Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Movie Review
"Hellboy II: The Golden Army"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: B-
Rating: PG-13
Released: Friday, July 11, 2008
Directed by:
Cast:
What is it about me that makes me fail to love the "Hellboy" movies? I liked the first one well enough, albeit unenthusiastically, and now the sequel -- "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" -- strikes me as nothing more than moderately enjoyable, occasionally wonderful, and often overblown. Yet all around me people are positively adoring it. Is there a defect in my soul? Did I need to see "Meet Dave" before "Hellboy II," not after it, in order to appreciate "Hellboy II" better?
Like its predecessor, this comic-book-based adventure was written and directed by Guillermo Del Toro, the supremely talented and visionary Mexican filmmaker whose "Pan's Labyrinth" was one of the best films of 2006. "Hellboy II" is never less than extraordinary to look at, with all manner of fantasy-world beasties and bizarre contraptions filling the frame. The nice thing about Del Toro is that he'll go to the trouble of making something look fantastical even when ordinary would have sufficed. His imagination and creativity are seemingly boundless.
Except when it comes to the story itself, that is. Credited to Del Toro and "Hellboy" comics creator Mike Mignola, the plot is standard fantasy stuff. Evil Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), a tall, severe-looking blond man, seeks to reawaken and control the indestructible "golden army" of mechanical super-soldiers by collecting the separate pieces of a magic crown. The crown was divided eons ago precisely to prevent anyone from taking charge of the army, and Nuada is acting against the wishes of his non-evil twin sister, Princess Nuala (Anna Walton).
Getting the crown fragments means wreaking havoc on the human world, which draws the attention of the U.S. Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. This secret government organization employs Hellboy (Ron Perlman), a non-evil demon with red skin, horns on his forehead, a tail, and an enormous right hand made of stone. Hellboy's team is responsible for fighting the monsters when they appear in our world, and that means stopping Prince Nuada before he unleashes hell.
Perlman's Hellboy continues to be casually sardonic, the way you like him, eager to annoy his officious boss Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) and pleased to appear regularly in YouTube videos. He's balanced by Doug Jones as Abe Sapien, his prim, half-fish (or something) co-worker. Hellboy and fire-starter Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) are still a couple, but they're having difficulties. Meanwhile, Abe is drawn to Princess Nuala. All of this sets up the story's subtext about the crazy things we do for love, as well as justifying the film's funniest scene: Hellboy and Abe drinking beer and commiserating about dames.
Yes, this summer we prefer our superheroes flawed and mildly alcoholic. Hellboy is a little more stable than Hancock, and "The Golden Army" flirts only briefly with his inner conflict over being a demon in a human world (working for humans, no less). Whatever psychological dramas might play out in Hellboy's life are mostly left for later sequels (or not).
Del Toro's action sequences are always a treat, and I've already alluded to the fantastic costumes, production design, and special effects. I assume some of the more monstrous characters are computer-generated, but they blend almost seamlessly with the real world. It's hard to tell who's a cartoon and who's actually an actor in a rubber suit. It's the dialogue that feels weaker this time around, lacking much of the first film's zest and spark. The main exception: an enthusiastic German-born government agent named Johann Kraus, voiced by "Family Guy's" Seth MacFarlane, whose cheerful verbosity is good for a lot of laughs.
So ... yeah. I feel a little strange being ambiguous (but mostly positive) about a comic book franchise when everyone knows you're supposed to choose sides and argue to the death, but there you have it. Enjoy your moment in the box office sun, Hellboy, before Batman destroys you.
Grade: B-
Rated PG-13, a little mild profanity, a lot of action violence and supernatural goop
1 hr., 50 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
This work may not be transmitted via the Internet, nor reproduced in any other way, without written consent from Eric D. Snider.
This item has 11 comments
July 11, 2008 at 8:19 am
Hey - you don't have to pick sides. You liked it all right but didn't feel completely compelled - that's understandable. Hellboy is more of a high-aiming B-movie that strives for fun than the upcoming end-all superhero flick Dark Knight seems to be.
I'm fiercely loyal to Hellboy because I feel that it does things quite a bit differently than the other franchises. Tongue firmly in cheek, it fiercely entertains those more in tune with it. It won't replace Batman, but it's not trying to. Nevertheless, that last sentence stung a bit - Heaven forbid Hellboy can't coexist and find its own measure of success.
July 12, 2008 at 6:25 am
Personally, I think the first 10 minutes alone justify the ticket price.
July 13, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Ooh. I can't wait for The Dark Knight to get a bad review.
July 14, 2008 at 3:16 am
Liked the flick. A nice Saturday afternoon movie. This director and writer Del Toro got some really wild and interesting imagination.
July 14, 2008 at 9:38 am
I've since seen it, and loved it. I don't know the first thing about the Hellboy comics (though I'm ordering some of them), but it's strange to see how so much of Hellboy II felt like fan service to people like me. Much of what I saw onscreen got me as excited as if I'd been a longtime fan of the series.
Cool fan trivia - Mr. Wink was a rubber suit, and his electronic arm was designed to actually shoot. You can click on my name if you want to read my thoughts on the flick (after a week or so it'll no longer be on the front page, but I don't want to post a direct link on somebody else's site).
Oh - and the repartee between Johann Krauss and Abe Sapien? Awesome.
July 14, 2008 at 4:15 pm
It turns out that I meant "rapport".
July 17, 2008 at 9:13 pm
After hearing all the raves about this film and remembering enjoying, but not loving the first movie, I didn't know what to expect from this film. Coming out, I still didn't know. I kind of felt like the movie didn't really care about me, the viewer. It would go on with all its crazy alterna-reality stuff whether I really got what was happening or not.
One weird thing that I noticed while watching the film near the end as the group went to confront the bad guy, I was suddenly reminded of the Red Dwarf crew.
Hellboy = Lister. Shlubby hero, ponytail.
Krauss = Rimmer. Authority figure whom no one really likes.
Abe Sapein = Cat/Kryten. He's got the proper British mannerisms of Kryten, with Cat's style.
Liz = Kochanski. Cause she's a girl.
Yeah, it's a stretch, but it kept me entertained enough to stay awake to the end of the film.
July 22, 2008 at 3:27 am
Similar to the first, in my opinion.
[SPOILER]
I was sad about the princess dying in the end. It just felt obligatory. Also made me feel like they were saying "secondary characters don't deserve love." Didn't feel very heroic either. Just my thoughts.
[end SPOILER]
July 30, 2008 at 2:51 pm
This is the first Hellboy movie I've seen, and I don't follow any comic-book franchises otherwise, so I speak without regard to what happened in the frist one or how it is compared to other movies in the genre. Oh, and other than the Elemental, all of the creatures were physically on set.
I love it, but it took some time to sink in. Del Toro put so many levels into it that I didn't grasp everything at once. I walked out of the theatre mostly thinking and I couldn't stop thinking about it. The yin-yang dynamic between the twins was interesting enough to get me to Google them. I proceded to watch and read every interview I could find online about the movie. I feel such an awe at Del Toro's creations and the plot line. And it runs so much deeper than the black-and-white "good vs. evil". Nuada isn't evil, not at all. He's noble, and proud, if slightly deluded. His aims are justified - to bring the magical creatures out of hiding and reclaim the earth from the humans who have destroyed it.
[SPOILER]
I loved the ending. The princess wouldn't have done anything else, she makes it clear from the beginning that she doesn't care about her life, she just needs to stop her brother. She wasn't going for the role of brave, self-sacrificing hero, she was just doing what she needed to do. I loved it, it seems like nowadays the "good guys" are off limits when it comes to killing people off. I'm glad Del Toro didn't stick himself in that rut.
[end SPOILER]
August 10, 2008 at 12:46 am
As a Hellboy fan, this movie was terrible. It was clunky. Hellboy always contained an element of.. something.. self-deprication..? a sordid past..? something. But in this he's all smiling and wise-cracking.. It just doesn't do it for me.
Layers? Hardly. Hellboy two has no new mythology that you can really sink your teeth into. Prince Nuada is introduced and you can't really feel his pain - it's hard to understand why he does what he does. The princess is simply a plot device and provides very little to the actual story telling. The Troll Market would have made more sense had I been high but otherwise was lackluster and just appeared to me to be nothing more than actors in latex suits. There's nothing to relate to in this movie.
The one scene where Hellboy actually reverts back to his originally-intended character is the forest elemental fight scene. There's a glimmer of that tortured outcast trying to break free that we saw in the first episode. But he quickly just shoots the thing and it's all over. It's easily the best scene but it still feels ragged.
It's almost as if Ron Perlman is just doing what he did in Blade and cashing a paycheque. And Guillermo Del Toro just likes to make-believe for the sake of make-believe, I think, instead of tell a fleshed out and interesting story. Kind of like shocking people for the sake of shocking them. Played out.
I noticed the movie has received mixed reviews. I think that's evidence that some people are more discerning in their taste for comic book movies and others just simply want to be entertained.
It certainly has its high points and its lows but this movie could have been so much better. There's no way this movie should receive more than 3 out of 5 stars in my opinion.
August 10, 2008 at 5:57 am
Actually, Hellboy II is one of the highest-rated movies of the year. Metacritic has it ranked at #4 so far, and critics registered at Rotten Tomatoes have given it 87%, also one of the highest ratings of the year.