Liz (Blair), Hellboy (Perlman) and Abe (Jones) in HELLBOY II:THE GOLDEN ARMY(2008).
© Universal Pictures
Mania Grade: B+
Maniac Grade: A-
Movie: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Rating: PG-13
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jerffrey Tambor
Written By: Guillermo Del Toro (from a story by Mike Mignola and Guillermo del Toro)
Directed By: Guillermo Del Toro
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Maniac Grade: A-
Movie: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Rating: PG-13
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jerffrey Tambor
Written By: Guillermo Del Toro (from a story by Mike Mignola and Guillermo del Toro)
Directed By: Guillermo Del Toro
Distributor: Universal Pictures
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY
By: Josh GordonReview Date: Thursday, July 10, 2008
I wasn’t a huge fan of the first Hellboy film. I thought it was ok. It had some interesting ingredients but I felt it ultimately fell short of its potential. Hellboy II on the other hand is a much more realized film. Like a Harry Potter for grown ups, Hellboy II is a modern fairy tale filled with some of the most interesting characters to grace the silver screen since perhaps The Wizard of Oz.
Moral Quandaries and Barry Manilow
The movie is abundant with interesting ideas, questions, philosophies and moral quandaries. There’s just about nothing more that I love than a good moral quandary and this movie is chock full of them. Almost every character in the movie must make a difficult choice. They don’t always make the right choice or at least there’s much room for debate in the choices that they make but, by gum, they don’t really flinch when up against it. These are people (trolls, fairies and the like) who act from their heart more than their head; which makes them all the more human and all the more interesting. Liz Sherman (the magnetic Selma Blair) and Hellboy (exquisitely cast Ron Perlman) are experiencing some growing pains in their relationship. In fact, Hellboy II includes some of the subtle, not so subtle and potent problems that come up in relationships and does so without taking the film off course. Screenwriter Guillermo del Toro (who also directs) isn’t making a movie about a relationship but two of the main characters happen to be in a relationship. There is a set piece in the film between Hellboy, Abe Sapien (a mesmerizing Doug Jones who plays three roles in the film) and a Barry Manilow song that is uproariously funny. The key ingredient to the humor of the scene is that it’s emotionally true; we’re watching this common, human moment occur between a demon with his horns shaved off and a humanoid fish. The juxtaposition between the characters, music, action and dialogue is ingenious and effective.
All We’re Good For Is Mini-Malls
Another high point in the film is antagonist Prince Nuada (persuadingly played by Luke Goss), who’s actual status as an evil-doer is questionable. Whether or not his nature is nefarious is dependent upon which side of the fence you sit on and frankly, I’m not sure I’m not on his side. He makes some swift and accurate arguments for his case such as our shopping centers and mini-malls. In fact it’s the one great flaw of the film; there is no argument for the human side (which I grant you is a much more difficult argument to make). Without giving away too much, the basic premise of the story is that there is a non human race that, a long time ago, was about to obliterate mankind with the titular Golden Army. After seeing the destructive horror of their ways they strike a truce with the humans. Over time that race has all but vanished; one of them wants to rise back up from the brink of extinction and finish us off. Typically, in a movie with this basic premise (such as The Day The Earth Stood Still) we see and learn that not all humans are pointless, greedy, destructive bastards. In Hellboy II the best example of a human being is…Jeffery Tambor? If we’re going to see Hellboy and the rest of the gang do so much to save us greedy human bastards, we should understand why and there is literally no real argument made. (SPOILER AHEAD) In one of the film’s set pieces we see a fantastic and gigantic creature (an Elemental) pitted against our heroes. In any other movie this would have been a titanic battle between good and evil but not in Hellboy II. Of course the “good” guys win but the loss of this creature is ultimately quite tragic and sad and by the end of the fight we learn that the creature was really anything but evil. It’s a highly ambiguous victory that leaves Hellboy (and the audience) feeling hollow. It’s this ambiguity that gives Hellboy II its heft. But again, why are Hellboy and the gang trying to save the humans when it means the obscurity and extinction of what is ironically a generous and beautiful race? (END SPOILER)
Beautiful Freaks
The creatures, and there are many, in this film are a wonder to behold. Practically all of them have a beauty and heart regardless of their general appearance and/or initial grotesqueness. Credit must be given to all who contributed to the creature design and to Doug Jones and Brian Steele who, as the actors behind practically all of the odd characters we meet in Hellboy II, breathe real life into these “beautiful freaks”. Even the “tooth fairies”, which at first are completely repulsive and disturbing, become almost cute and intelligent upon closer examination which is one of the themes of the film: not everything is what it seems and there’s usually more than meets the eye.
Minor Annoyances Are Forgiven
There are a couple of sloppy inconsistencies in the film; Jeffrey Tambor (who’s great in the picture) can’t pronounce ectoplasmic. That seems highly unlikely to me given the nature of his job and that the word “ectoplasm” became part of our vernacular in 1984 with the advent of Ghostbusters.
Some of the dialogue is overly simplistic bordering on trite, luckily it really doesn’t get in the way of the messages which still resonate.
Sacrilegious for me to say but is it really such a wise Idea to give directors final cut so much of the time? Hellboy II feels about 15 minutes too long. It seems that for the last several years movies have become unnecessarily long (I’m takin’ to you Pirates II!) and I’m GLAD The Incredible Hulk wasn’t any longer (I really enjoyed Hulk, by the way).
Old Friends
Hellboy II: The Golden Army maybe isn’t the most obvious fun of all the summer movies but it’s got one of the biggest hearts of the season and is perhaps one of the more interesting films of the year. It has also stayed with me longer and deeper than Iron Man or The Incredible Hulk, two films I thoroughly enjoyed but really haven’t thought about much since leaving the theatre. Hellboy II works on several different levels so that it almost needs to be seen twice. There are references to classic horror and fantasy films peppered throughout the picture which play like loving glances to old friends. Hellboy II has a quality in its characters and settings that invoke the classic monsters of the past and pulls them forward into a modern, thought provoking fantasy film.
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