Hellboy II: The Golden Army, directed by visionary Guillermo del Toro, taught me that CGI, when not trying to make things look real (as if they belong in reality), can be positively astounding. Trying to make something look like play-dough delivers an oddly satisfying effect. The creatures in this movie not only look amazing, their small inserted histories boost their standing from flimsy effect, to essential story builders . A.O Scott is right, Hellboy II is “a big mess and, mostly, a lot of fun”.
I just want to clear this up, right away. Sci-fi Fantasy is one of my Achilles Heels. The hardest things for me to do is separate my love of unicorns and mermaids from any ability I might have to look at a film with an objective eye. That said, I still think this movie was completely watchable, finessed with an imagination that is more difficult to harness than you would think.
Like the first Hellboy, the story is kinda all over the place. The Elven Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) wants revenge on the human race for our greedy and destructive nature. He needs to reassemble the Golden Army, an innumerable force of machine man killers, which requires taking down his father, kidnapping his twin sister and reassembling a crown that makes him the Commander in Chief. Sprinkled in between this epic fairytale is love, crisis of allegiance and some seriously pulpy humor. Don’t be afraid to laugh at things are supposed to be serious. My guess is that del Toro wants us to have as much fun as he's having.
Hellboy II reminded me of a few things – The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Star Wars. When Hellboy and the troop head to the ‘Troll Market’ we get a sneak peek at the underbelly of the beast world. It’s about two doors down from the bar on Tatooeen and it’s a really fun moment in the film. We also get a new character in Hellboy II - Johann Krauss, voiced by Seth McFarlane of Family Guy fame, is a collection of vapors that get clothed in a robot like, deep sea diving suit. He can inhabit the bodies of other creatures or loan a little of himself to get some information from a dead tooth fairy. I’m sure that someone like Storm is a badass to a loyal X-Men fan, but she’s got nothing on this guy.
Maybe it’s the CGI. Maybe it’s the characters. Or maybe its just more fantasy than superhero that makes Hellboy II a refreshing romp through the summer movie season. ‘Red’, as his friends call him, is played perfectly by Ron Perlman. He’s cheesy, at ease with being cheesy, lovable and ugly all at the same time. I can’t believe that I fell for his romance with Liz Sherman (an also aptly cast Selma Blair), but I did. Just as much as I did in the first film. I credit most of this to Pearlman and for the same reason that I was touched by his performance in Jeunet’s City of Lost Children. It turns out that the Beauty and the Beast story really is timeless.
As I was leaving the theater a friend said, “That movie will be really great on TBS”. I think he’s right. Some movies you can watch forty times and they don’t get old. Hellboy II is no There Will Be Blood, but I can’t watch that movie everyday of my life.
Thank You Chad for the brilliant insight.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
A.O. Scott’s NY Times Review
Guillermo Del Toro’s Notebook
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