The Shrine

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>Blade II fucking kicks ass.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>What was your opinion on the first one?</div>

<div style='font: 11pt Dominion; text-align: left; '>Previews looked great, not to mention the Lines tonight... every Blade II showing musta been sold out (and you can bet they will be tomorrow too)</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>It disappointed me. I was expecting a kick-ass film like the first one, great action scenes and a great story to boot. Instead, I got good action scenes that would have been great if they cut all that damned CG out and a passable storyline that reminded me of Final Fantasy:TSW, decent but should have been MUCH better. I adored the first film, I've seen it about 6 times already (the DVD rules too) and this one just doesn't live up to the hype. Sadly, it fell victim to sequelitis: the makers of the film forgot what make the first one work in the first place and instilled a freaking formula to this film (hmm, more characters with less development, too much focus on the lead character, less focus and screen-time for the villan because of it, severely hurting his presence, additional CG for no good reason, and a fucking love story for god's sake!).

I didn't hate it, it was a decent film. I even accepted the Whistler storylie. But considering how good the first one was so damned kick-ass, this was a poor sequel. I can't believe Resident Evil was better than it.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt Arial; text-align: left; '>The only thing I was expecting was Wesley Snipes being a badass, and I got that in spades. Though the swordfights looked fake, I really enjoyed the over the top wrestling moves.

As for the plot, highlight below.

<b>Spoiler Message:<b>
<span style="background: black; color: black;">These guys knew what people wanted (at people like me). They didn't even try to dwell on that silly little plot twist so they could move on to more fighting.

What's-his-face: "Hey Blade, I'm a traitor."
Blade: "I knew that."
BOOM!</span></div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>Man, you do have bad taste. You actually expected character development from this movie? And there was no love story. Crikey.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>I liked it a lot. And you're right, it went straight for the action. No sense in throwing in stupid drama in case the Academy Awards takes notice. Just kill, kick ass and fight.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>There was no love story? Are you sure you weren't watching Resident Evil again?</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>Never saw RE. Yeah....like what love story? They looked at each other's eyes and he said "Watch yerself". So he cared. You call that a love story? You've got Titanic syndrome, Zoos.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Now, I know you're a bit older than the Whistler character, but even he noticed. "You and Nera are getting a little close". Man, what the hell do you think the ending was all about (the part AFTER the battle). Oh, let's not forget who saved the day for Blade, turning on her own people. Why the hell do you think she did that, dammit? Geez, it doesn't have to be a Titanic-like love story to be a love story. It was very present - albiet, not overly so - and really had no business being there. All it did was take away from the film.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>He took her to the sunrise as her last request. After all, she was dying and they WERE a team. Yes, he had a crush on her but they didn't LOVE each other. That didn't even have one a tiny influence on the movie other than, "Oh, they're checking each other out." And that was that.

And turned on her father coz.....

#1 Her father had no care for her or her brother (who'm he turned into the anti-vampire Vampire)

and

#2 He was attempting to change the race vampires into day-walking jaw splitting vamps (with too much appetite for any blood, including vamps) which would also mean the end of the current vampires!

#3 Lastly, it seems the culture of pure blooded vamps have a code of honor which her father did not have.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Best line (though there were many) - "Damn, I was just starting to like him". I cracked up like a hyena on nitrous oxide on that one. What was this movie missing? It had plot twists, vampires, a suplex, an elbow drop, enough action for 2 John Woo films, mutated vampires, etc.... And I liked the way it ended on such an upbeat note. A single tear fell down my cheek when Blade stabbed that guy in the forehead. Just beautfiul.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>I haven't even seen RE, but I feel very confident telling you that you are criminally insane for thinking it's better than Blade 2. Also, I think there is a special place in hell for people who mention Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in any context with this movie.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>I thought this one shat on the first one...</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>Me too. Me rikey mucho.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>That 20 foot elbow drop done to Blade was hilarious! And the suplex....unexpected, coz everyone thought it was gonna be a head drill....was icing! BWAHAHAHA! EVERYONE...and I mean EVERYONE clapped on that one!

Yeah, that line my Whistler was funny.

And there was no "ove story". There was some "I wanna fuck you like an animal" stares between Nyssa and Blade....but that was it.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>That (along with the suplex) was pure fan service to the wrestling contingent and brilliant.

And as far as the love story is concerned, I don't know if I'd call it a love story exactly. It'd be kind of like calling the relationship between that big guy and the red haired vampire chick a love story. I guess you could call it love if you want, but there wasn't much of a "story" to it other than some stares, and about 4 lines of dialogue. IMO, it was just a plot device to add a little extra tension to the movie more than anything else.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>But Zoos was completely destracted....wanting more. Possibly frontal nudity of Nyssa......or Snipes. =8^)</div>

<div style='font: 9pt Arial; text-align: left; '>My favorite part, as well.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Gentlemen (no ladies here), this is why Hollywood puts out nothing but crap. Blade 2 teased us with a good plot, but gave way to eye-candy (with poor-ass CG) instead. Next time you bitch about poor Hollywood movies, look at this post. If you agree, it's your fault too</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Your right, there was no ove story, but there was a love story (love interest, same shit). But I did like those parts as well, just didn't make up for the rest of it</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>If Nyssa was nude for the whole move, it would been 2 thumbs up (and a lot more :-) from me. She was very nice...</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>You haven't seen RE? How do you know it's not better than Blade 2? I've seen both, I can at least make an opinion (it makes zero difference whether you agree with it or not). You've only seen one, you have no clue how good/bad RE is or isn't</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>It's critics like you why movies like FOTR and Shawshank doesn't win Oscars.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>However for a short while (when they were in the sewers), the movie kind of took on an Aliens appeal to me, with the heroes absolutely surrounded by those Reapers and just taking down as many as possible. To me that was the best stuff.

And yeah, the CG sequences looked particularly bad. Like when Blade was fighting the pure-blood vampire ninjas in front of that wall of lights. I just thought those detracted from what was already a pretty good looking fight scene.

Other than that, though, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. Just not as much as I enjoyed the first one.

--Lee S.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>Bah. Fellowship+Oscar=Travesty. And Shawshank was up against Forrest Gump, which was a tough one to beat.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>You, a man who just got through telling me the virtues of Resident Evil: The Movie and Final Fantasy:TSW, now lecture me on Hollywood's reliance on CG as a crutch? *slaps Zeus with guantlet* Now it's war.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Dammit, I said I know and that's plenty good enough for the likes of you. Now know more of this talk of "evidence" and "proof". Bah! The Great One has Spoken. The subject is now closed for discussion.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>My Foot - Crack of BL's Ass = Travesty. My Foot + Crack of BL's Ass = Justice. C'mon, A Beautiful Mind, while decent (and *decent* is what it is, not great), is just a glorified CBS movie of the week.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>I wouldn't know. I haven't seen it. I just know LotR definitely should not have a Best Picture oscar.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>If I was a critic, they would have won. Those two movies are among my top ten favs. Critics are just as bad, but at the opposite end of the spectrum, they don't like genre films, action films, comedies, anything but drama as "elite" movies either</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Virtues? No. I said I liked RE and was surprised at how good it was (read: that doesn't mean it was amazing, just fairly good) and I said FF was fairly decent. Besides, you missed the point with Blade 2. It's the same as long-time Metallica fans getting pissed off at them "selling out"</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "comic sans MS"; text-align: left; '>It must be a Canadian thing to have bad taste in movies(Zeus being the ring leader of bad taste). Well...at least Seeker thinks FoTR should have won best picture. =8^)</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>It's a question of bias. I mean, if somebody made a really good RotTK movie, I'd probably like it more than most would.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light"; text-align: left; '>Legally, you're not allow to use an abbreviation unless it's been announced on the thread.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt Agatha; text-align: left; '>Legally, you're supposed to think for a sec before deciding that an acronym isn't appropriate. C'mon. It's Blotus. RotTK is Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It doesn't take a Masters degree to figure out.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>If not that, then what? If you say Final Fantasy: The Spirits within, I'm leaving you out of my will.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Haha. So you use that nickname for him as well, now?</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>Hey, I'm "down" with it.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>There WAS a movie based on the novel I believe, although it's a little old.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>I'm sure they made one in China at some point, but I meant an English, Hollywood-style one like LotR. There was the anime which only covered from the Yellow Turbans to Lu Bu's execution, and an 84-episode series in China.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>Better than the first one fo' sho'.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light"; text-align: left; '>Seriously, Zeus, you should do one of those web pages with nothing but overly criticial reviews of movies.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Umm, this is Blade we're talking about, not Terminator</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Don't know how to do a website or how to get it known (promote it). And if I did, I would do it for both games and movies</div>