Good as gold
I was suspicious of the first Hellboy film, it had a beautiful introduction to characters. You got to meet the man himself (or demon), Hellboy, along with his cast of characters, Liz Sherman (she admits flames from her body), and Abe Sapien (a very fishy character). The first movie worked well establishing the ‘who are they and what can they do’. The regretful part of origin movies is that they don’t really leave a lot of room for a healthy story. Not to say the story was terrible, but the first movie could have been a helluva lot better.
In steps the sequel. Typically, sequels are poison to the film industry. There are only a handful of sequels that made it and are memorable. Empire Strikes Back is one of these movies. It brought a different dimension that the first movie didn’t really bring to the table. Sure A New Hope brought the action and the origins, but it didn’t give much depth until the sequel. Hellboy II: The Golden Army is very much the same way. Now that everyone knows the characters, because of the introductions in the first film, a real story can accompany them. This time around you have the survival of the world depending on the return of a prince from the mythical world of creatures to come back and annihilate the human race. To do this, the prince must reunite a crown that gives the wearer complete control of an indestructible army known as ‘The Golden Army’. With this army the human race could be forever wiped out. The only folks to stop this from happening or our favorite heroes from a place that doesn’t exist.
So, from the previews, you can’t tell much about the film itself. It looks like a straight action flick, not much thought put into it. In reality, there is character development that surrounds the subject of relationships. Liz and Hellboy are having problems with theirs, while Abe is trying to develop a relationship with the prince’s twin sister (the good one out of the pair), Princess Nuala, while the relationship between mythical creatures and mankind are about to be strained. The movie is based completely on sustaining a relationship. It’s a motif, a constant, that runs throughout the film that improves it immensely. The last film they weren’t quite sure what to do with the story, but this time around it’s the strongest part of the movie. I’m happy to report that the movie also hints at more to come and if Guillermo del Toro can provide more stories like this, I’ll be happy to see them. It’s a super-strong story that relies on established characters and makes them even more prominent. You can’t argue with those results.
Speaking of characters, each and every actor/actresses seems very comfortable in their role. While Ron Perlman still plays the tough-guy Hellboy, he is a lot more human than in the first film. He provides a new, playful, innocent personality, while bringing out the ass-kicking demon that we’ve all come to love. It’s a new dimension to the character and one that is certainly welcomed. His bickering between Selma Blair’s Liz is also a welcomed addition. She’s no longer a pouty whiner, she gives some humor and some serious moments. She also makes a serious decision on the relationship between Hellboy and herself. While it was certainly sad to see the voice of Abe change, Doug Jones’ voice was still provided the humor that was left behind from the previous film. His swagger and his desire to stop being lonely really is magnified when he meets Princess Nuala (who was also beautiful to watch). The antagonist, Prince Nuada, was both vicious and entertaining. Nuada brought the raw desire to break the relationship with the human beings because of there destruction of earth. Luke Gross was unreal as this role and one step away from a reoccurring character. I’ll stop there in fear of giving it all away.
Overall, the focus of story and less about characters propelled this film past the previous one by leaps and bounds. Who knew a sequel could be good this day and age, and Hellboy II: The Golden Army certainly brought the goods.
Hell-bound set of features
There’s nothing more pleasing for a reviewer than to see a studio give a damn about a movie it helped to bring to the theater. Before we get into the features, it’s a spectacle when you can get a visionary director like del Toro, who brings mythical creatures to life (and beyond) and put their feature out on HD. Seeing Hellboy II: The Golden Army in 1080p and hearing it in TrueHD is beyond what one would expect from such a spectacular film. It truly takes the movie going experience to the next level. Speaking of which, the next level beyond the feature itself are the special features.
Here’s what you get with Hellboy II: The Golden Army:
– Feature Commentary with Director Guillermo del Toro
· – Feature Commentary with Cast Members Jeffrey Tambor, Selma Blair and Luke Goss
· – Set Visits
· Troll Market Tour with Guillermo del Toro
· Animated Zinco Epilogue Comic
· – Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary by Director Guillermo del Toro
· Prologue
· – Pre-Production Vault
o – Director’s Notebook
o – Concept Art Gallery
· – Hellboy: In Service Of The Demon
· – Production Workshop: Professor Broom’s Puppet Theatre
· – Image Gallery Featuring Teaser Banners, One-Sheets and Poster Explorations
· BD-Live features include:
- My Chat
- Sneak Peek of Wanted
- My Scenes Sharing
· – Comic Book Builder
– U-Control
· – Scene Explorer: Schufften Goggle View
· – Director’s Notebook
· – Set Visits
· – Comic Book Back-Story Interactive Feature
There is so much here to be seen. Universal provides you with the typical behind-the-scenes views, but they also provide neat, innovative things like making an actual comic book from the movie. You get to go through scenes of the film, make still frames and enter them into a comic book format to tell the story a different way. I found this highly entertaining and I have to give tons of kudos to Universal for attempting it. I think that it brings the movie audience closer to the comic audience, which needs to be done to truly enjoy films like these. Add the above features to the fact that BD-Live is actually getting better (still needs some work though) and you’ve got yourself a freakin’ great time. There’s so much to be had here that you’ll spend more time here than watching the film. That’s a good thing overall.
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