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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.
Loved the visuals, and the song scene had me nearly rolling on the theatre floor with laughter.
I went into it with high hopes, but was largely disappointed. It seemed to barely be about hellboy. While the visuals, background and world were interesting and appealing, they seemed to me to be a completely separate franchise, that very distinctly left the world created in the first one.
Thought the "new" character was an epic disappointment as well.
Felt like the director wanted to make a movie primarily about something else, and dragged hellboy along for the ride in a bit role.
That's spelled 'sequel', no? If not, mea culpa: 'i was so wrong'.
I was amazed at the following the the original Hellboy garnered. I took my kids to see it, and we ALL hated it. To the point that, when we see a movie we don't like, we all recant "Well, at least it wasn't as bad as Hellboy". And my son is a real movie person!
I don't really know the comic, and I suspect that clouds a lot of peoples opinions of the movie, but as someone who came in fresh, Hellboy was just awful-terrible.
Hard to imagine the sequel being better (actually, I really can't imagine it being worse).
As a comparison, loved Wall-E, thought Ironman was just OK.
I guess he won't be doing his script for At The Mountains of Madness.
I was looking forward to the shoggoth merchandise... shoggoth keychains, shoggoth pudding...
Guillermo del Toro's influence in this one. He does a great job of bringing fantasy world's to life, and I'm sure he'll be the perfect fit for The Hobbit.
I enjoyed the movie overall, but at times it felt like they tried to hard to be funny. My wife and I both agreed that if it was just a little darker it would've been better, but it was still worth the $7.50/ticket to see it in theaters.
God, schmod. I want my monkey man!
Taco seems to make the same mistake that I hear other people saying. Guillermo Del Toro, was also largely responsible for the first Hellboy movie; writing the screenplay and directing.
I do think he was given much more free reign on this one, and is reflected in the things Taco commented about.
Honestly. I could understand if an unannounced Star Wars movie was suddenly released or something, but Hellboy 2? If there was a story for every time a movie like this was released...
Having had the displeasure of (continually) sampling the awesomely bad Mexican cinema of the 80s and early 90s, I am continually amazed at how good Mexican directors like Alfonso Cuaron and Del Toro have gotten, and I have to wonder how in the hell they did get that way considering the ambiance in which they were brought up.
Having said that, I saw Hellboy II this weekend as well and I have to say I liked it as much as IronMan and WALL-E, so IMO it's a pretty freaking sweet movie.
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
I've enjoyed Mignola's work for decades, but my wife has neither seen the first movie nor read the comics. However, she is not opposed to comic-based movies, and really liked Pan's Labyrinth. Would she be able to jump in and enjoy HB2?
Response to this movie is turning into two camps - love it or hate it.
I fall mildly into the 'hate it' camp. Too much of the director's vision, not enough freakin' story.
Underdeveloped characters, waaaaaaaaaaaay too much CGI, overly cluttered scenes, eco-terrorist plot. All adding up to me literally yawning my way through the movie.
The original movie appeals to me because of a strong story with supporting visual effects. This movie seems to be all about overwhelming visual effects with some story thrown in to try to pull them together.
If this is what Pan's Labyrinth is like then I'm glad I didn't waste my time in seeing it. I don't see the director as 'visionary' any more than I see M. Night Wasshisname as a visionary.
Harsh, I know. But I'm rather picky about how I spend my precious free time and wasting it on this movie just annoys me.
You should get out more.
I watched HellBoy II last night and while I enjoyed the movie it mostly failed in my mind.
The 'humour' early on reminded me of Men In Black, but MIB pulled it off better. The humour didn't last throughout the movie at the same level and style.
The ending was lame and was predictable half-way through the movie.
Wanted was a much better thrill-ride.
Saw it this weekend. The plot was long & drawn out. A little over a 2 hour film with all the trailers. The love interest plot was cheesy, as were the elves. Visual effects and the actor playing hell boy was good, new actor playing fish stick. German frauss
Don't worry about the spoilers, you know whats going to happen by 20 min into the film, the plot is pretty translucent. Not a whole lot of new ideas.
1) LOTR man / elf pact gone wrong - Check
2) One crown to rule them all (need I say more) -check
3) Goofy (corsecan brother's with out the weed) twins feeling each others pain - check
4) Secret withheld by girl but known by mind reader until he spills it - check
5) What is with these freaks heads? (seriously castles?)
6) New agent hard nosed / by the book then turns rebel with the group.
I could go on....
"(I) have this unfortunate condition that causes me not to believe a single thing any politician says when a mic's on.
I really loved what Del Toro did with several of the scenes (The dolls in the intro, the forest god, the elven throne), but much of the rest of it just seemed... lame and obvious, like any other mainstream action movie. What resulted was this strange combination of beautiful moments juxtaposed with predictable one-liners.
I'm glad I saw it, but I really wish it had felt like Del Toro's other work. I suppose he did it to attract a proper American audience?
If your theory is different from practice, then your theory is wrong.
Um, no. The main elf is lifted from The Witcher. Take one look. Do it.
His father is a copy of Theoden from LOTR. The female elf is (fittingly enough) an Eowyn copy, with a paler complexion.
As for the other design, it's lifted too. The Troll Market is a rubberstamp copy of Neil Gaiman's hidden market in London. The ogre is straigth from Warcraft.
Entertaining, it may be, but original, it ain't.
So, CmdrTaco says that Pan's Labyrinth is a "detailed, intricate, subtle work." If you've seen it, do you think the fantasy stuff is "real" or not? If it is real, the little girl's experiences are a ray of light in a dreadful time. 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".
This post climbed Mt. Washington.
I enjoyed the movie quite alot. The thing that really blew my mind was the detail and variety that Del Toro threw out there.
-- I really need to bleed off some of this
Taco I think you gave Del Toro's characters too much credit. Really, I was disappointed with the elves, goblins, and trolls. In Pan's Labyrinth, the graphically intriguing characters were important and had important roles. In Hellboy 2, the commercials and trailers promised us much the same but the movie failed to deliver. The only really original character that moves the plot forward is the one with the mushroom-like head and over a dozen eyes. But we see him for what, 5 minutes and then never again? Otherwise the elves are just elves, the trolls are just ugly, and the goblin is just a courier.
The movie was good, but it was something of a waste of Del Toro's talents. He could have really done more with his creativity and made it more interesting, rather than peppering it with so many short bit-pieces.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I didn't realize that "mythos" is the collective noun for elves.
I mean, we have all the copyright thugs going around chasing after people, and here you go, chatting up a movie!
This is my sig.
Is $7.50 the Senior discount for a Sunday morning matinee in Topeka?
The Sunday morning matinee for Wall-E cost me $9.50!
While he's at it can he also rein in the use of that word? Or can we also look forward to a rain of terror followed by a veil of tears and, when worse comes to worse, a damp squid?
Just saw it last night.
I am a Hellboy fan, and have seen the first movie.
I enjoyed Hellboy 2 last night, it was quite good. Worth a trip to the theater.
Lots of action, funny parts, plenty of beautiful cinematography, good acting. Pretty much can't go wrong.
If I really wanted to be a hard critic there were a few things I could say.
1) So much eye candy. In some parts there was so much beautiful cinematography and action going on it was hard to take it all in. It makes me want to watch it again so I can see in more detail everything that is going on.
2) It seemed to me that a lot of star trek red shirts (BPRD normal human agents) get killed off and the main characters don't seem too upset. Could be they are just used to it by now, came across more callous than it should have been I thought.
3) I didn't buy into Abe's love interest 100%. Though I could rationalize it perhaps that he is inexperienced in love and perhaps more infatuated or desperate so I can let it slide.
Oh and I also thought Jeffrey Tambor was very good in his role. I also really liked how the very beginning of the movie started, though I was initially a bit skeptical. Very Creative. There are also a few laugh your ass off parts which are lots of fun, particularly in a theater setting.
and the movies have more of a comedic feel to them. Granted the comics have comedy elements as well but the films are very overdone in the regard.
They are still very enjoyable movies but they seem to be out in their own world. I thought their take on Hellboy Jr. was pretty lame though.
I'm not a baby, I'm a tumor.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Is CmdrTaco unaware that del Toro directed the first Hellboy movie? He certainly didn't have quite the same license to create his own vision then as he does now, but he is the guy who got the first one so very right.
--Matthew
Iron Man is a "perfect A" movie if you are like 11 years old.
Maybe I am. It depends. How old were you when you got the stick shoved up your ass?
The enemies of Democracy are
That's gotta suck - I think ours in Fort Worth just went up to $7.50 for the nighttime showings. The Cinemark Tinseltown near us has great prices though - matinees are $4.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
Seems a little condescending to still be calling him a boy.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
meh, double post, ignore this, forgot to login earlier.
Some AC's actually post worth while things to read, but if you're going to post a copy&paste of an AC's post, at least have the decency to quote it and say "I agree!"
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Dee Bradley Baker plays Klaus in American Dad. Not Seth MacFarlane.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
There may be some minor spoilers in the review but nothing like the spoiler here.
We have long memories.
dup post... you must be applying for a job here
Meh. I was really hoping to enjoy Hellboy II as I was a big fan of the original. I thought it was funny, had some decent action, and some interesting characters.
Those three things are back in the sequel but unfortunately there were a few too many corners cut to make this work for me.
First there is the acting. Ron Pearlman is great, Selma Blair and Doug Jones are downright terrible. I blame this on Del Toro not speaking english natively because otherwise he would have heard how stiff and bland they delivered all their lines. Don't get me started on Seth McFamilyGuy. He was the complete wrong choice for that character.
Second, the giant plot holes are what really ruined this movie for me. I knew there were going to be problems right from the start of the tooth fairy scene where each and every bland BPRD agent is eaten up without any of the baddies even beginning to swarm on any of the main characters. I'm sorry, I'm not buying it! Then the movie got along pretty well until the Golden Army chamber. First Abe basically stabs everyone in the back for practically no reason. And after it happens it is never brought up again. Nobody asks why, nobody even seems to care! Stupid! Also, it was absolutely stupid that Hellboy and Johann take on the golden army while Liz and Abe just stand there looking bored. They wouldn't try to help? The golden army wouldn't bother to try to attack them? Why too much went wrong in this scene for me to suspend my disbelief.
The more I think about it the more things start to bug me and now I'm just depressed about the movie so I guess I'll call it quits now.
And the music sucked.
Is the writer's strike still going on?
I ask this because the trailers for this film, like most of the others this season, have boiled down to "come see the amazing special effects!"
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Hellboy II made me feel like I was watching Men in Black with Hellboy characters. I felt that the what goes bump in the night subtle monsters and sparse comedy was a greater atmosphere in the first, more than the elves, trolls, ogres and "tooth faeries" ughhh and tumor baby of the constantly humorous, barely dark latest installment.
What, they got a new lead for the sequel?
I wonder if Zelma Blare is playing Liz.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
Well, at least it is still cheaper than a gal of gas...
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...
As a fan of the Mike Mignola comics and the first movie, this movie just seemed like a pale imitation of the Hellboy I envision. It had its good moments, but there are far more interesting stories in the comics to adapt to film.
More Hecate and Baba Yaga, less pseudo-Tolkien Elf lore!
Wow, that's outrageous. We only paid $7.50 because it was a Friday night showing at the local Regal Cinemas. Lately we've been going to the Movie Tavern for their matinee. $5.00/person and you get lunch/dinner (extra of course) with it. I was really impressed with the place; clean, affordable, good service, decent food. The seats are padded office chairs and they have a bar in front of every row to place your food on. If you need a refill you flip a switch in front of you and they bring it out. I think if more places like this existed theaters as a whole wouldn't get such a bad rap. Of course, with their business model they have all the problems of a movie theater as well as all of the problems of a restaurant, but they seem to be doing very well from what I can tell.
God, schmod. I want my monkey man!
My daughter and I both enjoyed the movie; the humor was even better than the first movie. I also agree with Taco's appraisal of Wall-E and Iron Man. That being said, the movie was not perfect. The puppets acting out the Elf/Human war in the beginning was definately a WTF moment, and went on far too long. Selma Blair and Jeffrey Tambor's characters are annoying. Krause could have used a little more character development (what was the deal with his velvet pouch of rings?). But Ron Perlman is perfect as Hellboy, and that saves the movie. Abe was better in this one than the orignal. It used to be the rule that movies based on comic books sucked (does anyone remember Howard the Duck?) Glad to see Hollywood has finally figured out how to make comic book movies genuinely entertaining.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
You should expect to pay $9.50 at most theaters in central/eastern Massachusetts. This is offset by the fact that we have nice theaters and good access to independent cinema.
News for Nerds. Hellboy started as a comic book, nerds like comic books. Plus, it's Taco's own review. He can put it up on his site if he wants to. (Read the department name)
This site is really slipping when a movie based on a comic book about some demon playing a good guy for a government conspiracy organization fighting hell and whatever is considered of interest for geeks.
-er, wait a minute... nevermind. Carry on.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
First things first, I should warn you that I am a huge Hellboy fan - I own all of the Hellboy and BPRD comics, and have read them multiple times. As a further warning, this post is going to be full of spoilers, so read at your own risk.
I really wanted to like both Hellboy films; they're entertaining, the plots and writing are decent, and the special effects are very good. Unfortunately, I just can't stomach the way they've reinvented all of the characters.
Abe Sapien is not a weak, cowardly intellectual with weird psychic hand things. Abe Sapien is tough and level-headed: this is the guy who led the team after Hellboy left, a man who has survived a fight with the Ogopogo, being shot by a monkey, and several impalings. And seriously, what's up with the hands? Who made that crap up?
Ron Perlman actually makes a pretty damn good Hellboy, but I am sick of all this "am I a monster or am I a man?" melodrama they keep pushing in the films. Yes, there is some of that in the comics, but it's much more subtle, and much more strongly tied to his destiny as the bringer of the Apocalypse rather than the fact that he looks different. In the comics, Hellboy never really seems to make too much of a distinction between the human and supernatural worlds; he was the first person to befriend Liz Sherman, and the one who stopped the experiments on Abe and welcomed him into the team. Is he worried that he is destined to destroy the world? Yes. Is he worried that he's a big red dude with horns? Probably not.
Also, all the romance in the films is a complete fabrication. Is it not possible to create a movie any more without shoveling in some crappy romantic sub-plot? Liz and Hellboy? Never happened, at least not yet. Especially not the pregnancy part. They are definitely fond of each other, but there has never been any real indication that their feelings go beyond a very strong friendship. In fact, all of the romance in the comics can be summed up as follows:
That's basically it, folks.
Finally, did they really have to turn Johann into some militant German stereotype? The man was a medium, not a Gestapo agent. I am also not a fan of the redesigned containment suit.
Yeah yeah, I know this is just some fanboy's "it's not as good as the comics!" rant, but it's true; the films are not as good as the comics, and it's because they went and changed things for no apparent reason.
I'm so excited I just made water in my pantaloons!
Hmmmm, they must have different pricing in different locations. At the Mill Run location (Hilliard, OH), it's $7.00 normally and $5 for matinee/children/seniors.
God, schmod. I want my monkey man!
Bring on Mamma Mia! *g*
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I have to confess, I found it quite humorous that this, Slashdot, a "News for Nerds" website, would have a misspelling of Ron PERLman. I mean, it has PERL in the name, and you got it wrong! Usually typos don't aggravate me into complaining about them, which I'm not really doing this time. I'm getting a kick out of it.
Perlman.
I'm sorry, if I were your boss I wouldn't expense a ticket for a movie when you can't even get the spelling of the main actor and star's name correct.
But that's just me.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
While I didn't think it was a bad movie, I was very disappointed. I like the original much more.
I liked the visuals and the fight scenes - all well done. I thought Del Torro hit it right around the segment with the Giant Forest God. I enjoyed the 'Angel' near the end.
However, the rest of the movie not so much. The German was grating. The Para organization seemed like a bad partial knock off of "Men in Black", and the Troll Market seemed like a bad knockoff of Harry Potter. The Elves seemed like a knockoff of Atlantis' bad guys (name escapes me). The word knockoff keeps coming up ...
Still I didn't dislike it . I was just disappointed.
I think Del Torro is setting up for future movies. I still look forward to them.
/LabMonkey09
Maybe they will start getting it right from now on.
Iron Man- Excellent
Hulk- Better then Ang Lees version, a good flick
Hancock- A great film
Hellboy- a beautiful film lots of Eye candy, I do agree too much Love story
and this weekend we get Batman the Dark Knight- which I hope knocks them out of the park.
You're probably one of those people who thinks comics are for kids despite the fact the average reader is 23.
Iron Man is probably the best fantasy action movie released this summer. I suspect you hate fantasy action movies in general. Approximately 3 billion people worldwide disagree with you, and those who do "agree" don't generally have access to movie theaters. Stick to the art house and you'll be fine.
At one point in the last few decades it was estimated that, thanks to the human population explosion, more than half the human beings who had ever lived were still alive. (There were jokes about the expectation of eventual death being less than 50%. B-) )
I hear that, since then, the origin date for "humans" has been pushed back enough by additional evidence that the "less than half" estimate was discredited.
But it is an interesting thought.
(Why SHOULD people HAVE to die, after all? At least before the heat death of the universe? OK, so the machinery of the meat breaks down. But is there any inherent reason one couldn't, with sufficient improvements in technology and application of resources, repair it indefinitely? Or even rebuild and restart it after it fails? For some time now death has been, not a state, but a prognosis: That (with current medical technology) the body's systems can no longer be repaired (and if necessary restarted) to the point that it can again operate in a way recognizable as "alive".)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Normal matinee price in Dallas, TX, is $4.50.
"Approximately 3 billion people worldwide disagree with you" The film's distributors will be sorely disappointed at their gross revenues if that is in fact the case! Otherwise your logic is impeccable. Follow and do what the masses do!
What I disliked about WALL-E was that it purports to be anti-commercialism/waste, while being part of that same commercialism.
There's also the fact that I just don't buy that a race that still throws out massive amount of garbage FROM A SPACESHIP can return to a ruined Earth and make everything better.
The interplay between WALL-E and EVE was great, though.
I'd rate it just ahead of "A Bug's Life" as the worst Pixar film -- which I rate as the least-good (I won't say worse, as no Pixar movie has been bad, just not-as-good) simply because I always forget about A Bug's Life when I try to list Pixar's movies, so it didn't leave an impression on me.
I have never read a more poorly written "review" in my life. It's filled with fragments and awkward, halting sentences.
I enjoyed the movie, but thought it was a bit mushy and predictable.
While I'd generally agree with you, I will move to strike Pan's Labrynth from your list. I didn't enjoy the movie, but it really was somewhat different from your usual Hollywood clone fair. My first reaction was that it was just more of the girl-fantasy-escapism genre (Mirrormask, Labyrinth, etc...), but I must say it was much too dark to fit into that cliche, and did pull of a nice psychological component, which is pretty rare these days.
Again, it wasn't my favorite movie, and I personally could live without ever watching it again, but... I realize that this is my completely subjective opinion, and has no basis on anyone else's.
What, then, in your opinion, is original? The only movie in theaters, right now, that I want to see is Mongol, and that is HARDLY original. Everything else is a sequel, formulaic, or a rehash, as has been true for the last couple years. Hell the last good movie I've seen in recent memory (No Country For Old Men) was based on a bestselling novel, so not even it was original (nor as good as the book).
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
I hope to blog on this myself, soonish, but I'll say that I'm glad the film picked up as it went along, because I was having major problems with the interactions between Hellboy and Liz early on. Frankly, Liz came off like a bitch without a clue for more of the film than even the plot device involved justified. I also had difficulty adjusting to Abe's new voice. I found a few more things to complain about -- but the film's overall beauty and the fact I'm a freakin' sap at heart left me eager for the Blu-ray.
Nope, that would be $6.00.
Any review coming from someone who thought "Wall-E" was a "perfect A" is automatically untrustworthy in my book. "Wall-E" was just a thinly-veiled social commentary (and an insulting one at that) disguised masquerading as a harmless kids movie. It should go in the exact same crap bin as "Happy Feet".
Kids (and their parents) go to animated movies to have a fun time, not to be preached to. Hollywood needs to stop using kids movies to preach an agenda.
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
This dissenting review perfectly sums up my opinion of this movie's childish storytelling: http://regulus2.azstarnet.com/blogs/philmguy/10190
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Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
3 billion people haven't watched Iron Man. 3 billion people have watched fantasy action films this summer.
Having said that, Iron Man has made over $500 million so far and has been watched by hundreds of millions of people. And yeah, lots of people pirated the movie.
Why do you give me and example of a film released this summer that did poorly that hundreds of millions of people SHOULD have watched?
but this movie really wasn't good. i loved the matrix-elf dude though