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TheDailyKirk
Kirk Faulkner is not only a content editor and online community organizer but an award winning screenwriter as well. After receiving his graduate degree from New York Univer ...
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Review of Hellboy 2
Go Straight to HellboyHellboy is back and he’s redder than ever. The sequel to 2006’s "Hellboy" has been gathering momentum due to the visionary direction of Guillermo del Toro and has garnered a number of scorching reviews lauding the film’s visual intricacy. While there is certainly no doubt that "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army" draws on some of the spectacle that made "Pan’s Labyrinth" so haunting and beautiful, it can’t quite make up for the shortcoming in the overall story and writing. Granted, it is hard to cram a tale about an orphaned demon working for a secret government agency to stop a group of rogue elves from rebooting an army of golden warrior robots into 90 minutes and make it believable. Throw in a few love stories, enough action to keep the kids happy, and a meandering trip to a goblin market, and you are left with a small amount of time to squeeze out huge chunks of exposition. Subverting the aphorism, in this movie, the devil overshadows the details. The movie is still a wild ride. Guillermo del Toro has no problem exercising his wild visual magic on even the most ancillary characters. Around every corner could be the creepiest, greatest, weirdest movie monster you’ve laid on eyes since ET. There are a few moments where the art direction is allowed to shine unencumbered by the story whatsoever, and they are always breathtaking (look for the wings with eyes in them and you’ll know what I am talking about). In the style of James Bond, Hellboy is known for his post-kill quips. The irreverent demon with his fist of fury is supposed to come off as an unlikely hero; someone humans should be glad is on our side. In reality, Hellboy hardly has any hell in him. His true nature as the possible harbinger of Armageddon is touched upon in an expositional manner, but the character himself couldn’t seem more harmless. A comic-book movie with a squishy plot is common, if not the norm, but finding one with this kind of visual gumption is something worth looking into. Posted on 07/21/08 by: TheDailyKirk 1 Comments
cattabiani Posted on 08/06/08 
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I just read the interview with Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy. He went through the movie and pointed out the parts that he would have changed and they were all the parts I had problems with. He also pointrd out that if he had had his way and changed all those parts the movie wouldn't have opened at number one and probably would have flopped. So what can you do? I like this movie more and more in retrospect. just ignore the Neil Diamond part.