Jul
12
“Hellboy II: The Golden Army” Review
Filed Under Blockbusters, Comics, Movies
It’s difficult for me to write a review of a movie I really, really liked. I find it much easier to tear down a piece of flotsam than to write some valentine. I dunno. When I get overly praiseworthy, I feel that I sound too hyperbolic and even somewhat insincere. If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll note my overall tone’s more than a little sarcastic. It’s hard to switch gears. At any rate, “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” is going to be a challenge for me to critique because it’s just a great time at the movies. What’s there to criticize?
I watched the first film again the other day. It’s something I’ve seen quite a few times. I like it, but it feels a bit restrained — as restrained as director Guillermo del Toro can get. The man can wring a lot of production value out of a limited budget. Still, Revolution Studios was not completely sold on the concept (”Does he have to be called ‘Hellboy?’”), nor character actor Ron Perlman in the titular role. So the movie’s a bit of a compromise, one that did break-even business at the domestic box office.
The film found a second life on DVD, and after del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” picked up some Academy Awards in ‘07, there was finally some talk about a Hellboy sequel; the first one had opened in the Spring of ‘04. Revolution ultimately put the property into turnaround, allowing Universal — a more monster movie-friendly studio — to pick up the rights. Del Toro was given a meatier budget and some creative freedom this time around. The end product is the best summer movie since last May’s “Iron Man.”
For all the movies that try to suck every ounce of fantasy out of the proceedings (Hello, Christopher Nolan’s take on Batman!), “Hellboy II” is unabashedly fantastic. People always talk about how they go to the movies to escape from the mundane, but their pickings are slim these days. Everything is so stripped down, so gritty, so “realistic,” it’s hardly worth the bother. Movies seem to have given up on trying to transport you to another world. I’m not sure if it’s because the filmmakers lack imagination or if it’s the audience; I guess it could be both.
“Hellboy II” is most certainly not lacking in imagination. This time, the red-skinned demon-from-hell/government spook is pitted against Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), an elf who’s had it up to here with the human race and wants to wage a bit of preemptive war against us with the invincible Golden Army. We humans, it seems, have been infringing upon the elven fantasy world for some time now — ever since a shaky truce was formed between our race and theirs long ago.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see the fantasy world win. Del Toro’s created such a brilliantly realized universe — so textured and alive is the Troll Market sequence — that it’s easy to be cynical about the boring old human race. Watching characters like Hellboy as well as his fellow BPRD agents Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and Johann Krauss (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) betray their very nature to save our skins means they must see some potential in us that I don’t…or they’re the biggest chumps in this or any plane of reality.
Speaking of the supporting cast, fish-man Abe Sapien and Johann Krauss — a cloud of ectoplasm housed in a diving suit — aren’t simply visual gags, but full-bodied characters, like Hellboy. One criticism I have of the first film is that Sapien sits out the final act. This time around, he’s given much more to do and even a love interest in Princess Nuala. Setting aside my dislike for “Family Guy,” I found Seth MacFarlane’s vocal work on Krauss to be a revelation. Del Toro’s design of Krauss’ helmet also allows for the character to emote, by twittering his little mandibles and exhaling clouds of ectoplasmic breath when he’s frustrated.
I knew that the characters in this movie were brilliantly realized when a major action sequence — Hellboy vs. the Elemental — takes place immediately after Hellboy’s punch-up with the iron-fisted Mr. Wink. I’d hoped for a bit of a break, a few minutes of interplay among these weirdos before the next big setpiece. But del Toro still packs in several excellent character moments throughout the film. He loves living in this universe, too.
At the screening I attended last night, del Toro introduced the movie and then gave a brief Q&A afterwards. He’s every bit as humble and gleefully profane in person as he is on DVD commentaries. The vibe that geeks like me get off him is that he’s one of us, albeit infinitely more talented. He simply wants to play in Hellboy creator Mike Mignola’s sandbox and brings so much of his own magic to the material as well. He’s turned down a crack at the Harry Potter franchise, “I Am Legend” and other big studio projects to make both Hellboy movies. Good on him. In a summer jammed with one cynical franchise installment after another, it’s refreshing to see one hell of an entertaing movie by one hell of a filmmaker.
-Brad Lohan
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[…] about the new films. Guillermo del Toro is attached to direct them. Now I love GDT. “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” is a great bit of comic book fantasy, the kind of fantasy that works for me. Maybe, just […]