Hellboy II: The Golden Army Review
by Homer Yen (homeryen88 AT gmail DOT com)July 17th, 2008
"Hellboy 2: The Golden Army" -- It's Clobbering Time
by Homer Yen
(c) 2008
Sure, I know. That phrase ("it's clobbering time) is credited to The Thing of the Fantastic Four. But, that guy is a pipsqueak compared to Hellboy. In fact, in many ways, most of the superhero or comic book films this year are girlie compared to the punch-first-ask-questions-later style of Hellboy.
Hellboy has a really big task on his hands this time around. As the film opens up, we are told of an ancient war between the human world and the fantastical world. It resulted in much bloodshed and hatred among the two factions. But, in the end a truce was forged. The humans developed their cities while the creatures (goblins, trolls, and everything else you'd expect from a "Harry Potter" or "Chronicles of Narnia" or "Lord of the Rings" film) retreated into the forest. This truce did not sit well with Prince Nuada (Luke Gross). After many eons of planning and waiting, he now launches his offensive against the Humans by trying to awaken the Golden Army, a terrible force of destruction.
It's actually not a bad bit of lore. But, what makes "Hellboy 2" unexpectedly fresh is the visual presentation of the film. When I reviewed the original in 2004, I wrote: "Hellboy" (Ron Perlman) and his aquatic and psychic companion, Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), are inspired efforts in make-up and imagination." However, that has been ratcheted up two notches as Director Guillermo del Toro infuses into this project the same visionary imagination that he brought to his previous masterpiece, "Pan's Labyrinth."
New York City, where the film takes place, is pretty much a world unto itself. Yet, if you walk through a portal below the Brooklyn Bridge, you enter an entirely different world altogether. Words really don't do the visual experience any justice. I can only say that the imaginative forces at work created an end product that is even more wondrous than the Star Wars universe. In most summer action films, the audience is really just waiting for the next action sequence to begin. In this film, we eagerly await what new fey beast would appear. Whether it was the Tooth Fairy or the Angel of Death or the Forest Elemental, I had this kind of childlike awe.
Yet, for all the artistry that it does accomplish, there is something that feels askew. I almost think, though, that Hellboy and company really didn't deserve this level of beauty. I had the same odd feeling about "Wall-E". On the one hand, that film featured a dark and dystopian future of barren despair. Meanwhile, it also featured a cruise ship filled with people on an endless vacation. The two didn't quite mesh together. That's the same odd feeling that I got here. Hellboy obviously gets his training from the Bruce Willis School for Tough Guys. So, there's a certain rough-and-tumble atmosphere that's established here. But the mystical creatures seemed somewhat out of place. They are better suited if either: a) they were used in a not-so-pugilistic-kind-of-film or b) if any of the characters were on a path of new discovery where these creatures could amplify their breakthroughs. But Hellboy doesn't like to learn and prefers using brute force. Meanwhile, Abe Sapien is psychic so he knows everything anyway.
Yet, I really liked what I saw, and "Hellboy 2" could be the sleeper hit of the summer. It's hard-nosed, brass-knuckle fun. And thanks to the colors and the creativity, it is a bizarrely beautiful film as well. The result is a summer movie that's more consistent and great-to-look-at than other big films of similar ilk, like "Ironman" or "Hulk" or "Hancock".
Grade: B+
S: 0 out of 3
L: 1 out of 3
V: 2 out of 3
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