Hellboy 2 – The Golden Army

Another comic book movie. Given the quite staggering success of ‘The Dark Knight’ I have no doubt that many more adaptations are being green-lit as we speak although in true hysteric press fashion it may actually be worth considering the film when adjusted for inflation – quite a different picture eh? Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by the original ‘Hellboy‘ movie from 2004, it was fairly smart with some fantastic design work coupled with some impressive set pieces and effects. Most importantly, director Guillermo Del Toro has a passion for the creatures and the subtexts that arise with his placing the freaks and weirdos centre stage, sidelining the ‘normals’ in favour of examinations of those that exist outside society and just how much they are similar to us, with the same strengths and foibles that we all endure. I re-watched the original over the weekend with a very revealing commentary from Del Toro and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola which certainly whetted my appetite for a new, bigger, louder installment that will also serve as Del Toro’s final movie before he jets over to New Zealand and spends the next four years bringing us the two ‘The Hobbit‘ movies.

  

Hellboy is a demon from a parallel dimension who was mistakenly brought to earth as an infant during a sabotaged Nazi experiment toward the end of the second world war. Raised by the US government, Hellboy and his menagerie of companions combat evil and demons in the world as part of the classified ‘Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense department. As the sequel opens we flashback to our hero as a child in 1955 being told the legend of the epic battle between men and elves in the distant past, a battle fought to an uneasy truce after the Golden Army, a devastating horde comprised of 70 times 70 mechanoid warriors are enlisted by the Elven King Balor. Both sides fight to a stalemate, the humans agreeing to control the cities whilst the elves occupy the great forests of the world. Cut forward to the present day and Balors son Prince Nuada decides to violate the truce and restore the elven kingdoms prestige by slaying his father, reclaim the three parts of the Imperial Crown and reactivate the Golden Army to ensure the final victory of his dying breed. All that stands in his way are Hellboy and his companions who must prevent the wicked Prince Nuada from retrieving the crown and fulfilling his terrible plan….

 

So lets start with the good stuff – once again Del Toro, his brilliant production designers and superb cinematographer have constructed a beautifully detailed hybrid steam-punk/fantasy panedmia lurking in the shadows of our current world. The film looks fantastic, is wonderfully detailed with some of the best creature designs and animatics I’ve seen for quite a while. There’s a couple of nice set pieces, the highlights being the battle with an enormous Earth Elemental type creature and a well choreographed final showdown with the wicked Elric clone Prince Nuada. What failed to engage me was the plot itself. I’ve not read the comic books so can’t testify to the films fidelity to the source material but the whole premise, the quest and challenge left me cold, particularly the whole ancient elven society which is never fleshed out. There’s a couple of laughs and Del Toro injects some pleas for acceptance, a championing of the strengths of multiculturalism amongst the fighting and prosthetics. It bodes well for the Hobbit films I think, he will be able to bring his strengths to the project by visualising and assembling the fantastic creatures of Tolkien’s universe whilst any script concerns are tempered by the source material itself and the news that Jackson and original LOTR screenwriters Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh are all on board. I hear that Christopher Lee has buried with the hatchet with Jackson after being cut from the theatrical cut of Return Of The King and has expressed an interest in voicing Smaug – I can’t think of a better choice. 

One of my mates got me this nice Del Toro boxed set for my birthday a couple of months back so I’ve revisited ‘Cronos‘ and had a look at ‘The Devil’s Backbone‘ which has strong thematic and stylistic connections with probably Del Toro’s best film to date, ‘Pan’s Labyrinth‘. ‘Cronos‘ was good, low budget inventive fun and having seen quite a few of Del Toro’s films over the past few weeks (I also watched the butchered ‘Mimic‘ again) it’s nice in that particularly fanboy way to identify references in his work not only to his own films but also key influences, the best in ‘Hellboy 2’ being a nod to the John Landis trademark ‘See You Next Wednesday‘ phrase which in turn is cribbed from of course ‘2001‘. Do you see, it all come back to Kubrick…….