weird face, doesn't he? - He was a great killing in that movie though. - He was. Now that we're fresh off of "Deadpool 3", AKA "Deadpool in the Wolverine", I really enjoyed this scene that was assembled in the film. And I also didn't realize until I was, as the kids say, I was today years old when I found out that Donnie Yen is in this film, a part of that team. - It's no matter. - My oldest son, as I was reviewing this piece of "Blaze 2" was like said, I've watched it so many times. So it was kind of fast forward to do it a little bit. He said, I recognize him, Daddy. I said, yeah, that's Donnie Yen. My son has seen him in a million things as well. And he did the fight choreography for the movie too, for "Blaze 2" as well. - I think he had like, not goff makeup per se, but like they had his hair in like kind of like a little bit of a spike and then at least he had like the eyeshadow. - Yeah, his look was definitely a product of the time period as well. - Out of the time. - That's what it is. - The last time that I had the guest on, that we, the guest that I had on from the last episode where we reviewed the first "Blaze" film, one of my guests, you know, who's a big blade supporter, okay? He was like, well, vampires are sexy, man. You just don't get it, you know? Like everything that they do is sexy. Well, there was not anything going on in that club in this film that was very sexy to me, okay? We had people eating razor blades and cutting people's backs open. I was just like, oh God, this is terrible. I hate this. (laughs) - You're afraid it was just sexy about it. - But they didn't care. They wanted to separate themselves and using a little bit more of violence and everything like that, and that made sense. Sometimes that stuff is over the top. Sometimes it works for exactly what it works for. Blade is one of the few where it's like, oh, I could see it. I don't think it would have worked for anything else that we would have had. Maybe an underworld, but that's about it. - Vampires are not sexy. - Not as a spotlight. - Oh God, we talked about that too. I was really hoping that that topic wouldn't come up. We did also like sarcastically talk about Robert Pattinson's, what's his Edward Cullen, right? Versus Wesley Snipes. Who do you guys think would win? (laughs) - Wesley. - I'm not answering that. I'm not answering that. - Because look, I don't know much about the Twilight films, but I know that Edward had some powers too now. He might've gave old Wesley a run for his money. - No. - No, he wouldn't know. (laughs) - It went off to the universe. (laughs) - None. - Yeah, yeah. - Or the Dr. Strange, only one. Just one out of the maybe all of them. - So true. - Yeah. - Out of the billions and billions. - So, jump, the fun fact. I was actually on extra own Twilight Breaking Dawn part two. Because they knew-- - No way. - So they ended down in bed rooms, part one and part two. - Okay. - So the seat, the airport. - That's so cool. - You don't really see me, but I was one of the air traffic controllers at the airport. - That's awesome. You shot the film with him, man. You're talking all this crap about Edward Cullen. (laughs) - Hey, look, I didn't make too much money from it, okay? (laughs) - Why wasn't anybody wearing the sunblock? They have, they established this first film. We got the sunblock. Nobody's wearing it. Why? - Especially if you know you're gonna be using these UV grenades and everything else, put the sunblock on. I didn't get it. - Great. - They put that out there to establish that it was there and like a lot of things during that time, they took it away because it would have taken from the coolness of some of the scenes. That's the reason. - Yeah. - And another funny thing that I thought was just, it just made me giggle. Why in the world did that lawyer come down in the tunnel with all the other vampire assassins? Just to show like, oh, it's the vampires. That's who this group is. That's the only reason that lawyer was down in that tunnel because they didn't trust the audience's back then. That's the thing. - The soundtrack I thought was awesome. It was solid. It was better than I remember. Like I said, I mean, I remember things very differently from ages ago. - That's the blade one. It lead into blade two. You just kind of knew it was gonna be this thumping techno beats the whole game. But it fit though. - Yeah, it did. Techno, hip hop. That's what it was. - Straight up. - And it was also great that at the end of the movie, you knew that Blade was gonna track that vampire down, that one vampire such a perfect way to put the icing on the cake, I thought. - Yeah. - This is still one of my favorite action movies to watch. I still don't know why. But I just enjoy it. I watched it several times a year. It just puts me in the comfort zone. Blade one was the first DVD I bought. When I first bought a DVD player, Blade one was the first DVD that I purchased. Blade two came out. I remember me and my friends leaving the dorm room to go to the movies to watch it. When he hit DVD, me and my same friends, I remember us leaving campus to go to Walmart to pick it up on DVD. We were playing in that PlayStation 2s in the room, in the dorms. Like, John, I see it was just part of our culture. It was like part of pop culture at that point. - Yeah. I don't think Maharsha Ali's blade is getting made. And so I think because it was Lee Snipes and because of that line, he says in Deadpool Wolverine. And so I think that affects things moving forward. - There's only been one blade. There's only ever gonna be one blade. - I will agree with you somewhat. I think that we're still gonna get the blade movie, eventually. I mean, they're still saying it's 2025, but that's not happening at this point. There's not even a finished script. So it's not happening in 2025, but here's my theory. I think that Maharsha is out. If he's not already, he's gonna get tired of waiting and holding his entire career up, an Oscar winner. And he's not getting any younger. Let's face it, he's 50 plus. - Yeah. - I'm not saying they need to get a 22-year-old to play the new blade, but someone needs to be a little bit younger than 50. And also someone that I think this is the perfect time to cast a complete unknown. I know you wanna have that pedigree and that those great acting chops, but for this role, you need to have someone who's pretty. - Yo, what you doin' for? How you doin' that? - 'Cause Maharsha, you know, he's just not a big guy. - Wasn't he? - He was cut, John. - He was cut and he looked good, but Wesley Snipes is like five, nine. Like he's not like a big overall dude. - Yeah, he doesn't have to be six foot eight. I'm just saying that he needs to look bigger on screen, you know? And when I think of Maharsha, he just doesn't have that build. - No, he doesn't, you're right. - Even if he was five foot eight. I mean, as long as he had the build, I mean, they can put him in high heels or whatever, this is Hollywood, right? He just gotta have that build. - I would say though, if you go and look at Alita Battle Angel, where he's a villain in that one, you can kind of see how they would have made him into Blade. I don't think we get anybody. I don't think there's gonna be a prominent young actor. Black actor who's gonna wanna take that from Wesley Snipes when they grew up watching him and they know that that could be looked at negatively 'cause people don't look at Marvel movies the same way anymore. They're not like, oh my goodness, instant paycheck. Now they go like, this might hurt my career. That's why a lot of like younger people who could easily be in Marvel movies have stayed away. Like you don't see Timothy Chalamet or Glenn Power or any of them like racing, even though Marvel wants him. You don't see Michael B. Jordan racing the B&M 'cause they could hurt your career now. - People was already in Black Panther though. - No, meaning like he's not, they wanted to do a Killmonger thing. You don't see him racing to come back to like have these big roles and all that. He doesn't care. He would do a Killmonger. He wouldn't do his own major like solo thing 'cause he saw what happened to him in Fantastic Four and how that hurt his career a tiny bit. But he's Michael B. Jones, so he made it. But I think people look at that and go, nah, not doing it unless they know for certain that somebody is gonna be like really good. Michael B. Jordan have Ryan Coogler to kind of persuade him to do it. Who's gonna persuade Timothy Chalamet to be in the MCU? - I just don't know that what the MCU needs right now is A-list actors. - You're right. - Honestly like some of the best success stories in the MCU with the exception of Robert Downey Jr. But even he was looked at as a slight risk when he was cast in '07 to play Iron Man. Just like with Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, great actor, great charisma. But I still, they're gonna have to prove me wrong. I just don't see him as Mr. Fantastic. I think that what they were doing with that is they were casting A-listers. When you put that as a priority over who's really best for the role, sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. Once again, Mahershala Ali is a great actor. Maybe one of the best people that, as far as acting chops go to portray Blade, but he's over 50 and maybe the best thing that we can do, especially if you wanna use this character for 10 to 15 years, is cast a 30 year old unknown. - Cast Wesley Snipes one more time in a Midnight Suns movie and call it a day. - Here's the thing, just like Elektra in Deadpool 3, it was cool to see both her and Wesley come back, but they both look so much older now. It's so visibly apparent how much older they are. I think at this point, if you bring it back more, it just becomes a joke and maybe I'm wrong, but that's kind of where I'm at. They become a parody of themselves. And I don't wanna see that happen. - That's fair. - Just like what Robert Downey Jr. said, he didn't wanna become a parody of himself, but once again, oh, it just happens to be coming back, not because of a $100 million paycheck or anything like that. He's doing it for the story, John. - Yeah, I'm sure. (laughing) - So if you guys had to rate this film on a scale from zero to 10, zero being terrible and unwatchable and 10 being perfect in every way, where would you rank it? I'll start with you, Mr. Automates. - 10. - Really? - Yeah, really. - You think it's perfect? - For me, personally, for, yeah, I think a lot of people would put it, yeah, there are faults. There's faults in every movie, but it's 10 for me. And you know how you know it's a 10 because I'll go back and watch that thing before I go back and watch a lot of other stuff. I think that's how people should rate movies for themselves personally. If I had to rate it as a regular movie, it's probably like a seven. But for me, personally, it's a 10. - Okay, since you gave it a 10, I'm gonna throw out my take now because this is probably gonna be the hot ticket to chat. Once again, I have a list in my phone, every comic book movie ranked, it becomes more difficult, especially when you start comparing and contrasting to what's above and what's below. I have it at a 5.5. And on my list, it's right below X-Men First Class and right above the Crow at a 5.5. - What? (laughs) - Where's that in the numbers? - Number 55. - John, look, you can't name 50 better super, I mean, I guess you could 'cause you haven't written down, but 50 better superhero movies than First Class and Blade 2? - Yeah, once again, I mean, it's based off of obviously, everybody has a different film opinion, right? We all view what films are subjective, but you can see one film that might need to be moved below and it was black Adam. (laughs) But that's the beauty of this list in my phone. It changes and evolves over time every day. - This is another episode on your show, because we need to go through this list and start looking at what exactly is happening. 50 movies ahead of First Class and Blade 2, if you would have said like in the '40s, I probably could have, it's the '50s. It's like, huh? (laughs) - Yeah, well, to be fair to, when films first come out, they're a little bit higher on my list, I'm more high on them. - That's fair. - But over the years, and you know, I also noticed that Shang-Chi is above Blade 2 as well, so I might wanna reevaluate that, but the way my room is structured, I don't view a five or a 5.5 as a bad thing. Really, you don't start getting into the bad movies until you get to the 4.5s and below. Mystery Men is a 4.5, which is still a good movie, by the way, but it's a 4.5, you know, you got the Eternals and the 4s. All film is subjective. You know, it's not worth to watch this and think, oh, it's a one, I hate this. And some people can, you know, like Mr. Shang, watch it and think it's a 10, so that's the beauty of all of us, we're all different, and we all view films differently. So now we'll move Mr. Reggie. Mr. Reggie, what did you think of this movie? I know it's a little special place in your heart. - Well, I told you, this is automatic 10. This must be the actual movie all the time. That's why I'm over here today. - I think that Superman 4 holds a really, you guys are gonna laugh, but it holds a really special place in my heart. - No, I get it. - I get it. - When I was a kid, I grew up watching that movie all the time on, you know, my mom had a VHS recorded copy of it. Would I say it's a 10? Heck no! (laughs) But it definitely, it being a three or 3.5, wherever it is on my list, it's ranked higher than it would be if I didn't have that special connection. Same with Blade. I think that if I had grew up watching this movie on repeat, like maybe you guys did, it would probably be a seven or eight, but that's fair. - Like you said, watching on repeat. This is the movie that I can consistently watch and now get tired of. - Yeah. - Sort of like Eletra, one and done. This particular movie, this one, I can watch whenever, 'cause my wife gets on me all the time, what you doing, watch the Blade? She was, she was saying that to me, she'd been here's techno playing in another room. She thinks I watch a Blade too. - Fun fact, I also have the original Superman and Batman '89 in the five and 5.5 range. Some people think I'm crazy for that, but just like with Blade, I appreciate everything that these films accomplished and pioneered for superhero movies, but they just don't hold the same weight as a, I don't know, Civil War or an Iron Man one or Guardians of the Galaxy, like these films are Dark Knight. These films are just in a different class in my mind, but once again, everybody's different. - I need some movies different. Katie, what do you think? - I think it's a, for me, it's an eight out of 10. Like I really enjoyed it and I, the presence and the power that Wesley Snipes has as Blade is crazy to me. Like I would never mess with that dude in my life. Anyway, I really liked the slow-mo scenes that they had like when he's walking out of that like towards the end. Oh my God, it's so cool. And I think there were some cheesy line deliveries, but that's why I kind of rank it a little bit lower, but otherwise it was so cool. The special effects for that time as well is absolutely crazy to me. - Everyone at home, don't forget to check out Mr. Automates, Mr. Reggie and Miss Katie on their social medias. Don't forget to check us out on Instagram and TikTok at Real Comic Book Cinema. You found this here on YouTube. Thanks for watching. Make sure you like, share, and subscribe. We're also on Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple iTunes, just to name a few. Until next time, have a good one. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)