Hellboy II: The Golden Army

it's always grueling for a comic book reader/fan like myself to try and watch a superhero movie. the characters and their stories are never completely transferred over when a big movie production movie decides to take that intellectual property and create something they think would appeal to a mass audience in order to recoup costs and to profit immensely. one tragedy, albeit a great movie, is Wanted. i downloaded the original mark millar comic series the other nite and spent some time getting through the 8 issues or so. whereas 300 was 99% like Frank Miller's original comic, Wanted is 99% not like Mark Millar's creation. (according to algie, he was paid handsomely to let them). there are a few things in Wanted that are similar but the comic is a whole different animal about the same guy who becomes a supervillain and there's no curving of bullets, he's just a natural born killer.

back to Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the plot revolves around Hellboy (for an explanation on who he is and where he comes from click here) who likes beer and pancakes, oh, and he works for the B.P.R.D., a secret government agency that deals with all things paranormal. he's big, red, gruff, and has a huge right fist for punching paranormal baddies. in this second movie, we delve deeper into the world beneath the one that humans only know and find a whole kingdom of other beings. Prince Nuada had exiled himself after the long-forgotten truce between the humans and elves... he's back and ready to lead the non-humans in a war to reclaim the world. To do that, he seeks the power to control the Golden Army which, built by goblin smiths and indestructible, were golems that laid waste to human race until the truce made by the compassionate elven king, Nuada's father. big secret, he eventually activates the golden army. part of the movie also centers on hellboy's dreams of exposing the truth to mass society and trying to co-exist and maybe be a hero to all the people that don't know theyre being protected everyday by him. the movie does a decent job depicting the prejudices big red encounters when his dreams are finally realized.

the plot of the movie kind of sucks. ill be the first to say it because the stories written by Mike Mignola in the comics were already so good. after a few scenes in the beginning, it was clear what was going to happen at the end of the movie. penning a whole new script for the sake of attracting a new movie-going audience is not necessary. im a big traditionalist when it comes to comic book movie adaptations (ex. hate any and all batmans between 2 and begins). dont get me started with the love between red and liz sherman(Selma Blair), thats just for the movie-goers, there is no such thing in the comics. hellboy fails me with its plot, but what it does best is capturing who the characters really are. Ron Perlman plays big red magnificently, he's hard and gruff but there is a part of him underneath that cares for others and is important because he's prophecized to be the hellbringer, an internal struggle the character constantly has to deal with.
abraham sapien is my favorite character in the movie. he's intelligent and well-meaning and is much more fleshed out as a main character in this sequel. the best scene in the entire movie involves a drunken karaoke with abe and red. on the other hand, selma blair is not good. her acting consisted of three things, angry, pouty, and some kind of sweet lovingness. usually, thats not bad, but she never makes the character stand out on its own, liz sherman is always reacting to some outside stimuli.

the visuals are where its at with hellboy2. director guillermo del toro is of Pan's Labyrinth fame, which won oscars for best art direction, cinematography, and makeup. he is a master of creating dark fantasy worlds with hosts of indescribable that inhabit them. i cannot wait to see his work on the upcoming tolkien Hobbit movies, pan's labyrinth was a visual masterpiece. in this, del toro's fantasy world and people are just as good as they ever were. the troll market was like entering mos eisley for the first time and stepping into someone's vivid and untapped imagination.

i had a real problem with the soundtrack and score for this movie. outside of the singing scene with red and abe (amazing), everything else really annoyed me. the rock songs that segued/transitioned between changes of scenery were too loud and always started a little late and too abruptly. too much attention was paid to how the movie looked and not how it sounded.

overall, this is a decent summer movie. its not a comic book movie masterpiece, but its not really that bad if you're not expecting the greatest experience ever (save that for the new batman!). if you're torn between Hancock and Hellboy this summer, i'd say give hellboy a shot, hancock has will smith but hellboy is at least based on a proven comic book character and looks great.

good: visuals, hellboy, abraham sapien
bad: selma blair, predictable cookie-cutter plot