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No one attending "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" should expect to see the brooding genius and deep shadows of the comic book series re-created on screen. That expectation was this critic's biggest mistake while reviewing the franchise's first installment in 2004.
As a fan of Mike Mignola's creepy imagery in the Dark Horse comics, I was offended by the bright palette and superhero histrionics director Guillermo del Toro brought to the project. Hellboy (Ron Perlman) looked nothing like the craggy demon from Hell turned paranormal investigator with a big gun. He looked more like a guy wearing a big red rubber suit chomping on a cigar.
In the 2008 version, Hellboy still looks ridiculous, but del Toro has done a better job of capturing the demon spawn's world. It may not be as chilling and monochromatic as Mignola's art, but it conveys a suitably nightmarish quality despite the abundance of primary colors and illumination.
- Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones.
- Rating: PG-13 for vivid scenes of horror, intense fighting, demonic bloodshed, lots of shooting, several humans are devoured by tooth fairies.
- Web site: hellboymovie.com
Sometimes horror can be communicated in unexpected ways, as when Hellboy and his best friend and colleague, the amphibious empath Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), sing along to Barry Manilow's "Can't Smile Without You." The film doesn't have a lot of funny moments like this, but when they crop up, they're genuinely frightening in their implications.
Once again, Hellboy and his colleagues in the B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) struggle to defend an unsuspecting humanity from the world of the unseen. This time, the enemy comes in the form of an evil elf named Nuada (Luke Goss). After launching a coup against his father, Prince Nuada is close to assembling the separate pieces of a mystical crown that will give him control over an invincible army of mechanical warriors that nearly destroyed mankind many millennia ago.
While Hellboy is trying to stop Prince Nuada's plot, his flame-manipulating girlfriend, Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), is concealing news from him that could affect their relationship forever. Meanwhile, Abe Sapien has a conflict-of-interest dilemma of his own. He has fallen hard for Nuada's twin sister, Princess Nuala (Anna Walton). When Nuala is captured by her brother, Abe will do anything to save her, even if it means betraying his colleagues.
Although less jumbled and anarchic than its predecessor, the plot isn't as original as the imagery that propels it along. Del Toro displays much of the visual style that was in full display in "Pan's Labyrinth," one of the finest films of 2007. The climactic fight scene between Prince Nuada and Hellboy is brilliantly choreographed, but the film as a whole doesn't have half the emotional intelligence or the genuine chills of "Pan's Labyrinth."
Still, the story -- such that it is -- benefits from del Toro's obsession with fusing the world of conventional fairy-tale archetypes with the grisly, almost Lovecraftian monsters that occupy the corridors of his imagination. A character called the Angel of Death and another called Chamberlain (both played by Doug Jones) are two of the director's finest and most terrifying creations. "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" will extend del Toro's reputation as a compelling visual stylist, but it won't do much to convince those not already in the Hellboy cult that the man in a big red rubber suit is worthy of a third installment.
