Exploring: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Review of: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Overall Rating: 9.5
This was a great Hellboy movie. Guillermo Del Toro working with Mike Mignola to help bring the feel of Hellboy to the big screen really paid off. The setting was breathtaking. The acting is well done. The creatures were believable and looked lived in. Del Toro does a great job giving us short scenes where we get to watch various characters and creatures doing simple things that lend to the feeling that there is more to them then just two dimensional characters. A particular scene in mind is when Hellboy and Abe are just hanging out having a drink talking about life and their aspirations. Johann Krauss was awesome and everything I expected. I loved the scene with the Angel of Death, the look of the character was very compelling, the conversation and difficult choice gave me goosebumps and helped to remind me of Hellboy's terrible destiny.
The story is brilliantly written. They were able to take a tragedy and masquerade it as an action film and pull it off. The tragedy story line is about Princess Nuala her family struggle and her choices ending in a classic manner as a tragedy would. This story line is knitted nicely into the action storyline which features Hellboy and his fight to save humanity from the "nasties" that go bump in the dark.
This movie is well worth seeing in the theater, especially if you are a fan of Hellboy.
The Plot / Story: In a time long forgotten an ancient battle between humans and the mythical creatures. During the battle an indestructible clockwork army was created, controlled by a crown and unleashed on the humans. After a truce was made they split the crown one half going to the elves and the other half going to the humans. Now Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) wants to finish off the humans so he sets out to reunite the crown and take control of the golden army.
Likes
Brilliantly written storyline
good acting
Creatures and characters have lots of depth to them
Setting has a feel of being lived in
The hang out scene with Abe and Hellboy
Johann Krauss is fun and entertaining
Dislikes / Concerns
There are several things that started as concerns but as the movie goes on they fell away or were addressed. The beginning is a little slapsticky in it's humor but it goes away and works with the story. Liz starts with the line "you better run" which was also used in first Hellboy movie giving the concern that it was going to be a catchphrase to be overused but it never came up again.
I was concerned about the number of creatures to be shown in the film but Del Toro pulls it off and like in Star Wars it gives a lived in feel to the film.
Get your copy of Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Get your copy of Hellboy from:
Amazon (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Netflix lets you rent, watch and return DVDs from home - Try free for 2 weeks
Don't wait. Guarantee your seat before you go and avoid a sold out show. Skip the box office lines and buy movie tickets at Fandango.com.