LuckyWillHELLBOY II - A Chink in The Golden Army
September 10th 2008 06:34
Ron Perlman - Hellboy
Hellboy is a comic strip adaptation that follows the classic superhero story line; unique anti hero(es) operating in secret to protect humanity from destruction. It’s a theme evident in many of the major money earners like X-Men, Batman and Men in Black and interestingly enough, Blade II, which was another project of Hellboy’s director, Guillermo Del Toro. Based on the success of those films it would appear that any film adopting such a storyline is almost guaranteed success. Unfortunately for Hellboy, that has not been the case as the first instalment failed miserably to attract audiences.
To give you an idea of just how poorly the first film rated, we’ll compare it to the 1995 Waterworld starring Kevin Costner. It is a film regarded, by many, as one of the worst ever made (though I didn’t think it was that bad) and raked in $255.2 million at the worldwide box office. Hellboy could not even manage half of that scraping in at $98.5 million and, considering $60 million of that was simply making back production costs, producers are hoping the latest ‘Golden Army’ will be worth it’s weight.
In this, Hellboy’s morbidly alluring sequel, Guillermo Del Toro has once again resurrected the brawny tomato with attitude to resume his battle against the creatures that go bump in the night. Reprising their roles are the fiery love-interest, Liz, played by Selma Blair; the talking fish, Abe Sapien (Doug Jones); a new addition to the team, the regimented windbag, Professor Johann Krauss (James Dodd) and of course the red devil himself Ron Perlman as Hellboy.
This time around the team is faced with the prospect of war after an age-old treaty between the humans and elves is broken by the ambitious Prince Nuadu (Luke Goss), exiled leader of the elves. Though his race teeters on the verge of extinction, Nuadu plans to reclaim the planet by awakening an indestructible Army of Golden Warriors and freeing his people from the shadows. During the film we bare witness to some incredible battle sequences, including a funny showdown between Hellboy and one of the Prince’s monstrous henchman, Wink; as well as a slapstick Hellboy beat down courtesy of the mysterious Johann Krauss. Hold your breath though because there is a mouth-watering battle looming just around the corner that will leave the others for dead as Nuadu faces off with Hellboy in a fast-paced, explosive finale.
Unfortunately the visual splendour of the action sequences, the sets and imaginative creatures, are somewhat tarnished by a weak story line. We learn that Liz has become pregnant and Abe falls in love with an elf but to be honest, the film would be better served if more attention was payed to the task at hand rather than their mediocre love lives. One redeeming product of this diversion however, is a touching drunken rendition of Barry Manilow’s “I can’t smile without you” sung by Red and Abe.
This biggest let down of the film is its painfully obvious conclusion. Not even 30 minutes into the film, there is an incident that leaves you praying you didn’t just see what you thought you did. As the film goes on it becomes all to clear that your powers of perception have indeed ruined the ending and by the end the surprise twist is nothing more than an anticipated cliché.
Despite having stunning visual effects and some hilarious dialogue, the film feels a lot longer than it is. The action is great but the story does seem to be missing something and in parts you feel like your struggling to stay involved. It is a marked improvement on the first one however and when coupled with the success of the director’s 2006 film Pan’s Labyrinth and the interest in his future project, The Hobbit, Hellboy should see a lot more faces looking up at him in theatres this time around. A must see if only for the action.
Rating 3 Horns out of 5.
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