jay's brainfart

Title: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, John Hurt, Luke Goss
Release Date: UK – 20th August 2008 (Previewed on 5th August)

Synopsis: The mythical world, long forgotten has upheld a truce with the earthly realm – however all this will be destroyed when disgruntled Prince Nuada (Goss) returns to wage war and attempt to re-activate the indestructible Golden Army. Only Hellboy (Perlman) and the Bureau for Paranormal Research & Defense stand in his way.

Review: Ok let me first get one thing off my chest – when I saw the first Hellboy movie, I wasn’t really impressed. I knew nothing of the comicbooks, and I thought the movie was… well it was missing something, and seemed edited too much. Then I re-watched it on DVD (The Director’s Cut), and changed my mind. I have a newfound respect for Del Toro’s work after Pan’s Labyrinth too, so I was expecting some great stuff from Hellboy’s sequel.

However, I feel disappointed again – almost for the same reasons. Don’t get me wrong… I enjoyed the movie. I thought it was fun, looked great and the action was good. However it left me wanting…. something.

For example – there is a fight with an elemental god about two thirds of the way through, and in all honesty it doesn’t last long enough. The “god” is taken down relatively easily by Hellboy with just a shot to the face (if you could call it a face).

Something else I didn’t really like was the under use of Luke Goss’ character. Prince Nuada is (for lack of a better word) cool. He’s a badass martial artist and swordsman, and his sword/staff weapon is great too. Don’t get me wrong – when he’s on screen, he owns it. The acting is good, and his choreography is awesome. We just don’t see enough of him.

The movie in general though is good – the dynamic between Liz Sherman (Blair) and Hellboy is good, and we see more of Abe Sapien’s (Jones) character too – I thought he was overlooked in the original movie. What surprised me is while looking into the movie’s details is that Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane played BPRD newcomer Johann Krauss. :)

Visually the movie excels, thanks to Del Toro’s overactive imagination. Sequences I thought were particularly striking were the elemental fight, and the visit to The Angel of Death (incidentally also played by Doug Jones – Del Toro’s go-to-guy for creature work) pictured above.

Overall the movie – for me anyway – feels like its had a lot removed… and I get the feeling that once its on DVD with that extra footage included, I’ll enjoy it a lot more. That being said, its still good fun, and enjoyable.

Rating:

Trailer: