SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings – once again – from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Saturday, November 22nd, 2008. Welcome to my daily comic book review blog – thanks for tuning in! Are you interested in a comic book but not sure you want to shell out the cash? Let me know and I’ll review it for you – letting you know if it’s worth your hard earned money!

Today I have another special treat for you. My friend Robert has purchased the Hellboy II Special Edition DVD and wants to talk to you all about what it has to offer and whether or not it’s worth your money. Check out September 7th, 2008 for my review of the movie itself. But without any further ado, here’s what Robert has to say:

The Movie:
Hellboy II is a natural evolution of the story from the first movie. Almost all of the original cast returns except Rupert Evans (Agent Myers). He was the audience’s perspective as the only normal person in a cast of “freaks,” but really he wasn’t needed in this movie. The opening scene with Hellboy as a child in the fifties with his dad (John Hurt) is pure movie magic. The story of the Golden Army and the Elves is slightly reminiscent of Lord of The Rings. A race of Elves whose time on earth is done created a magical army designed to destroy man. This makes me wonder if Guillermo del Toro was using this as a warm up for The Hobbit. The creature design of monsters and the Troll Market borrow some of the styling from Pan’s Labyrinth. From the story, to the sets, to the acting, you get a very engrossing movie that makes you feel like you’re being shown a world that actually exists somewhere, and leaves you wanting more. Everything you loved from the first movie is in this movie and so much more.

The DVD’s:
The movie came in two retail configurations. The basic DVD for $14.99 and the three disc special edition for $22.99. So, you ask, what do you get in the special edition?

Disc one: You get quite a lot of swag with the first disc. You get two commentary tracks, one with Guillermo del Toro and one with cast members (not Ron Perlman though). You also get seven set visits. These visits are short 5-10 minute video diary shoots of a scene. They don’t offer too much in the way of depth, but it is sometimes funny to see what a scene consists of. For example, you get to see behind-the-scenes for the fight between Hellboy and Wink in the Troll Market. The funny part of that is watching Wink who needs a fan to blow air into his mouth between takes. Also notable is the giant arm holding the golden egg that the prince throws to release the Forrest Elemental. Movie magic is sometimes just funny looking behind the scenes. This first disc also contains an animated comic that is an epilogue for the movie. Finally included are 6 deleted scenes. All of which are more like scene extensions than new scenes.

Disc two: This disc starts off with a prologue from Guillermo del Toro which includes a very in depth look at the production of the movie titled “In the Service of the Demon.” You get 19 chapters that take you from the beginning concepts all the way to the voice overs. It’s several hours of movie goodness and behind the scenes tidbits. Along with a postlude where Toro gives credit to Mike Mignola. Which is a real treat, because you don’t often get directors having such a close relationship with the creators, and you can tell that Toro really respects what Mignola created. The rest of the disc has numerous other goodies. “The Production Workshop” is a look into the puppet sequence showing the creation of the Golden Army with story board artwork running on top of the scene. The “Pre-Production Vault” contains the director’s notebook and a gallery. The notebook has some copies of Toro’s notebook that he used to make notes and sketches of characters and scenes. Along the way, there are some icons that take you into the scenes that are being shown in the notebook with narrative provided by Toro. The gallery section includes, well, galleries. Mignola’s Gallery has voice over by Mignola himself, but otherwise it’s all just standard stills. Another one of the galleries gives you a look at the marketing campaign for the movie. Some cool posters, but no media promotions were included. Lastly, there is a DVD-ROM feature to allow you to print the script of the movie.

Disc 3: The third disc is simply the digital transfer copy. As with The Hulk (see the review of THAT DVD on Thursday, November 13th, 2008), you can copy Hellboy II as a Windows file or QuickTime. But again, no PSP support. However, unlike The Hulk, you get a larger actually viewable picture on the iPod. The gig price tag is a little higher, though, at 1.37.

All and all if you want to save some cash and don’t want to waste two days on in depth special features then the single disc is a better buy. But if you want to forget having a social life for a couple of days and learn how a movie is made, then the three disc is for you.

That’s it for today. A special thanks to Robert for letting us all know about this DVD. As always - thank you for reading - I’ll see you tomorrow. And don’t forget to let me know if there are any comic books you’d like me to review for you – I take requests!
-Searnold, SuperSearnold@yahoo.com www.myspace.com/SuperSearnold

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