Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Guillermo Del Toro crafts an instant Geek Cinema classic!!
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
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.
I don't want to inundate you with details, mostly because one of the most satisfying--and surprising--parts of the film is that you're thrown so MANY details; you're introduced to so many ideas and characters and sights that you simply must sit back and enjoy the ride. There's nothing out of place here--all of the characters act and react exactly as they should within the confines of the film's fantastical world, and everything, from the plot developments to the plans of the villain, come out of their decisions, their emotions, their intentions--and THAT is the essence of what makes a story good.
Del Toro has somehow reached out and not only beautifully illustrated the unique potential inherit in the world of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D., but also painted this world in the can't-miss, tried-and-true, beautiful pallette of legend and myth. He's struck right at the core of what makes us all love fantastic stories in the first place and ingeniously worked that love into every facet of the story; I think there's a greater reason that the golden gears and machinery seen in the opening titles and the climactic battle are in the movie--not to reflect the mechanical nature of the Golden Army itself, but to show us the gorgeous intricacies of crafting a moving legend. It's telling that my favorite scene in a movie that features Hellboy punching giant monsters and Abe Sapien barely escaping the threat of a massive pyrokinetic conflagration is a scene in which two of the main characters get drunk and sing about their aching hearts to the tune of a bad Barry Manilow song. This is a different kind of comic book movie; it's a comic book movie that doesn't care it's a comic book movie, and therefore surpasses that limited (and limiting) label.
This movie might be about Hellboy battling the kung-fu fighting Prince of the Fairy Realm (who kicks a surprising amount of ass for a, y'know. Fairy Prince.), but what it's really about is love--the love you feel for other people, the love you feel for your family, and, overall, the love of imagination. Hellboy II should go down as a unique, fun-as-hell comic book movie, but should also stand out to young and old alike as the kind of movie that makes you go off and draw your own fantastical musings, to inspire you to create and dream and wish...and maybe even to bump back at the things that go bump in the night.
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