Tags:
Film: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Year: 2008
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writer: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair and Doug Jones
Review:
This film first begins when Hellboy is a child. It’s Christmas Eve and his father is telling him it is time for bed. Hellboy agrees only if he gets a story. His father then tells him the tale of the elves and humans. They fought a war and to gain the upper hand, the elves create an indestructible golden army. The elves use it and realize the danger of it and create a pact with the humans. They put the army back to sleep and peace is at hand.
We then cut to today and the prince of the elves, who is played by Luke Goss, has exiled himself at the end of the war. He has a monster sidekick and together they attack an auction of artifacts. They confiscate a part of the crown that is needed to awaken the army and then unleash monsters.
Next we meet Hellboy as an adult, played by Ron Perlman. His girlfriend who has pyro-kinetic powers is Selma Blair. Then their wise, fish-like friend is played by Doug Jones. They work for a secret government group to fight monsters and things like that. The government agent who is their boss is played by Jeffrey Tambor.
They get an alert to go to the auction place. Tambor bribes Perlman to not be seen and he agrees. They go there and investigate, not finding any of the people, but they do find the monsters that were unleashed there. Perlman also sees a chance to go into the public as well, even though he claims it’s an accident.
Goss also goes after his father and twin sister for their pieces to the crown. Will he collect all of them before it is too late? Will Perlman realize that the people aren’t going to like a monster, not matter how hard he tries? The more he does, the more he pushes away Blair.
This film is decent for being a comic book adaptation. One thing it has going for it is that it was written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. He’s personally one of my favorites and he does bring an adult feel to a comic book movie which is nice. I’ve never personally read any of the Hellboy comics, but the jist I am getting is that they are more adult themed than most, so that also seems to help. Toro has taken others, Blade II for insistence, that is based on a comic and did a great job.
The only problem I have with this one though is that the story isn’t overly that great and it just doesn’t do enough for me. I like the fairy tale feel that it has and I think the idea of the Elves and the Golden Army is good. It isn’t horrible by any stretch, but it is something you can watch and enjoy still. The acting is good enough; the action itself is pretty good. They’re somewhat creative in what monsters they create for it. You need some imagination to enjoy this one, but if you do, then give it a shot. I will say as well that being a sequel, don’t necessarily have to watch the original to enjoy this one. It will fill you in one what you need to know which isn’t a lot. If you liked the first one, then I’d give this one a shot as well.
My Rating: 6 out of 10