Saturday, July 12, 2008

Blue Sky Review: Hellboy II...



Guillermo del Toro is a very good film maker... a talented director that is able to transform a story into a personal vision with his own look and style. I'm more and more confident about him directing the film adaption of "The Hobbit" as each day passes. He's a Geek's Geek... and moreover he's into a lot of things Disney. Like the fact he has two really cool models of the Nautilus in his home. He also is a huge collector of all things "Chernabog"... Now that that's said, I'll get on with this review of one of the ten most interesting films I was looking forward to seeing this summer.

The first "Hellboy" was a fun film. I really liked it, didn't love it, but enjoyed it enough to read the comics which I had never done before. Really liked them too. They had a very pulp-like edge to them and when I read the issue with Lobster Johnson I was a bit giddy. I also own the 3 disc DVD set of the film so I guess you could say I'm a good fan of it now. About the only movie that I'm not that fond of that Guillermo directed is "Blade 2"... not so much as it's a bad film, but I had the pleasure of reading the script long before he came aboard and had a different vision of what it would be. It didn't measure up to what was in my head, but nothing really does...

MILD SPOILERS AHEAD...

All the reviews I've seen of "Hellboy 2" have said that it's a better movie than the first. That if you hated the first, you'll hate the second and if you love the first you'll like it even more. With that I went in to watch Big Red kick some more monster but. And you know what? I didn't really think it was better than the first. Well, at least not by much if it was better. But it was good, it was well crafted and it was funny. Very funny in that self-deprecating way that del Toro's personality is.

The movie takes place after some time has passed between the first film and this one. Hellboy and Liz are now a couple with all that that entales including fights. Big, dangerous fights...

Unlike the first film there is no human character like John Myers from the original that goes with us as we are introduced to the world Hellboy lives in. We get a small crawl near the beginning and then we're off and expected to keep up. I always thought that Myers was the creation of some Suit that said we needed someone to be our eyes when we meet these creatures or they're never going to get it. I don't know if that's the case, but that was my guess. The story is rich in detail about fables and myth and Guillermo wraps it all up in a beautiful, dark fairy tale that is filled with humor. There is a great deal of design work in this world that he's put us in. We get to see the familiar characters we first met in the original film, but we travel forward, not backward in the lives of this cast. Ron Perlman brings a lot of depth to this character and that can't be easy under all that make-up. We can tell watching this film that Hellboy is a lovable lug, but he has a deep desire to be liked and that is one of his most human traits... and faults.

Luke Goss does a great job as Prince Nuada, the long exiled prince of the fairies that thirst for war with the humans. Doug Jones is back as Abe Sapien and this time provides the voice work, while Seth MacFarlane(Family Guy) give a hysterical sounding Prussian commander to the new commander of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense(B.P.R.D.), Johann Krauss.

The plot revolves around Nuada breaking the truce his father made with humanity thousands of years ago and his search to find the missing pieces of the crown which provides control over an army of golden robotic warriors known appropriately as the Golden Army... duh! With this army he plans to lay waste to humanity and claim the earth once again for his kind and those creatures of the world that lies just outside our own.

Hellboy and crew come into the middle of this battle while following the wreckage of Prince Nuada's path and get thrown into a battle for the survival of the world. All without the world knowing this of course. It's not brain surgery to understand where it's going and the film doesn't offer any revolutionary way of explaining how things happen but it does a good job of moving you forward and never letting you get board. The relationship between HB and Liz goes further into the conflicts that each has about their strange, inter-species relationship, while we finally get to see Abe take an interest in another beautiful creation, Nuada's twin sister, Nuala.

I know del Toro loves monsters and relishes entering these mad worlds. There are some amazingly wild creatures including the most bizarre version I've ever seen of a tooth fairy. In the hands of some directors this material could all turn out to be really bleak, but Guillermo's always been an optimist that seems to press upon the audience that no matter how dark the tale gets, there's always be a bit of light at the end of the tunnel to provide hope.

This hope should serve him well on his next journey with a little fella named Bilbo...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's hope you got screener tickets and didn't have to pay for this one out of pocket.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the review Honor.

But you didn't mention Del Toro's amazing work of a lifetime, in "Pan's Labyrinth." For any who have not seen it, yet are even mildly interested in works of fantasy/fiction (and this being a Disney related blog, who of us isn't?), I enthusiastically admonish you to give it a solid viewing.

It isn't a family film by any means, but, as Honor alluded to, Del Toro has a grasp of the power of fantasy and fairy-tales over us, even as adults, and "Pan's Labyrinth" gives strong evidence of that. To say nothing of the amazing visuals, which to me, never even felt like Computer graphics. A definite must see.

And I'm looking forward to Hellboy II, as well.

Justin said...

"It isn't a family film" is an understatement. Be prepared for some very brutal and graphic violence in Pan's Labyrinth. Personally I thought the violence was too much and was uncalled for. I understand why it was there, however I don't think it needed to be as explicit and graphic as it was.

Anonymous said...

There definitely is alot of graphic imagery used in Pan's Labyrinth, but I think that it serves it's purpose. The film strattles the line of horror and fantasy, and reminds us how close the two genres actually are when you strip away the happy endings and other fluffy type stuff that we have gotten used to. In addition, the movie is also about a disturbing time in Spain's turbulent war history. The spine cringing moments make us feel relived that it's not happening to us, just like a spoooky fairy tale did when we were little. And its a beautiful movie. A great visual feast that affects it's viewer in many, many ways.