Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Already being hailed as the greatest comic book movie of all time (to date obviously) THE DARK KNIGHT has certainly not made it easy for any films that follow in its wake – and at times you couldn’t help but feel that you were at a wake. Not to take anything away from Chris Nolan’s achievements but it is not really the cheeriest of summer movies in a summer inundated with superheroes and comic book adaptations. The debate over whether they are comic books or graphic novels can probably be resolved with this season’s adaptations because, for the most part the have been more graphic than comic. In terms of box office clout Marvel is still way ahead of its DC rival, just by the sheer number of its properties, although Batman has just taken the lead in the individual performance rankings. But there is a dark horse that is a late starter – HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY.

HELLBOY director Guillermo del Toro, is already an established genre director. Since his first feature film, CRONOS, he has been making visually inventive films with the added advantage of good scripts and superb casting. His personal Spanish-language films seem to inform his studio films. CRONOS paved the way for the comic adaptation BLADE II, considered by most the best of the BLADE films. His award-winning masterpiece PAN’S LABYRINTH, while still an independent film it was an international success and was built on THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE. Now the influence of those two films is clearly visible in the HELLBOY sequel.

The first HELLBOY movie was sadly overlooked at the cinemas, but soon gathered the fan status it deserved, with its combination of humour, action and the supernatural and the spot on casting, particularly Ron Perlman in the lead. While making PAN’S LABYRINTH, del Toro found time to produce three animated Hellboy stories with the same cast, which went straight to DVD. As good as they were there was something more endearing about the live action version.

Now Big Red (nothing to do with Heinz tomatoes) returns to the big screen. Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), his pyrokinetic girlfriend, has moved in with him and it’s not exactly domestic bliss, and Hellboy has been less than discrete with his public appearances, which has BPRD boss Tom Manning (Jeffery Tambor) upset. Then another boss, the protoplasmic Johann Krauss (voiced by Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy fame) arrives to be the public face of the BPRD. To top that off, the anarchic Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) has broken the ancient truce between the humans and the original sons of Earth, and is attempting to awaken the indestructible golden army. All of this is cutting into Hellboy’s cigar smoking, beer drinking and TV watching routine and he’s not happy.

Like the first HELLBOY, this movie risks being overlooked. THE DARK KNIGHT is still doing huge business; a lot of it repeat viewings. It is also out the same week as GET SMART, whose comedy will have a much broader appeal. It will be a real shame if this happens because HELLBOY is a far better film than GET SMART, and as far as comic book movies go it is a lot more enjoyable than THE DARK KNIGHT. I’m not saying it is a better film, but it is a lot more entertaining and imaginative. It may not address some of the bigger issues that the Batman movie addresses, but it still looks at core issues like identity and freedom, and love and loss; all handled with the right mixture of levity and pathos. Hellboy and Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) getting drunk and singing a Barry Manilow duet is both ridiculous and touching, but is instantly identifiable to anyone who has fallen in love. And Liz and Hellboy’s domestic spats will be familiar to anyone in a co-habiting relationship.

All of this is mixed with weird fantasy creatures that at times feels like a cocktail of PAN’S LABYRINTH, the cantina scene from STAR WARS and THE LORD OF RINGS, which is promising with del Toro signed up to direct THE HOBBIT. Being HELLBOY there is also plenty of big action scenes, with plenty of wise-cracking to go with it.

It really does have everything you could want from a movie. Awe-inspiring visuals, great humorous dialogue, a good amount of action and morals that aren’t rammed home. It’s two-hour running time was easy to sit through, which is more than can be said for THE DARK KNIGHT’s two-and-a-half, and you don’t feel like you’ve been beaten up at the end of it.

Go and see it. You won’t be disappointed.

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY is in cinemas from August 20.

Review: Chris Pamore

Read interviews with Guillermo del Toro, Selma Blair and Doug Jones in the latest issue of movieScope, with HELLBOY on the cover, on sale now at Borders and other good outlets or online at www.moviescopemag.com.