The poster was cooler than the film.
This is not meant to be a negative review, but reading below I know it will probably come across as there seem to be more negatives than positives.
If you’d asked me 10 minutes ago who my favourite directors were, I would have included Guillermo Del Toro without hesitation, (GDT from here on in, it takes me long enough to type these things as it is!)
Now that I’ve looked at his imdb filmography as a director, I realise that I’ve seen Cronos and everything released after, and while I like all his films and find them at minimum interesting and ambitious, I really ony love one of them, Blade 2. Still, no duds is a positive and I think I would still include GDT more for what I think he will make in future based upon his imagination and afore-mentioned ambition.
Hellboy 2 is a good example of the above two paras. Visually spectacular (especially the CGI which is flawlessly integrated throughout), and bursting with imagination, you still can’t help feeling something is missing. At one stage my wife turned to me when an explosion propelled a door past 2 characters and said “That looks fake”, and I had to say “You mean the door going past the fish creature and the big red demon guy?”.
Hellboy 2 is a cool movie but a flawed film, and I can’t even convince myself if that makes sense yet. Best I can explain there are sequences where it is a comic book movie, others a film based upon a graphic novel.
There is a difference and mixing the two is just confusing.
As a movie there are explosions, coolly designed characters and exotic weirdness all around, but flimsy dialogue at times and some sub-par acting. Also periodically there were a few self consciously “cool” shots and some songs that seemed shoe-horned in to fill a soundtrack CD.
To put it simply, if you like awesome visuals and some scenes that are equally good in isolation, rent the DVD. It’s escapist entertainment, just check your brain at the door, this one is for the senses.
And in GDT’s defence I really think this was what he is aiming for as I am sure he can go deeper than this, as he has done previously in “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Devil’s Backbone“.
Hellboy and his buddies from the first film are still a secret to the public, Hellboy is still 127 year old Ron Perlman, Liz is still “I can’t act and have no personality” Selma Blair and fish-man Abe Sapien is no longer Niles and now Doug Jones. A bunch of the actors in this are GDT film regulars and they are all serviceable, but there is a clear divide between those obviously hamming it up and the actors who are taking the whole thing seriously.
As far as the plot goes: (Think of the Lord of The Rings and this’ll make sense.) A bunch of years ago King Ballor called a truce with the race of Man that would result in him “shelving” his Golden Army 70 X 70 death dealing robots. Man would get the cities and all “magical fantasy stuff” would get the forests. The King’s son Prince Nuada (who, as with his twin sister Princess Nuala doesn’t have a member’s pass to a tanning salon) covets the privileges of Man and decides to take control of the Golden Army for his own nefarious purposes. To do this he must reunite three pieces of a crown that have been separated and spread far and wide, (I just hope J.R.R.’s family gets royalties.)
A unique quirk of being twins is that the Prince and Princess share each other’s thoughts, pains and injuries, something that must piss off the Prince around every 28 days or so!
Hellboy and crew must stop Nuada getting hold of the Golden Army after they are charged with the task and Hellboy is unfortunately and deliberately “outed” to the public.
That’s it really, but you know that in between getting the job and completing the job a bunch of other stuff happens that makes the task harder.
As with a billion movies in the last few years, the fantasy creatures live in subway tunnels, I wonder if the fantasy creatures live in tunnels near the “Mimic” cockroach tunnels, or near the “Blade 2” Reaper tunnels? My point is that GDT loves tunnels. (Or if they are close by the “Midnight Meat Train” subway station tunnels or the “Underworld” tunnels, or even the “AVP” sewers? Lot of tunnel movies lately, do these creatures ever meet? I look forward to “Giant Mimic Cockroach Vs Reapers Vs Lycans” coming soon to a cinema near you!)
As this is less a film and more an amalgum of “cool stuff”, I’ll leave the plot there and point out some cool scenes:
– The scene where Prince Nuada confronts his Dad to ask about releasing the Golden Army looks exsquisite. (“Please Dad.” “No.” “Pleeeeease!” “I said no! Now don’t make me come back there or I’ll give you something to cry about.”)
– The underground markets filled with fantasy creatures is intricately and carefully designed.
– Prince Nuada’s offsider is totally CG, looks great and there is a good fight scene between him and Hellboy, though it wouldn’t be called violent in any way.
– The plant monster thingo looks OK but is not what you might call “scary”.
– When they unveil Prince Nuada’s hideout.
– The centrepiece of the film, meeting the Angel of Death, even though the scene is less than 3 minutes long and the Angel is a rip from Pan’s Labyrinth it is undeniably sweet.
The obligatory finale fight scene is serviceable and is technically impressive, and reminded me of the Jackie Chan movies of the 1980’s where there would be 50 moves uninterrupted between Jackie and any number of opponents. The difference being none of Jackie’s stuff was CGI and was performed live and in real time (I can’t say the same for his films of the last few years unfortunately, but he is about 55+!) and Hellboy Vs Nuada is CGI, slo-mo and wire work.
I haven’t mentioned the romantic subplots, a couple of supporting characters and miscellaneous other bits, that’s because they do nothing for the movie and are the film equivalent of album filler. The less said about the “German Smoke Being” Johann Krauss, voiced by Seth McFarlane the better, as he is lousy and largely pointless as the supposed counterpoint to Hellboy.
Now GDT fans I’m not dissing your fly-girl, I still consider myself one of you. It’s just that I think he should do better. I think he is the right man to bring The Hobbit to screen and actually think developing something already written might suit him, as he gets a bit excited with his plot development and has a tendency to overdo things where it is not required at the expense of other areas.
I just think that he is better than churning out formulaic teenage-pleasing stuff like this and I really think his best films are ahead of him.
Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. Watch it for what you see, not what it is about. I don’t think Hellboy needs another sequel at this point, (I didn’t think the first needed one anyway).
