“Blade,” released in 1999, was a fast-paced and entertaining rendition of the story of the semi-vampiric Blade (Wesley Snipes), whose mother was bitten by vampire Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) while pregnant with him, and was born with a vampire?s strength, agility and regenerative abilities, but without the traditional weaknesses for garlic, silver or sunlight. He also nurses a deep hatred for the vampire race, and needs to inject himself with a serum every so often to stave off his own thirst for blood.

The film gained some additional notoriety because the titular half-vampire hero was a strong African-American heroic presence in a genre usually dominated by white men. It mixed martial arts, gunplay and swordplay with a story of conspiracy and revenge, and the sequel, “Blade II,” both continues the story and throws some new elements into the mix.

The film opens in a dingy Prague blood bank, where a donor named Nomak (Luke Goss) is led down a grimy corridor by an attendant who?s a bit preoccupied with the health of her patient?s blood. She brings him to a spare white room with an evil-looking chair to which he is quickly strapped. As another attendant puts on comically sinister needle-fingered hand wear, we learn that this is a blood bank run by vampires. Nomak only laughs, however, and proceeds to brutally slaughter the vampires in the room, hissing proclamations of hate into a security camera.

Meanwhile, Blade, along with his scruffy, chain-smoking sidekick Spud (Norman Reedus), searches for his mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), who in the first film shot himself to stave off transformation into a vampire, but didn?t do a good enough job. The vampire nation has been moving him from place to place, and it is in Prague that Blade finally finds the comatose old man floating in a stasis tube, after neatly dispatching the contingent of vampires guarding him.

Taking Whistler back to his lair, Blade pumps him with a dose of anti-viral agent designed to neutralize the vampiric infection that?s taken him over (in “Blade,” vampirism is explained as something of a physiology-altering disease) and leaves him in an armored cell overnight ? with the promise that the room?s shutters will open in the morning, whether Whistler is cured or not. When morning comes and the old man hasn?t disintegrated into ash, our hero introduces Whistler to his doughy young mechanic and plays a bit of catch-up with his old friend.

The reunion doesn?t last, though. The trio?s compound is soon invaded by a pair of black-clad vampire agents in high-tech, sun-blocking outfits. Blade fights them to a standstill, at which point they reveal that they are not here to fight; they seek Blade?s help. Intrigued by the request and the opportunity to venture deep into vampire society, Blade accepts, albeit sporting an explosives-packed coat in case things go wrong.

The group is introduced to Damaskinos (Thomas Kretschmann), the ancient and withered leader of the vampire nation. He and his pet human “familiar” (a lawyer, of course), explain the situation: a new and extremely virulent strain of vampires known as “Reapers,” of which Nomak is patient zero, are running loose in Prague, feeding on vampires and adding to their ranks.

The problem is obvious: once the vampire nation is decimated by the Reapers, they will turn on the human population, until there are too many to eliminate. Adding to the danger is that the split-faced Reapers are much tougher than normal vampires; their hearts are encased behind modified vertebrae, they are immune to garlic and silver, though direct ultraviolet or sunlight will still burn them to ash, and they?re uncontrollably ravenous blood addicts ? without a steady supply of blood, they begin to waste away.

Despite warnings from Whistler, who has spent the two years since his attempted suicide revived and tortured by his captors, Blade grudgingly accepts, and is teamed up with the “Bloodpack,” a special-ops team of vampire commandos trained to hunt and kill Blade. Two of these, Nyssa (Leonor Varela) and Asad (Danny John-Jules) are the ones who infiltrated Blade?s hideout; the others are a mix-and-match crew led by the sneering, bald Reinhardt (Ron Perlman) who immediately starts a rivalry with Blade, cut short a bit by a small bomb Blade plugs into the back of Reinhardt?s head to keep him in line. With his alpha status conveyed, Blade sets out with the group to track Nomak and the Reaper horde.

The hunt for and eventual discovery of the secret behind the Reaper and the tense interactions between Blade?s group and the vampire squad are well-played out, if a bit predictable, and the action scenes are well-shot and choreographed, though hampered a bit by some too-obvious computer effects and a few too many close-in angles.

Though high-quality, the effects always stand out as such with the usual slightly fake, robotic look to them. The horrific Reapers are great movie monsters, their faces splitting open to reveal an awful melange of teeth and tongues, and there?s a great gross-out autopsy scene of a captured specimen. The dirty, yellow and blue-drenched streets and underground effectively call to mind the pages of a noir comic.

Kristofferson is again appropriately gruff as the leathery Whistler and Snipes brings a little more emotion and levity to the growling, usually humorless Blade, while Reedus does well as the annoyingly likeable Scud. Perlman plays a good foil to Blade, though their inevitable confrontation is a bit weak, and Varela is fine as the not-quite-love-interest vampiress who tries to teach Blade a little tolerance, but most of the Bloodpack are blanks. Kretschmann is also effectively corrupt as the aged and ruthless Damaskinos.

“Blade II” is a good follow-up to the original, packing more action and a more interesting plot but brought down slightly by its reliance on computer-enhanced fight sequences. It?s not the be-all end-all of action movies, but it doesn?t suck, either.