10 Best Movie Sequels (Not Directed By The Original Filmmaker)

Blade II is such an important movie in so, so many ways.

Not only is this sequel one of the key films in kickstarting the superhero boom we're still in the middle of nearly 20 years after its release, but it's also the picture that put the beloved Guillermo del Toro on the mainstream map in a major way.

Until then, GDT had quietly impressed with his first three directorial efforts - Cronos, Mimic, and The Devil's Backbone - but it was Blade II that took the future Academy Award winner to a whole other level.

Stephen Norrington's Blade had set the table in 1998 for what could be done with the Marvel Comics' Daywalker, and also gave a glimpse of the potential reach of a superhero movie, but del Toro magnified ten-fold the ingredients that made that first picture work so well.

Of the three Blade films to date, it's Blade II that ranks as the most profitable and most well-received by both fans and critics alike - and it was this follow-up that truly cemented the mainstream popularity of a character who many films fans previously had zero knowledge of, and have continued to champion a big-screen return for.

That return for Blade is now, of course, happening, with Mahershala Ali having landed the role for a future MCU movie. But still, many will view Blade II as the measuring stick for what Ali's version of the character offers up to audiences.