Blogged By the B.R.P.D. - HELLBOY 2 - Reviewed!

HELLBOY 2: THE GOLDEN ARMY Review:

- As I sat smiling through most of Hellboy 2, over and over again, my mind was blown. With eye-melting visuals, one of the best ensemble casts ever in a superhero movie, and character and creature design that brings to mind the glory days of Jim Henson, Hellboy 2 is a movie that's hard not to love. It's a movie that doesn't give a crap about being mainstream, about being the #1 movie of the summer, or about being easily-digested and then disposed of like so many mindless and soulless popcorn flicks. Instead, this is a movie with vision - finally a blockbuster Guillermo del Toro film that doesn't feel compromised - this is del Toro unleashed and gone wild. This is a movie that celebrates its weirdness, revels in its out-there premise and characters, and pushes its stylization to the extremes. What a pleasure, to watch a comic book film that is every bit as strange, over the top, stylized, and thematically bold as its source material.

I have to start by praising the visuals. Inspired by the great, atmosphere-drenched art and stories of Mike Mignola, Hellboy 2 constantly astounds with its nonstop assault on the senses. Again, this is a film that isn't afraid to be unique with its look - and the result is del Toro unfiltered and uncensored. One of the first scenes in the movie is a fairy-tale story told in the style of a puppet show on acid. From that moment on, you know that you're in for a visual treat. Later on, Hellboy and co visit the Troll Market - a bustling, busy, and jam-packed place that is not quite like anything else ever put to screen. Rarely has a scene in a fantasy film felt so much like a storybook illustration brought to life. It's a scene that epitomizes the visual artistry on display here - in the Troll Market, as in the entire film, there are so many fantastic, strange, nightmarish creatures that it really almost becomes sensory overload. But most impressively, nothing in Hellboy 2 is generic. While other films simply rehash all the usual creature designs, jsut about every character here elicits oohs and aahs. Trolls with wooden carts for feet. Elves with deathly pale skin and a regal manner. Earth elementals with a kind of majestic deadliness. "Tooth Fairies" that swarm like locusts and devour their prey. Giant monsters with chain-hooks for hands, and steampunk shocktroops with the ability to reassemble themselves in the heat of battle. In Pan's Labrynth, del Toro astonished with his brief glimpses into a visually-arresting fantasy world. Here, there's no brief glimpses - the entire movie consists of the fantasy sequences from Pan's, only even more arresting, more imaginative. With Hellboy 2, Guillermo has once again established himself as the preeminent fantasy visionary in film today.

The visuals are not merely pretty but static pictures. Most of the creature and f/x work here comes in the context of a series of pretty amazing action scenes, some of the most fun action we've yet seen this summer. Superbly choreographed and imaginatively staged, the action here is graceful, fast, furious, and non-stop. And there are tons of individual moments that are just plain cool as hell. Hellboy going mano e mano with a chain-swinging giant troll named Wink. Abe Sapien skimming backwards over a puddle of water with amphibious ease in order to avoid a potentially-deadly attack. The spectral Johann Krauss inhabiting a row of lockers in order to give Hellboy a head-slamming beatdown. I could go on and on here ...

And then of course there's the cast. It's a cast that you've really got to love, because it isn't filled with name-brand, marquee movie stars. These are simply great character actors showing once again why they rock. I mean, what can you say about Ron Perlman? The guy is unbelievable - a true titan of cinema who has no qualms about immersing himself in makeup and costumes in order to fully inhabit whatever character he plays. Perlman IS Hellboy. It's a role only he could play and it's a role in which he thoroughly kicks ass. It's a total pleasure just watching Perlman as Red - there is just that undeniable, old-time movie magic in seeing an actor become this other creature as Perlman does with Hellboy. Likewise, Selma Blair is once again great as Liz Sherman, Hellboy's pyrokinetically-gifted main squeeze. Blair just brings something different to the table - the fact that she comes off as something of an outsider in real life translates to a feeling of authenticity when she plays an outsider like Liz. You buy her as someone who's a little off, maybe even a little depressed, but who trudges on because she's in love with a giant red demon from hell who may be the best man she'll ever know.

I want to make special mention of Doug Jones - he's simply awesome as Abe Sapien here, who really shines as the surprise star of the film. Jones reprises his role as the physical actor behind Abe, but this time also does his voice, as opposed to David Hyde Pierce, who voiced Abe in the first film. The result is that Abe feels more alive, more fleshed-out, more relatable than ever before. Thanks to awesome character-design, he's flat-out cool, but man, Abe has some really memorable scenes here. He and Hellboy drunkenly crooning love songs together is simply classic. And really, it's just amazing to watch Jones physically bring to life as alien a creature as Abe. The way he moves, speaks, like Perlman, Doug Jones 100% inhabits and becomes this otherworldy creature, and it's pretty darn remarkable to see in action.

Jeffrey Tambor, well come on, he's always great, and once again does a nice job as BRPD company man Tom Manning. John Hurt also returns with a nice flashback cameo - nice enough to cancel out his embarassing turn in Indy IV. One real standout though is Johann Krauss - a fascinating new character whose visual is stunning. Essentially, Krauss is a disembodied spirit kept intact inside a ventilated diving suit of sorts. He's also an uptight German BRPD official who quickly comes into conflict with the group's resident loose-cannon, Hellboy. Krauss is amusingly voiced by Family Guy's Seth McFarlane, who really does a nice job with his funny-yet-creepy German dialect. Definitely a standout. Meanwhile, Luke Goss is suitably theatrical as the main villain of the film - he's both evil and yet affectingly tragic - always the best kind of badguy. Anna Walton also does a nice job as his ethereal twin sister as well, and there are some nice moments as a strange sort of romance develops between her and Abe.

I guess the only question is - with Hellboy 2 having such spectacular visuals and such a great cast - well, what's keeping it from being a true classic, a true cinematic epic? I guess the fact is this: it's both to the movie's credit and its detriment that in the end, it's basically a fun and breezy action film. Sure, there's a lot of heart to be found - in the relationship between Hellboy and Liz, the friendship of Hellboy and Abe, etc. - but the movie, like Part 1, still in some ways comes off as more of a roller-coaster ride than as a true, gravitas-infused drama. A number of big themes are touched on, but never explored too deeply. There's Hellboy's feelings of detachment from humanity, his beauty-and-the-beast relationship with Liz, and this big, overarching theme of how people have buried fantasy and imagination in favor of normalcy and the mundane. It's all great stuff, worthy of exploration, but sometimes the film gets a little too interested in astounding us with its visuals so that it tends to lose focus when it comes to really doing a deep dive into the weightier, meatier stuff. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that a movie like Hellboy necessarilly needs to go there, but in the end, that lack of real gravitas in terms of plot and character is about the only thing that separates Hellboy from the true big guns - the Star Wars, the Lord of the Rings, the Dark Knights ...

With that being said, Hellboy 2 is undoubtedly one of the great cinematic pleasures thus far in 2008. Just seeing a big action-fantasy film come out with this much imagination, this much style ... it's enough to make one reconsider the possibilities for what comic book movies, action movies, and just movies in general can be. Frankly, it's inspiring. It makes me realize that the spirit of people like Ray Harryhausen, Stan Winston, Jim Henson, and so many other pioneers of imagination lives on even in this age of CGI overload. So thanks Guillermo del Toro, Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, and the rest - for daring to be different in a cinematic landscape where too few share that desire or ability. And here's hoping that Hellboy 2 kicks some tail at the box office this weekend, because man, I'd love to see No. 3.

My Grade: A-