Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) August 22, 2008
Posted by gproject in : Cinema, Recently Viewed , trackbackDirected by: Guillermo del Toro
It is usual for sequels to be the product of popularity; a return to characters we were already introduced to so that they may continue their seemingly endless adventures, all while making the pockets of a hungry audience that little bit lighter. All’s fair in love and box office I suppose, and it would be unjust to say that every sequel strategy turns out badly (The Dark Knight [review], anyone?). Hellboy II, on the other hand, may be the complete antithesis of this. A sequel born not of the money-grabbing “give ‘em more” attitude that plagues regular follow-ups, but rather a film that only exists but for the grace of director Guillermo del Toro: the Pied-Piper of Hollywood.
Del Toro is a rare breed, and one who happily mixes his independent foreign language commitments with mainstream Hollywood engagements. What’s rare is that he has found great success in both. This makes him like gold dust for the big studios, who want to channel his off-beat credibility and spellbinding imagination into their seat-filling summer blockbusters. Now, some back story. Anyone familiar with the tale of Hellboy’s inception onto the big screen will know that it was something of a passion project for the Mexican director. As a huge fan of Mike Mignola’s comic books, it took plenty of work and proof-of-ability (see: Blade II) before he was allowed the chance to make it for Sony Pictures. For all intents and purposes the film underperformed, and never captured the public imagination in the same way that Spider-man or Batman Begins did – but the story does end there.
Since then, Guillermo has gone and turned himself into an Oscar-nominated auteur, the success of Pan’s Labyrinth securing him a seat at Sony’s head table when he wanted to come back and do an American film. But what does Del Toro want to make? Another dark and interesting adult fairytale? No, Hellboy II, of course! So Sony dumps the license for financial reasons and without hesitation it is picked up by Universal; a new studio to fall under the spell of Del Toro’s hypnotic tune. Against better judgement, they give the go-ahead for a sequel.
Which leads us to this, The Golden Army, a story that sees ‘Big Red’ and chums (minus John Myers this time) take on an indestructible army of mechanical warriors, under the control of the vengeful Elf royalty, Prince Nuada. Meanwhile, Hellboy and girlfriend Liz are having relationship issues, and aquatic investigator Abe Sapien falls for Nuada’s twin sister, Nuala, after she is brought in by the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence (BPRD) for her own safety. Both interpersonal bonds are stretched when Hellboy and his crew track Nuada down to stop him before he wages a one-sided slaughter of humankind.
It’s clearly a fantasy movie at heart, as all comic book adaptations are, although this one maybe more so because of its entanglement with goblins, trolls, elves and witches. As such, it has rather a bit of back-story to get through in the first ten minutes, which can often be the period when you’re paying the least attention. In order to sidestep this, the film makes use of a wonderfully animated storybook sequence to divulge the plot history. Built like the workings of a child’s imagination, it’s an inventive way of getting the back-story on screen, and the first of many spectacular visual delights.
Other highlights include the fantastic action sequences, which is an area where Del Toro has really coming into his own. The high-quality of choreography on display, matched with similarly stylish cinematography, leaves you genuinely impressed at the skill of these sequences, which are light years head of most of this summer’s supposedly ‘exciting’ blockbusters. Add to this some superior computer generated effects that appear frequently, but not distractingly so, and you’ve got the kind of old-school action adventure that actually bothers to instil excitement and spectacle into its set-pieces.
Hellboy II is also more evenly paced than its original [review], with time to delve into themes of love and rejection. I might have liked a little more about Hellboy’s turbulent rise and fall in the public eye, but what’s there is enough to paint a clear picture. All the returning actors do a fine job, especially Ron Perlman who brings a difficult character to life even under full prosthetics. Speaking of which, mime actor Doug Jones gets to provide both vocals and movements for his character of Abe Sapien this time, and makes fine work of it. I’m still a little unconvinced by Selma Blair, who serves to set up a rather ominous plot-point if there’s ever another movie, but it is nice to see an expanded role for Jeffery Tambor, as BPRD chief Tom Manning. Only Luke Goss gets left out in the cold - his evil Prince Nuada is not the most memorable of villains.
If there’s a criticism to be had it’s that the whole thing has gone a little bit ‘Pans’, which is great for Guillermo’s sketchbook, but a little overbearing for the rest of us. There’s an awful lot of fantasy creature stuff this time around, way more than just the villainous beasties of the first Hellboy. Maybe the studio’s concession for making the movie was that they could play a little off the success of Pan’s Labyrinth, but some of it feels awfully familiar - especially the misplaced eyes on the Angel of Death, which is almost a direct lift of the Pale Man in Del Toro’s Spanish fairytale. Where the unique designs fare better are in the more Hellboy-specific characters, especially the Golden army itself, who whirr and clank to great effect.
Hellboy II is a combination of great fun, great fights, and a good bit of humour (rather like Del Toro, the film is not afraid to make fun of itself). It’s a terrific summer action flick and an imaginative, single-minded piece of popcorn entertainment. This film deserves to be a bigger success than it probably will be (because despite best intentions, how do you get people to go see a flick when they either didn’t watch or didn’t rate the original?), but it’ll make money, and it certainly won’t stop Del Toro from moving on to the next big studio project. He’s got ideas, they’ve got cash. Time to whip out a merry tune and dance them all the way to Hellboy III.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army is currently on UK general release.
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