Blade II (2002 film) = Finished

I don't get it.

I don't get how Blade II is not as compelling as the first movie.

Blade II is, by every account, better. Better direction. Better writing. Better visual effects. Better fight scenes. Better cast. Hell - Del Toro and company knocked this out of the park.

So why did I struggle to watch this, where the first movie drew me in? How does the first evoke more of an emotional reaction in general, despite cheesiness, and Blade himself looking out of place in our reality (a problem not found in the second movie)?

It's because, in the first movie, Blade's world was truly dark.

By dark, I mean impenetrable. Occult in secrecy, nature, and ritual. It was a world wholly separated from our own. You can tell from the touch and the taste of it. If you stumbled down a back alley in the right place at the wrong time, you might be able to enter it--but you wouldn't be seen again.

Vampires raved among blood sprinklers, light strobing over their gyrating bodies. Blobs of flesh and hatred were tortured for information with light that burned, before getting set on fire. Violence focused not on the destruction of the body, but on the damaging of the meat. Stakes driven into flesh; explosive symphonies composed entirely of blood; snapped bones and bared teeth. This world was fundamentally wrong in a number of ways--violent and dangerous to a fault. Yet, beings existed here. Blade was our badass entry point into a world we would never know, and to be frank, wouldn't want to know.

Blade II, on the other hand made the very idea of Blade more accessible. Enemies turn to ash fairly quickly or explode with light's touch. There are some incredible setpieces and all of my frontloaded praise still counts. It's a good'un! However, in making Blade's world easier to grasp in totality, Blade II also lost a crucial ingredient: the thrill of partially-unknowable taboo that made following Blade's first journey compulsive. 

From this perspective, Blade isn't the first modern superhero film. Blade II is. It took a potentially controversial character, filed away some of the edges (while retaining their essence), upped the cool factor, and ran with it in an original direction.

Blade II is the better movie--the more successful movie too--but I don't think it's my Blade.
And that's okay.