[Hellboy 2:The Golden Army]
Plot:After an ancient truce existing between humankind and the invisible realm of the fantastic is broken, hell on Earth is ready to erupt. A ruthless leader who treads the world above and the one below defies his bloodline and awakens an unstoppable army of creatures. Now, it's up to the planet's toughest, roughest superhero to battle the merciless dictator and his marauders. He may be red. He may be horned. He may be misunderstood. But when you need the job done right, it's time to call in Hellboy (Ron Perlman).

Along with his expanding team in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Development--pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair), aquatic empath Abe (Doug Jones) and protoplasmic mystic Johann--the BPRD will travel between the surface strata and the unseen magical one, where creatures of fantasy become corporeal. And Hellboy, a creature of two worlds who's accepted by neither, must choose between the life he knows and an unknown destiny that beckons him.

Cast:Ron Perlman, David Hyde-Pierce, Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor, Doug Jones, Luke Goss, Brian Steele, Anna Walton, Roy Dotrice, John Alexander, Tomas Kretschmann.

My Thoughts:Not great but beats part 1.

Review:I never was a major fan of the "Hellboy" films or universe. I never really saw the big deal to be made over the comics or the films personally. Hellboy is a cool looking character in some ways, but beyond that....eh. Anyhow, the big red rambo returns in "Hellboy 2:The Golden Army" to do battle against evil. This time coming in the form of Prince Nuada (Goss), ruler of a kingdom of magical creatures who is angry that humans and their insatiable greed and need for constant power and consumption have fractured the delicate truce between his world and ours. Now he has returned to overrun the human race, and reclaim the world for his people, the mystical creatures which he commands. To do this....he needs a certain crown, which holds access to the golden army, an army of indestructable living machines, and whose numbers are many.

It's now up to hellboy, and the returning Abe Sapien and Liz, as well as newcomer Johann Krauss...to stop him before he acquires all of the necessary pieces to rebuild the crown, and command the army. While not as smooth from a story standpoint as it's predecessor, "Hellboy 2" does do many things far better than it's first entry. For starters....it goes deeper into the relationship between Hellboy and Liz, a complicated one which has apparently gotten even more complicated with Liz and Hellboy being in the midst of a space-related spat, and "other little things"...which I won't spoil here.

It also lends creedence to Hellboy and Abe's relationship as well as giving Abe his own love interest, in the form of Princess Nuala...Nuada's sister who is bent on keeping her crazed brother from acquring the final crown piece. The story in this film is also a far superior machine compared to the story in the first picture. This movie leans more towards current events, and while the undertones of it's message are subtle...they're certainly existing. The film plays on certain themes which are prevalent in todays politics and society such as demonization of what one doesn't understand or what is different, and even takes a few pokes at environmental issues and hyper-capitalism.

While the movie doesn't clobber the viewer with preachy dialogue and preachy speeches...it does shine a light on a few issue in it's own way. This works within the real of the movie perfectly considering the look of hellboy and his comrades...and how they don't even come close to looking human. This is a theme which is played on alot by the films underlying message, as well as the antagonists and protagonists of the film. Although when Perlman's character Hellboy is confronted with said themes by the pic's villain Nuada, it does become a bit unbelievable and somewhat superficial at how he shrugs them off so easily.

The creatures of "Hellboy 2" aren't a big step up from part 1 due to the fact that most of them are easily defeated by hellboy and really provide little if not no match for him whatsoever. There's also not that many of them, which was a slightly disappointing scenario. I'm thinking if I'm a prince of a mystical realm, I'd be sending everything I had at hellboy to stop him. However in Nuada's case...he simply throws a few minions at Hellboy before finally deciding to battle the big red guy himself. Nuada, played by Luke Goss is a very interesting and intriguing villain. His look and attitude don't play well as a super evil antagonist....but work more to make him the most dangerous character of the movie.

Even more dangerous than hellboy who's the good guy....most of the time anyways. Watching Nuada slice and dice a few unlucky SOB'S with his blades provide some much needed fight-club-styled entertainment within the movie considering there aren't alot of great battle scenes in the film. Mostly very brief fight sequences and most of hellboy's enemies are killed via gun. If you're going into this filme xpecting a series of climactic fights then you might wanna look elsewhere. As usual, the visual FX are on target but the creatures are whisked through the film so quickly and wasted by Hellboy so quickly that if you blink beyond the first confrontation between "Red" and a gang of fairies.....you might miss them.

Which is "Hellboy 2"s biggest weakness. Beyond it's disappointing conclusion which felt rushed and far too short and lacking of intensity....the film just doesn't provide enough action to satisfy and events just aren't ratcheted up enough from the first "Hellboy" film. A sequel should pack alot more punch than it's predecessor, but "Hellboy 2" just teases alot of action and from start to finish only delivers close to half of what it promises. "Hellboy 2:The Golden Army" isn't by any means a bad film, it's far better than part 1 from a story standpoint. But at the same time, it doesn't have that "oomph" that most viewers will be looking for from this movie. And that is a shame because it had all the tools to do so.

Positives:Better story, further exploration of relationships between the paranormal investigative team members, Goss, Perlman, and Blair all play their parts very well.

Negatives:The film lacked action and power. It didn't push the intensity level up high enough from part 1. The creatures Hellboy had to battle died far too quickly ans easily...making it difficult to ever believe for a second he might not win this one.

Overall:Good sequel that still had problems.





( Talk about it in the Forums!)



( Back to the main page)