MOVIE REVIEW - Hellboy II

When I first saw Hellboy I did have that thought. "Wow, this is so cool, I hope there is a sequel!". So, perhaps other geeks and nerds all over the world created so much "Sequel Energy" that the 'movie people' (read: Del Toro) decided that yes, in fact, Hellboy II was a good plan!

Whatever the motivation, when I discovered there was indeed a sequel in production I did a joyful - and somewhat embarrassing - little jig. Now that I've SEEN the film.. My anticipation is on the rise for "Hellboy III : golden army pah, the platinum army cometh?"!

You may ask yourself... and others, "what was this crazy hellboy movie thingy like anyway?" Well, not having to compete for dollars in the currently saturated 'blockbuster shopping season' Hellboy II focuses on what is important the film's director, writer and producer Guillermo Del Toro (!oh the power!) Not caring about strictly making coins Del Toro has made Hellboy II a personal work of love. It can be clearly seen in the final result. Subtle moments between characters, a wonderful attention to detail, continuity with the spirit of the story and the characters. The story in this film is almost secondary to allowing the viewer a glimpse into the personal lives of the inhabitants of this universe. Surprisingly I found the overall theme to be that of love and relationship. Things are "worked out" and new stuff surfaces in the ongoing love affair between Hellboy and Liz. Abe isn't left out this time, and is deeply smitten by the dark princess Nualla whom shares his empathic 'touch'n'read' ability for sharing feelings. The relationship between the antagonist Prince Nuada and his Father follow the archetypal pattern so often seen in film and in life, as he seizes power by force, bent on opening a Secret-World-Sized can of Elvin retribution on poor unsuspecting hedonistic humanity, blissfully unaware of their scheduled extermination at his lily white hands! The idea that humanity has forgotten the whole magical realm doesn't seem to trifle with his motivation one bit. This aspect seemed a bit contrived and was obviously designed to set the stage for cool story conflict and items/beings for our beloved ruddy hero to smash, make sardonic comments about and/or generally endear us to him. (though, not hard really). What would Hellboy be if he didn't have some baddie to mess with.

Ron Pearlman IS the Hellboy character. The other characters are excellent, but Pearlman's work here is superb! Of course, he's excellent in most things, but this character seems to bring the 'hellboy' right out of him. I heard one female audience member exclaim, "Ron Pearlman is SOO HOT... I mean as Hellboy of course." Personally, if my mate had to grind her horns with a power tool to keep from going satanic... I'd have second thoughts. Though, I have experienced that already, but that's a topic for another story.

Selma Blair reprises her role as fiery brunette Liz Sherman. Though I do find Blair to be the weakest link in the Hellboy-clan chain she does work relatively well in the role. Of course, it goes without saying that she presents a certain level of soothing eye candy for the gents. Which has the added bonus of being a "is he really looking at her rather then me?", date film. I do prefer her roles in other films over this one; she was completely amazing in the frilly 2001 Witherspoon vehicle 'Legally Blonde'.
YouTube.com interview

Doug Jones has one of the most difficult roles, that of character 'Abe Sapien' played who also filled Abe's slighty soggy shoes in the first Hellboy flick. His level of accomplishment here is impressive. They obviously have some new animatronic toy, because they all but said, "look into my eyes, aren't they realistic and deep like the ocean?" Though to be fair... they were remarkably 'eye-like'.


Seth MacFarlane is brilliant as Johann Kraus. In fact, he blends with the character so well one would never suspect he voices such iconic idiots as Peter Griffon and Stan Smith! In this roll he takes his extreme voice talent to the limit and completely sells the character. The character is a spiritual lifeform or disembodied energy given the power to interact with the physical world via a custom designed suit (from the BPRD of course). His origin is hinted at in the film but from the comic world it's known that Johann's physical self was destroyed in a strange boating accident. No, just joking, of course, it was a 'psychic explosion' which robbed him of his mortal flesh and bound him to this existence as a 'freak' in the BPRD army of freaks.

Jeffery Tambor has made a career out of playing 'the most annoying man on the planet' roles as well as the 'confounded and confused' and 'helpless witless'. His role here is as top notch as I've come to expect. He brings life and annoyance to the roll of Tom Manning, insecure and needy agent of the fictional - so we assume - BPRD (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense). In this film Tom Manning figures that he has a new agent which will actually respect him and follows protocol, something Tom is clearly pretty keen on enforcing though to no great effect. His efforts to control Hellboy have sunk to include bribery with cigars!

Luke Goss as Prince Nuada is most excellent. He manages to be brutal and yet completely identifiable as a 'person'. A driven person with passion and his dogged following of what he believes to be his duty. Del Toro has created a very deep and complex anti-hero which part of us always wants to succeed. Though, not at the expense of our heros of course!

Anna Walton is wonderful and etheral as Princess Nualla. She floats through the scenes, delivering her lines with pause and poise. Her visage resembling a merging of Micheal Moorcock's elves and the android Data from Star Trek. Nualla plays a pivitol roll in the nastiness set in motion by her brother. She sides with the King and flees with the final item required for her brother to awaken the Golden Army and subsequently give humanity a really bad experience.

-
Tom Manning: So, how many escapes, this year alone? Five!
Professor Trevor 'Broom' Bruttenholm: Tom, he's our guest, not a prisoner!
Tom Manning: Yeah, well, your guest happens to be six-foot five, bright red, has a tail, and is government funded.
(from Hellboy I)




Hellboy Shtuff:

Hellboy II movie site >>>
Hellboy main site >>>
Hellboy: the Science of Evil >>>
IMDB plot synopsis (contains spoilers) >>>
ComicVine Review >>>
Interview with director >>>

RATING: 8.5/10