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Movie Review, Hellboy II
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.
Haven't read the review because it is "mostly spoiler free," which seems to me like manufacturing something that is "mostly carcinogenic free." If someone has a problem with spoilers, it's unlikely they're going to read the review on the off chance you've only spoiled the stuff they didn't care about and not the stuff they did.
Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
Followed by...
Seems to me that response is turning into two camps with a sliding scale of intensity.
Personally, I must say that I mostly liked it with an undertone of ennui.
And one more thing...
As opposed to wasting it reading a review of a movie you didn't like and then posting comments in the discussion?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I agree about the first Hellboy--visually, it was barely recognizable as a Del Toro film, the plot was an (even more) oversimplified version of the Hollywood Superhero Movie Formula (TM), and it gave us no reason to care about the characters.
But this sequel is a COMPLETELY different film. On every level, from its basic look all the way down to the themes and symbolism (yes, it's a big-budget superhero flick that HAS themes and symbolism), Hellboy II is a more direct successor to Pan's Labyrinth than to the first Hellboy. It not only makes us care about the characters, but its central message is that we should ask ourselves why the characters should care about us. And it makes the audience both hate the villain and still sympathize with the cause he's fighting for.
I'm a projectionist at a movie theater, so I see almost every movie that comes out, and it's a toss-up for me between Hellboy and Wall-E for my favorite film of 2008 so far. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Iron Man are the rest of the top 5.
The original Howling Frog is a fictional character and has no UID.
Yea, I hate movies that require me to be literate, and I tried to learn "spannish" but whenever I google it google asks me if I want to learn "Spanish" whatever the fuck that is.
Maybe I'm the minority, but adding an english dub to a kickass foreign film is like taking a supermodel and tatooing a casino ad on her forehead...If you don't speak the language, and can't be bothered to read the text, then the film is probably not for you in the first place.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
I'm glad to see this...I was beginning to think I was the only one. I *loved* the original Hellboy, but very nearly walked out on this one. Bad pacing and everything, and I do mean everything, felt telegraphed. Maybe if they had tried developing a character or something...oh wait...Abe drank a beer...
Come on, it wasn't that good.
The visuals were nice but the story was cheesy and had far too much "support the troops" patriotism in it (is there any reason Iraq had to be in the movie at all?)
I'd give it 70-80% at best.
Pan's Labyrinth (to pick a movie at random from the review) was way better.
No sig today...
I honestly have to agree. I felt the world was beautiful and some of the fight scenes were fun, and while that's why most people will go to and expect from this movie, I hope they aren't disappointed. There were too many tacted-on and extremely trite love scenes. And the slapstick comedy. Hellboy gets hit with lockers, hell boy slips in goo. I really expected a three stooges scenes with Klaus as Moe, Abe as Larry, and Hellboy as Curly. I just couldn't get into it. I seriously think they could have cut about 45 minutes out of the middle and it would have been a much much better film for it. I personally suggest waiting for matinee or even a rental, though, it's one really great aspect, it's beauty, might be missed.
Hellboy is fantasy escapism. Pan's Labyrinth is about using fantasy escapism to deal with the horrors of growing up in the middle of a war. It was a very different movie than I was expecting, but it was also far better. It isn't fantasy so much as a historical war drama with occasional fantasy elements. Highly recommended.
The ______ Agenda
If it's not real (maybe she's taking some of that morphine) then her death is really quite tragic and awful, even compared to all the other events.
If you've seen it, what do you think? I think "not real" and my wife thinks "real".
One, the other, or both depending on my mood and what I decide to focus on. One thing I like about the movie is that it is open to multiple interpretations.
On the one hand, nobody but her ever sees any of the bizarre things. On the other, her mother does actually start to get better with the mandrake, and worse when its removed. Fairy magic? Coincidence? Or maybe the girl's feelings affecting her mother's health.
In either case, though, the girl dies in the end. If you believe it's all real, then this was the final step of a journey into a fantastical afterlife. If it wasn't... maybe it was still such a step? The poignancy of sacrificing herself for her brother, and the metaphor for achieving an enlightened or holy state, still exists.
The enemies of Democracy are
What the hell are you talking about? It had clockwork and gears. It had a dissection scene. It had a completely over the top villain(wind up(more clockwork and gears) nazi surgery fetishist with sand for blood). It had an underground tunnel scene. It even had the devil's backbone fetus in the jar that you can see sitting next to the Spear of Longinus. And it "looked" very much like other Del Toro films too because he worked with Navarro. It was easily, in fact trivially so, recognizable as a Del Toro film. You must be smoking crack, or talking about some other movie.