| Overall Grade: |
A- |
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| Story: |
A- |
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| Acting: |
A- |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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Bigger and Definitely Better in All Ways
by bck (movies profile)
Jul 15, 2008
35
of
60 people found this review helpful
The first Hellboy movie was a bit of an oddity, and while I did truly enjoy it, there were some flaws. Given what it was, I still feel that it was a decent attempt at trying to bring a strange and fantastical idea to wondrous reality. Hellboy II The Golden Army does indeed take the next step forward and brings to life the amazing and magical world of mythological creatures, improving greatly upon its predecessor and should give rise to hope for more cinematic adventures of the big red one and his buddies. We'll just have to wait about four years until del Toro is done playing around in Middle Earth though.
A simple prologue lays out all we need to know about where Hellboy came from and a bedtime story quickly tells of a war between the mythical creatures and Humans over the lands of the world, which led to the creation of the titular Golden Army. Upon seeing the massive destruction the army caused, the Woodland King made a truce with the Humans. The Humans would have the cities, and the mythical creatures would have the forests (and we all know how that's been playing out). The Crown that would control the army was broken into three pieces and the Army itself was then buried. The King's son, Prince Nuada felt that such an act was a mistake and went into self-exile, vowing to return when he felt his people needed him most. Guess who gets in his way...
It's as simple as fairy tales can be, but there is so much more in way of character this time around and everyone of our main stars get their moment to shine.
The dynamic between Liz and Hellboy is far stronger than before. Their relationship is on a higher level and past the simple lovey-dovey stuff, with fights breaking out between the two that result in feiry destruction. But it's Abe who gets a little more spotlight when he meets Princess Nuala, twin sister to Prince Nuada and keeper of a piece of the Crown. His character also gets a little more fleshed out instead of simply being the hero's buddy. Even Johann Krauss, as the newcomer, gets his moment to get in the good graces of our heroes. Only Jeffrey Tambor gets less to do as slight comic relief being the put upon agent trying to keep a control over the veil of secrecy they're supposed to be operating under.
Nuada, however, is the strongest character because he would be the typical bad guy here, but his motivations slide him more into the tragic gray area of a misguided soul trying to do what's right, but in the wrong way because he sees no other way. It is a complex character that would rival Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2. Because of this complexity, there is a magnificent resonance in that he becomes something like an eco-rights warrior, and manages not to be some simple caricature of a character.
The world of Hellboy itself gets a massive expansion, with far more creature effects than ever, particularly within the realms of the troll market. del Toro has always been one for make-up and physical creature effects instead of computer generated creatures (they are used as well), and it pays off in spades. It is a wondrous smorgasbord of strange and unusual, from the very small (like the tooth fairies) to the very large (the elementals), but all looking like they belong in the reality we are presented, blending amazingly well with our world. Even Liz's fire seems more natural now and Danny Elfman's amazing music underscores the magic of it all.
There is a sense that del Toro has taken the best of the previous Hellboy and applied it to the aesthetics he created in Pan's Labyrinth to blend both worlds of realism and fantasy into a cohesive whole. Throw in the amazing adventure that our heroes embark on and you have a summer movie that is as entertaining and exciting as it is respectfully mature and thoughtful. Plus props to the magical Barry Manilow moment. |
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