Movie Review: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

 

Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is back; this time, with a new team in the superior 2008 sequel to Hellboy, The Golden Army. (Source: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema)

After the success of Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro decided to give the sequel to Hellboy a fantasy atmosphere. With a budget of $85 million ($20 million more than its predecessor), The Golden Army is a superior sequel with a lot more humor, wall-to-wall action, and wonderful characters from before–as well as introducing some new ones. Ron Perlman, again, plays Hellboy with the wit and charm as the original.

Here, he and his team of paranormal researchers–his pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), Dr. Manning (Jeffrey Tambor), and a German ectoplasmic psychic named Johann Krauss (voiced by Seth MacFarlane, the only movie where he doesn’t turn in a bad performance) to take down Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), a creature from a mystical underworld who has collected pieces of the crown, so he could be in charge of a massive army of mechanical soldiers, known as “The Golden Army”. Resulting in a battle between the humans and his people.

I love the attention to detail in the wonderful sets, particularly the troll market where Hellboy and his colleagues go through. I’m certain it will take many repeated viewings to catch everything going on in that sequence. For someone who is a sucker for fantasy, the atmosphere works for this kind of movie. With its great action set pieces, the movie also contains some of the most hilarious moments in any superhero movie. I love the scene where Abe and Hellboy discuss issues about women, after Abe falls in love with Princess Nuala (Anna Walton), and sing Barry Manilow’s “Can’t Smile Without You” while drinking some beer. It’s hard not to crack a smile during that scene.

It’s a shame to hear Hellboy III will never see the light of day. I will miss the great adventures with these actors, and I’ll watch them for the rest of my life, especially Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

10/10

Movie Review: Hellboy (2004)

Hellboy (Ron Perlman) rids the Earth from paranormal threats while also dealing with personal issues in Guillermo del Toro’s first superhero movie. (Source: IMDb)

Years before he won an Oscar for The Shape of Water, Mexican director Guillermo del Toro adapted Mike Mignola’s graphic novel series, Hellboy, to the big screen. It became a modest box-office success when it hit theaters in 2004. Although it didn’t break any new ground in the superhero genre, it contains enough humor, fantastic visuals, and historical intrigue to outweigh its flaws.

Ron Perlman hits it out of the park as the title character, a demon who came out of a paranormal portal built by the Nazis during World War II to free the “Seven Gods of Chaos” to defeat the Allies. However, things don’t go according to plan as the Allies defeat the Nazis. Dr. Trevor Broom (the late John Hurt) adopts the creature and, eventually, training him to be an agent of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) to secretly protect the world from paranormal threats, with the help of a psychic half-amphibian/half-human Dr. Abe Sapien (Doug Jones; voiced by David Hyde Pierce), John Myers (Rupert Evans), and Dr. Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor). While a demanding role (considering the red make-up), Perlman plays Hellboy as a selfish yet charismatic creature who smokes cigars, loves Baby Ruth candy, and has a soft spot for cats (similar to Vito Corleone from The Godfather).

There is plenty of action in this movie, particularly one exhilarating scene leading to a subway station. For the most part, the movie works, due to del Toro’s sensitive directing and screenplay (though ridden with holes), the energy, the atmosphere, and the great characters. 

8/10