My first thought when I discovered that I was assigned to review Blade II this weekend was that my editors had come up with a devious plan to punish me for missing the last staff meeting.

My Blade II experience only got worse when I went to the theater a half hour before show time, waited in line in the cold for 20 minutes and made it to the box office to find the show had been sold out. I got a ticket to the second showing, which sold out before the first had even begun.

All I could think was, "Who knew?"

I had no idea Blade II would garner such a huge turnout. The theater was overloaded with testosterone. As a self-proclaimed queen of chick flicks, I was very intimidated by this guy movie. How was I, who associated the film's star, Wesley Snipes, with his drag queen role in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, supposed to review this film?

I turned to my fellow moviegoers for help. Eric Rook (senior-computer science) said it best.

"It's pure action flick with Wesley Snipes kicking ass," Rook said.

Ah, I've seen the light.

And Rook was right — the ass kicking began the second the lights to the theater dimmed.

In Blade II, Snipes is Blade — half man, half vampire. The film opens with Snipes saying in a voice over, "Forget what you think, vampires exist." That was the extent of plot setup in this film.

The lack of plot was covered up by tons of action. Many times there was so much jumping around, sword fighting, flipping, running and strobe lighting that I thought it would be easier on the eyes to see this film on a small screen. Directed by Guillermo del Toro (no relation to Benicio), the film was loud and abrupt. It had its fair share of special effects — when a vampire died, it disintegrated to ash. This was cool the first time, but after the twentieth vaporized vampire, I was checking my watch.

Blade's quest in Blade II is to save the world from completely being overrun by vampires that are immune to everything but sunlight.

Most in the theater had seen 1998's Blade directed by Stephen Norrington. The films are based on a Marvel Comics books' character of the same name.

Kris Kristofferson, who plays Whistler, Blade's mentor, is the only cast member besides Snipes who returned for the second film.

Kristofferson was fair in the film; he definitely was outshone by Snipes. Snipes was strong, memorable and at times even witty in his role as Blade.

I went to the film with an open mind, even though horror and action films are not my thing. I've been known to recommend action films before, but I can't recommend Blade II.

Snipes' beautifully sculpted arms almost won me over; unfortunately the blood baths, guts, sword-fighting and sewer scenes counteracted them.

I'm not the only one who was not impressed with Blade II.

Andy Bouvé (junior-film and video) said Blade II was horrible compared to the first.

"Blade actually had somewhat of a story; Blade II does not," Bouvé said.