SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld].  Welcome to my comic book review blog - thanks for tuning in.  Today is Sunday, September 7th, 2008 - and we’re looking at the movie Hellboy II - The Golden Army.

In case you’re unaware, Hellboy II is the latest film from Guillermo Del Toro - critically acclaimed director of Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy I, and the upcoming movie, The Hobit.  Hellboy is one of the many movies this summer that was based upon a comic book - in this case, a comic book called Hellboy, created by Mike Mignola and published by Dark Horse Comics.  The basic premise: Hellboy is a demon who was raised by humans - he lives in the shadows and works for the government protecting us from supernatural threats.

Overall, this movie was definitely enjoyable.  Let’s start with the obvious one - no expense was spared in the special effects budget.  Guillermo has proven time and again that he is a master of special effects.  The creatures in this film look incredible, and Hellboy II is almost worth watching just for that reason.  But spectacle alone does not a movie make.

I am deeply saddened as I write this review because this movie came so close to greatness.  It had a perfect premise for an action movie - Hellboy must fight to prevent an evil Prince from raising up the invincible Golden Army and taking over the world.  It even has great character development as Hellboy deals with his romantic feelings for his teammate, Liz, and the fact that the world hates him for being different.  But the substance needed for greatness just wasn’t quite there.  Frequently, characters would behave out of character, making completely nonsensical choices.  I don’t want to spoil anything by saying exactly what any of the characters did - but as I think back I can recall at least one instance for EACH character where they did something completely stupid given their objectives and ability to think rationally.  A few poor choices I can forgive.  But once it became a pattern, it became annoying and distracting.

The movie’s climax is also just plain bad.  Basically, the movie is anti-climactic.  They tacked on a small skirmish after what should have been the final epic battle scene - making the skirmish feel insignificant by comparison.  If they had just switched the order of those scenes, the stakes of the epic battle would have been MUCH higher, and the heros’ ultimate victory would have felt much more satisfying.  It seemed like such a simple change, I couldn’t see why Guierllmo took it in the direction he did.  I was just depressed that they missed such an easy fix.

However, despite all of that, it was a good movie.  I definitely had a fun time watching it.  By now I’m sure it’s long out of theatres, but I recommend you see it once it comes to DVD.  Oh - and if you haven’t seen the first movie, you don’t need to for Hellboy II to make perfect sense (another aspect where Guillermo performed great.)  However, since you’re going to be watching it on DVD anyway, you may as well rent the first one, too - just for funsies.

That’s it for today.  Tune in tomorrow when I’m going to try an all new format for my blog.  Thanks for reading - see you next time.
-Searnold