Movie Review, Hellboy II

Although I'm not sure the corporate overlords will let me retroactively expense a movie ticket, I wanted to take a few minutes to write my review of Hellboy II. It's been a pretty good summer for movies already: but Wall-E and Iron Man were pretty much perfect A movies. I was a big fan of the original Hellboy comic, the first movie, and of Pan's Labyrinth- my fear was that it could only go downhill. And I was wrong. VERY wrong. Read on for my review which will be mostly spoiler free. Getting a babysitter is enough work that I don't get to see nearly as many movies these days as I would like. But I knew Hellboy II had to be sitter-worthy. But I was scared going in. I always thought of Hellboy as being a comic with thick chunky lines. Bold colors. Broad brush strokes. Guillermo Del Toro's previous film is Pan's Labyrinth, and if ever a film maker has made a movie with detailed, intricate, subtle work, it was him. I was afraid that he would take a film that was so unlike the comic book that I would lose out on a favorite director and a favorite comic book at the same time. But i was so wrong.

The movie starts off far more funny than the first Hellboy. This is very much in keeping with the quirky ad campaign that has been promoting the film (the inside the actor's studio commercial for example is quite funny). Hellboy is once again Ron Pearlman- the genius bit of casting that made the first movie so great is a huge win for any sequel. He's tired of working for the BPRD in secret and is going out of his way to be spotted by the real world. But a mythos of ancient elves is working to retrieve and unify some widgets to awaken a golden army of indestructible robots, and it's up to our heroes to stop it from happening.

The elven world is very much Del Toro's designs. Likewise, an extended sequence through a secret troll market hidden under the brooklyn bridge gives him a great canvas to paint his stylistic genius. And seeing the big and clumsy Hellboy smash through it is incredibly satisfying. The action sequences are all excellent, and the final robot battle is very fun and well done.

All the while this is done with some nice plot twists for the major characters. A love interest for Abe comes along. A new good guy is sent in from the BPRD to reign in our uncontrollable hero: Krauss is voiced by Seth Macfarlane basically doing his fish char from American Dad, but inside a wacky suit controlled by ectoplasm vapors. Selma Blair is back as Liz: they give her some good lines and a few good sequences, but she's mainly a support role.

So Guillermo Del Toro was able to work within Mike Mignola's world. He put his own thumbprints all over the work, and the whole comes out better than the sum of the parts. And this makes me all the more excited for the Hobbit, where I have all the same concerns: Tolkein and Jackson will give him even bigger shoes to fill, and now I think he can do it.

Comments

If you are 11 years old

[pigiron]

Iron Man is a "perfect A" movie if you are like 11 years old.

Re:Two camps on this movie

[Lord Apathy]

Actually, asshole, I think you are in the minority. Now then, no where did I say adding subtitles to foreign films should be required? I just said in a visual movie like Pan Labyrinth they are distracting because you have to concentrate on them you may miss something important in the movie.

For the record I routinely watch anime with the Japanese sound track and english subs. But I think the distributor and the director where fools for not adding a english sound track to this movie, especially on the dvd. More people would have watched if they had. That is one thing the Anime people do correctly when they add a english track, no matter how they mangle it, and keep the Japanese track too.

And to clarify one more point. Pan's Labyrinth wasn't a kickass foreign film. It was a slightly interesting film at best. Personally I think it sucked but that is just my option. You are free to believe, no matter how incorrectly, in what ever fantasy you wish.

Chow Baby!

Re:Spoilers eh

[Kamokazi]

We'll need some grant money for that study. We should hit up a big company with a lot of money...like Prudential Life Insurance.

Hmm...they say they'll give us all we need, with just a few conditions...

Re:Two camps on this movie

[Lord Apathy]

No. Next foolish request.

Re:Two camps on this movie

[Lord Apathy]

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?

I can't argue with on that. God, that was awful. Point to you and I concede. Nothing can ruin a good foreign film like shitty dubbing. Hell that is one of the main reasons I started watching my anime with the original sound track and using subs. I once read an interview with some of the voice actors and they where ask if they just made this shit up as they went along. The answer was yes. I have to admit that I think my Japanese as gotten pretty good because of it. I can't speak it but if I listen carefully I can understand most of it.

But I will stand by that if they had have done a real good english dub for Pan's then it would have done much better here in the States. But I will give you that it shouldn't be the first choice on the DVD.