Anyone stating that Hollywood is creatively tapped out has obviously failed to account for Guillermo del Toro. At the risk of sounding cheese ball, raw imagination consistently comes to life in his films, and “Hellboy II” is the strongest example of this to date. Falling comfortably instep with 2004’s original “Hellboy”, yet managing to push the concepts and characters into entirely new places, this is a worthwhile sequel that constructively builds upon an already firm foundation, most notably its innovative comic book source material by creator Mike Mignola. Unfortunately when it comes to the box office in this already super hero-crowded summer, this film will no doubt find itself trying to live up to the name of its comic publisher - Dark Horse. But then again, the first film survived an uphill battle for recognition, resulting in an extended cut DVD re-release, a couple of great animated movies, and of course this sequel. So hopefully audiences will be willing to look beyond “Wall-E” and “Hancock” to throw the Big Red One a little love.
Speaking of love, this story finds Hellboy’s love life with the flammable Liz Sherman (Selma Blair, better this time around) on the rocks, which should be no surprise considering the dubious origins of their romantic relationship (Hellboy as an emotional rescuer = uneven ground for love). Of course, all of this mushy stuff will have to wait, as there is a new supernatural threat to humanity in the form of an albino warrior called Prince Nuada, played by Luke Goss. Nuada is P.O.ed at mankind for being too self-aborbed, (at least that’s what I think he said – honestly, this aspect of the film could use a little clarification) and for that, the invincible golden army of folklore must be unleashed upon the earth. But to do that, he needs to assemble and then don a magical broken crown, the pieces of which are held by his royal father and twin sister, Nuala. Nuada will do what he must to achieve his goals, but of course Hellboy and the gang from the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) stand in his way.
Considering what we’ve seen of Hellboy and his fellow B.P.R.D.ers, they could probably handle this guy without too much fuss, except that Nuada strikes at a particularly vulnerable time for all involved, including the Bureau itself. Besides the aforementioned strife between Hellboy and Liz, human bureaucrat and perpetual straight-man Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) has to deal with Hellboy’s public outing. For this, a questionable new character is introduced, Dr. Yohann Kraus (played by James Dodd and voiced by “The Family Guy’s” Seth MacFarlane), who is a German ectoplasmic mist contained in a modified antique diving suit. Between Kraus’ German origins and his bureaucratic mission statement, Hellboy has it in for this guy from the start. And then there’s empathic teammate Abe Sapien’s (Doug Jones) newfound infatuation with Nuala, resulting from the compelling fact that she is the first person he has been physically unable to read like an open book. Nuala is a beauty to be sure, but her feminine mystique doesn’t justify her considerable family baggage, a fact that invites plenty of otherwise avoidable trouble.
Hopefully it is clear that despite the outward strangeness of these characters and the work they do (keeping earth safe from monsters), there is nonetheless a strong human element that is vital to this story. This is all the more relevant considering the shockingly unceremonious absence of John Myers, the wide-eyed young newbie from the first film, played by Rupert Evans. Myers, by any fair guestimation a studio mandated character existing only to help audiences navigate this unquestionably odd terrain for the first time, is barely mentioned this time around, heralding del Toro’s raising stature in the business post “Pan’s Labyrinth”. Out goes the good looking white kid, in comes Yohann Kraus. This seems to be del Toro and company flipping the bird to any conventional precepts of what a summer blockbuster ought to be. Good riddance to those precepts where they are not necessary. When weirdness overload is my biggest complaint about a film (and “Hellboy II” is absolutely one weird thing after another), that complaint quite often becomes a reason to love it all the more. Such is the case with this film.
Perhaps warming up for his stint on “The Hobbit”, del Toro gets things started with a convoluted expository bang in a golden army backstory sequence that appears to completely done in old school Ray Harryhausen model animation style. It is nice to see John Hurt return as Hellboy’s father figure Bruttenholm for this flashback. Everyone is in fine form this time around, particularly Ron Perlman who continues to embrace Hellboy as the role he was born to play.
This film has more vision and imagination on the tip of Hellboy’s tail than most movies have, period. For that reason, I’ll overlook its minor narrative shortcomings, and advise all lovers of the creative and exciting to march to your nearby theater for “The Golden Army”.
- Jim Tudor
I've always found del Toro's Hollywood efforts the less of his work, but they are still pretty solid in the entertainment department, in particular BLADE II. The fact that the actor who played the villain from Blade 2 is again on villain duty here makes me pretty happy actually.
In the end I'll take Cronos, Pan's or Devil's Backbone over Mimic, Blade and Hellboy though.
I'm kind of miffed that he is wasting his time with the upcoming Hobbit movie.
Yeah, his spanish movies are fantastic and badass....
Okay, okay, maybe "Hollywood" was the wrong word to convey what I was trying to say. "Film business", or something to that effect would've been better. But, as both previous posts point out, del Toro IS working effectively within the Hollywood system. One would think that in order to be a global force in the film business as he's become, he'd have to go that route, at least some of the time. Looking at the recent Entertainment Weekly article where he list his influences, they are mostly American in origin (Looney Tunes, Universal Monsters, Swamp Thing, Jack Kirby, etc). I doubt he has as big a beef with occasionally "going Hollywood" as some of his fans seem to have with him doing so. For my money, I enjoyed the Hellboy films more than "Pan's Labyrinth", but then again, I'm just that kind of geek. I'd hate to sell del Toro short by lumping his Hollywood films over here, and his Mexican/Spanish films over there, claiming that one type is somehow more valid than the other.
Anyhow, no review is perfect, I guess I shot myself in the foot right out of the gate on this one. Hopefully more people will venture passed that first sentence...
I think what can be affirmed without a doubt is, that Del Toro is such a talented filmmaker (whether a representative of Hollywood or not) is that he manages to make something visually brilliant regardless of the budget handed to him.
That alone gives you an idea of how creative and capable he is, which is what I think the reviewer was getting at. "Production Budget" doesn't necessarily translate into "better." An unfocused and semi-talented director will just use that kind of money to try and cover up the deficiencies of his production, whereas Del Toro simply makes a higher grade of magic because of his discipline.
I always look forward to anything he puts his name on.
That all aside boys and girls has anyone else seen it yet? I saw it this afternoon and loved it! Signature Del Toro imagery. Fantastic character and art design. Lots of great action. Lots of humor. And lots of great character moments too. Very good. If we get one Hellboy for every Pan's we're still in a better place. Good movie!
It's ok man, the review is good, i know i might sound like an asshole, and type like an asshole, but the truth is......nevermind. Good review neverless D:
For the record, Pan's Labyrinth didn't impress me that much really, both Devil's Backbone and Cronos are way better. And i did enjoyed Blade 2 quite a lot.
A little late to the game but I just saw it.
Man what a let down. By far Del Toro's worst film. I found out that the bigger the budget he has the less I like his films, I didn't think Pan was the masterpiece everyone made it out to be but I love Devil's Backbone.
This film completely lost everything that makes Hellboy such great comics. Plus the fact that I find elves and fairies both extremely uninteresting and none threatening.
Also it didn't help that the hype for this film was through the roof so of course expectations are high.
I agree with most of what you have in your review of "The Golden Army". I just have one teeny quibble. You spell the new character's name phonetically as Yohann Kraus. This would be correctly spelled as Johann Krauss.
Beth Palladino