{"id":2914,"date":"2008-07-15T14:14:22","date_gmt":"2008-07-15T18:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinemacrazed.wordpress.com\/?p=2914"},"modified":"2008-07-15T14:14:22","modified_gmt":"2008-07-15T18:14:22","slug":"hellboy-ii-the-golden-army-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/15\/hellboy-ii-the-golden-army-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I was never a big fan of Hellboy mainly because it was difficult to find. Here in the Bronx, any chances of ever reading it were futile. But I was a big fan of the original \u201cHellboy\u201d movie as well as the two animated mid-quels that others found generally forgettable. The first film was Guillermo Del Toro playing Mike Mignola\u2019s game, a veritable bevy of oddities and monsters confined to the modest budget of a studio who had very little faith on the power of this concept. \u201cHellboy II\u201d however is Del Toro\u2019s game, a movie that\u2019s reliant on the imagination of Guillermo Del Toro who brought with him Oscar cred via the masterwork of \u201cPan\u2019s Labyrinth.\u201d<\/p>\n

This long awaited sequel is one that many have anticipated, including yours truly, a sucker for superhero movies and occult fantasy flicks and Del Toro seems to have taken a stock of unused characters. From the grotesque Tooth Fairies who aren\u2019t as cute as you remember (and will prove to horrify children), to a gigantic plant monster, Del Toro unfolds the \u201cHellboy\u201d universe with amazing depth introducing some awfully ingenious monsters including the new member Johann Kraus (voiced with memorable zeal by Seth McFarlane) a wonderful new leader to the group who is an ectoplasmic soldier in a body suit. Though wisely underplayed, Kraus is a fresh element to the group of freaks who is strictly by the book while often revealing his potential to Professor Broom.<\/p>\n

\u201cHellboy II\u201d thankfully doesn\u2019t seem that far deviated from its predecessor exploring the same basic dysfunction and discord among the BPRD as Hellboy is committed to his job as monster hunter, but wants to be more appreciated among the populace as everyone else around him stresses the reason for the Department\u2019s secrecy among the masses. Del Toro takes the budget that\u2019s been ballooned somewhat with high expectations and finally able to unleash the imagination of the special effects wizards implemented with a universe of underground monsters, demons, and fairies that excel at originality and pure wonderment. Del Toros is simply the right person to being the world of Hellboy to pass, and thankfully this isn\u2019t a sequel that fails to deliver on its promises.<\/p>\n

\u201cHellboy II\u201d finds the group at the brink of an all out war, as the elfin prince Nuada claims his right as the king by murdering his father and seeks to unleash the Golden Army, a swarm of armored rattling soldiers that are nearly unstoppable. Luke Goss is particularly great as the prince Nuada whose mission for war isn\u2019t as one-sided as the evil Grigori Rasputin, as Nuada seeks to sway the soldiers from the BPRD to his view of the world as an evil place filled with utterly hateful and violent humans, while Anna Walton is sympathetic as his kinder and more idealistic twin sister Nuala who seeks to actively stop her brother\u2019s grand scheme but is torn by her allegiance to him as blood. The gang from the first are all here and accounted for with Ron Perlman as compelling as always as the grizzled often immature Hellboy who has to grow up by the demands Liz Sherman as his relationship with her blossoms.<\/p>\n

The one and only Doug Jones is marvelous as Abe Sapien, a character given slightly more significance and importance in the sequel with a sub-plot that\u2019s charming and very sad. \u201cHellboy II\u201d makes good on all levels from dark comedy, pure terror, and nut busting action scenes, and I hope Del Toro continues tackling \u201cRed.\u201d\u00a0 The problem with \u201cHellboy II\u201d is that it\u2019s a film in constant search of a tone and a focus. While \u201cHellboy\u201d seemed to be very certain towards what it was aiming for with an admirable humility and underplayed style, \u201cHellboy II\u201d is jumping from peg to peg from romance, to comedy, to utterly goofy imagery like a prepubescent Hellboy who looks like a kid except with the redness and horns. While baby Hellboy was absolutely adorable, Del Toro plays the cards too much with the prepubescent Hellboy who just looks\u2026 weird. And not the interesting weird, but the \u201care they serious?\u201d weird.<\/p>\n

I was surprised they went with such a goofy flashback. And there are such confusing questions left for us to ponder on. Did Hellboy ever come to grips with society not wanting the BPRD? Why didn\u2019t Hellboy shave his horns down? Did he really agree with Nuada? Was Nuada trying to sway the BPRD to join him? If so, why did he seek to kill Hellboy? And if Liz is pregnant… did she and Hellboy do it? Finally when the second half pulls around, Del Toro finally knows how to tell the story reconciling all these loose plot elements and we get a clear grasp on the plot and character motivations. Overall, it\u2019s not the spectacular sequel I was hoping for since it doesn\u2019t gain its footing until the second half of the story, but it\u2019s nonetheless a blast with Del Toro working on all gears of fantasy, horror, and raw unadulterated storytelling. I\u2019m ready for a third film, only if Del Toro is on board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was never a big fan of Hellboy mainly because it was difficult to find. Here in the Bronx, any chances of ever reading it were futile. But I was a big fan of the original \u201cHellboy\u201d movie as well as the two animated mid-quels that others found generally forgettable. The first film was Guillermo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,64,71,219,349,435,438,477,874,922,1013,1087],"class_list":["post-2914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adaptation","tag-adventure","tag-comedy","tag-fantasy","tag-guillermo-del-toro","tag-h","tag-horror","tag-romance","tag-sequel","tag-suspense","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}