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Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Movie Review
July 29, 2008
Directed by Guillermo del
Toro
Starring Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, John Hurt, Luke Goss,
Anna Walton, Jeffrey Tambor, and the voice of Seth MacFarlane.
Backstory
Everytime I saw the trailers for Hellboy
II and they said "from the visionary director of Pan's Labrynth," I'd giggle
like a crazy man. It was funny...because it was true!
It seemed like only I knew that Guillermo del Toro was a huge
fan of the original Hellboy
comics, had directed the first film, and was trying desperatly to do a
second one, but only the critical acclaim of Pan's
Labrynth gave him the power to do it. The
critics were largely positive, but all my friends who are die-hard
Hellboy fans found it somewhat disappointing. I walked into
the theatre unsure of what to expect.
Plot
Things are going rough for Hellboy, mainly that his girlfriend Liz is
very irratable lately. And then, when they're sent out on a
case, Hellboy sees his chance, and decides to blow the cover of the
BPRD so he can finally hang out with humans. Because of this
digression, a new agent is sent in to oversee Hellboy and his crew:
Dr. Johann Krauss, a ghost in a containment suit.
As their investigation continues, we learn that Nuada, prince
of the elves, is getting ready to unleash the mythical Golden Army so
the creatures of myth and folklore can once again roam free.
The only thing that can help our heroes is Nuada's sister,
Nuala, who Abe Sapien just happens to fall in love with. Can
our heroes stop Nuada and save the world? Will the world come
to accept Hellboy for who he is?
What I Liked
In many ways, this is like the great fantasy films of the 1980s that I
was raised on. Massive sets, a large assortment of
animatronic creatures...very cool. Ron Perlman once again
puts in a great performance as Hellboy, and there's just lots of very
nice eye candy.
What I
Didn't Like
One thing that strikes me about superhero films is that, when we hit
the third film, there's this feeling that the filmmakers went, "Screw
it! Let's just thrown in all the cool stuff that we always
wanted to do!" This feeling really comes through in Hellboy II, and it makes the
plot a little baffling.
Final
Assessment
big, goofy fun.
3 Nibs
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