TheCC Staff
07-15-2008, 04:25 PM
Guillermo Del Toro crafts an instant Geek Cinema classic!!
by Bruce Edwards
July 15th, 2008 - I reviewed the trailer. I loved the trailer. Yet still, my expectations were tempered for "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" because, let's face it, "Hellboy", the first movie, wasn't exactly the second coming. I mean I liked it, don't get me wrong, but it had a waaaaaay to go to become a watch-it-again Geek-fun thrill ride.
Well, cinematically, Hellboy has finally arrived. Hellboy II is so crammed full of imaginative goodness it truly is difficult to know where to start. It opens on an army base at Christmas in the 50's, which, right there, stuffs three can't-fail ideas into the first few seconds of screen time. Ask ANY geek if they wouldn't want to watch a movie with monsters that takes place on an army base in the 1950s during Christmas and chances are they'll ask you which theater it's playing at. We're introduced to Young Hellboy--I suppose a 10-year-old version--who, I'll admit, looks goofy as hell (heh heh). And this, I assure you, is the movie's only creative misstep.
You see, Hellboy wants to be told a story, and Prof. Broom, his surrogate 'father', tells him an ancient legend of a war between the world of Man and the world of Fairy...and it's not WHAT he tells him that's so great, it's HOW it's told; in a fantastic, twilight-tinged CGI short starring wooden-soldier-type figures as the main characters (because Hellboy had been watching Howdy Doody on TV, you see, and pictured everything via psuedo-Howdy-Doody-vision; an artistic touch so subtle, endearing, and beautiful, that I wish we could have seen even more backstories told in a similar fashion throughout the film)--this short story could stand on its own as an animated delight. That it sets the tone for the rest of the film should tell you clearly; this is a different Hellboy movie, a lighter Hellboy movie, but a Hellboy movie that works. Despite the fact that its title character is a demon destined to bring the world to ruin and he'll soon be shooting tooth fairies.
Click Here To Read The Whole Review (http://thecomiccollective.com/Movies-TV/Reviews/2008/July/Hellboy_II/)
Watch The Trailers (http://thecomiccollective.com/Movies-TV/Trailers/H/Hellboy_2/)
by Bruce Edwards
July 15th, 2008 - I reviewed the trailer. I loved the trailer. Yet still, my expectations were tempered for "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" because, let's face it, "Hellboy", the first movie, wasn't exactly the second coming. I mean I liked it, don't get me wrong, but it had a waaaaaay to go to become a watch-it-again Geek-fun thrill ride.
Well, cinematically, Hellboy has finally arrived. Hellboy II is so crammed full of imaginative goodness it truly is difficult to know where to start. It opens on an army base at Christmas in the 50's, which, right there, stuffs three can't-fail ideas into the first few seconds of screen time. Ask ANY geek if they wouldn't want to watch a movie with monsters that takes place on an army base in the 1950s during Christmas and chances are they'll ask you which theater it's playing at. We're introduced to Young Hellboy--I suppose a 10-year-old version--who, I'll admit, looks goofy as hell (heh heh). And this, I assure you, is the movie's only creative misstep.
You see, Hellboy wants to be told a story, and Prof. Broom, his surrogate 'father', tells him an ancient legend of a war between the world of Man and the world of Fairy...and it's not WHAT he tells him that's so great, it's HOW it's told; in a fantastic, twilight-tinged CGI short starring wooden-soldier-type figures as the main characters (because Hellboy had been watching Howdy Doody on TV, you see, and pictured everything via psuedo-Howdy-Doody-vision; an artistic touch so subtle, endearing, and beautiful, that I wish we could have seen even more backstories told in a similar fashion throughout the film)--this short story could stand on its own as an animated delight. That it sets the tone for the rest of the film should tell you clearly; this is a different Hellboy movie, a lighter Hellboy movie, but a Hellboy movie that works. Despite the fact that its title character is a demon destined to bring the world to ruin and he'll soon be shooting tooth fairies.
Click Here To Read The Whole Review (http://thecomiccollective.com/Movies-TV/Reviews/2008/July/Hellboy_II/)
Watch The Trailers (http://thecomiccollective.com/Movies-TV/Trailers/H/Hellboy_2/)