After the massive critical success of Del Toro's recent masterpiece, Pan's Labyrinth, and the promises that this sequel to the boisterous fantasy-thriller Hellboy will be the most impressive English-language movie the director has produced so far, Golden Army is a film that you desperately want to be impressed by. And in many ways, Hellboy II is every bit as impressive as Del Toro's fans could have hoped for. The lavish sets, rich colour pallet and imaginative creatures reflect everything that made Pan's Labyrinth such a wonder to watch. However, in a number of ways, it could be argued that Del Toro's latest offers nothing but disappointment.
One of the great assets of Hellboy as a superhero movie is that it remains mercifully tongue-in-cheek. Unlike the well-known Marvel heroes such as Spiderman, Hellboy never takes itself too seriously, Del Toro treating it exactly as it is; a piece of mindless entertainment. Thus, when the film opens with a miniature red devil in pyjamas watching an episode of Howdee-Doodee (a cringingly twee image), we can't really identify it as a flaw because it was never intended to be anything other than 'a bit of fun'. We certainly have no reason for complaint when this scene is followed by a hugely imaginative sequence in which the events of a great legend, as told by John Hurt, unfold in young Hellboy's mind. The story of man versus elf, which shortly becomes the main narrative, is portrayed in the form of wooden puppets reminiscent of Howdee-Doodee, the character that Hellboy has just been watching. The sequence, a bloodthirsty one, is void of any real violence due to this substitution. It conveys childish innocence and, crucially, means that the captivating fantasy creatures are not properly seen until later in the film.
This is undoubtedly a smart move as the most obvious improvement Golden Army holds above the original Hellboy is its vastly increased cast of striking and grotesque beasts. So to delay their emergence is to keep the audience glued to the screen in anticipation, which does not go unrewarded - the characters introduced throughout Golden Army are some of the most majestic and nightmarish creations to ever be portrayed onscreen. The elves, headed by the villainous Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), look as though they are made of cracked ivory - delicate yet deadly; Johann Krauss, a new protagonist voiced by Family Guy's Seth McFarlane, is a mechanical humanoid housing the spirit of a witty German professor; the Angel of Death, much like the monstrous Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth, has an element of obscene beauty about it; and the much-loved Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) enjoys a greatly increased role. Even the Tooth-fairies, harmless-looking pixies that swarm and devour their prey en masse, have a darkly comic appeal reminiscent of the flesh-eating scarab beetles that made The Mummy so memorably disturbing.
But impressive creatures alone cannot save what is ultimately a flawed and clearly rushed narrative. Del Toro attempts to juggle two separate stories; that of the elf prince Nuada's onslaught against the humans, and Hellboy's (Ron Perlman) internal struggle for acceptance with his pyrotechnic wife (Selma Blair) and the human society he battles to protect, with little success. Stunning characters such as the Angel of Death are pushed to the sidelines and given the bare minimum of time onscreen, the final battle between good and evil ends before it truly begins and the ultimate 'twist' that sees the downfall of Nuada is far too predictable. Hellboy himself remains boorish and arrogant, making him a thoroughly alienating protagonist and Del Toro blatantly overdoes it on the aforementioned 'tongue-in-cheek-ness', grasping for comedy at every opportunity. Thus such scenes as Hellboy and Sapien drunkenly singing Barry Manilow's 'Can't Smile Without You' in between sequences of battle and carnage, appear horrendously misjudged.
All in all, a disappointing outing, especially with regard to the excitement that preceded it. However, despite its flaws, of which there are many, Hellboy II : The Golden Army, remains a visually impressive piece of work, containing every imaginative element that has helped Del Toro to achieve his much-deserved auteur status. An improvement on the original Hellboy, we can only hope the saga will continue to improve. 7.5/10
One of the great assets of Hellboy as a superhero movie is that it remains mercifully tongue-in-cheek. Unlike the well-known Marvel heroes such as Spiderman, Hellboy never takes itself too seriously, Del Toro treating it exactly as it is; a piece of mindless entertainment. Thus, when the film opens with a miniature red devil in pyjamas watching an episode of Howdee-Doodee (a cringingly twee image), we can't really identify it as a flaw because it was never intended to be anything other than 'a bit of fun'. We certainly have no reason for complaint when this scene is followed by a hugely imaginative sequence in which the events of a great legend, as told by John Hurt, unfold in young Hellboy's mind. The story of man versus elf, which shortly becomes the main narrative, is portrayed in the form of wooden puppets reminiscent of Howdee-Doodee, the character that Hellboy has just been watching. The sequence, a bloodthirsty one, is void of any real violence due to this substitution. It conveys childish innocence and, crucially, means that the captivating fantasy creatures are not properly seen until later in the film.
This is undoubtedly a smart move as the most obvious improvement Golden Army holds above the original Hellboy is its vastly increased cast of striking and grotesque beasts. So to delay their emergence is to keep the audience glued to the screen in anticipation, which does not go unrewarded - the characters introduced throughout Golden Army are some of the most majestic and nightmarish creations to ever be portrayed onscreen. The elves, headed by the villainous Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), look as though they are made of cracked ivory - delicate yet deadly; Johann Krauss, a new protagonist voiced by Family Guy's Seth McFarlane, is a mechanical humanoid housing the spirit of a witty German professor; the Angel of Death, much like the monstrous Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth, has an element of obscene beauty about it; and the much-loved Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) enjoys a greatly increased role. Even the Tooth-fairies, harmless-looking pixies that swarm and devour their prey en masse, have a darkly comic appeal reminiscent of the flesh-eating scarab beetles that made The Mummy so memorably disturbing.
But impressive creatures alone cannot save what is ultimately a flawed and clearly rushed narrative. Del Toro attempts to juggle two separate stories; that of the elf prince Nuada's onslaught against the humans, and Hellboy's (Ron Perlman) internal struggle for acceptance with his pyrotechnic wife (Selma Blair) and the human society he battles to protect, with little success. Stunning characters such as the Angel of Death are pushed to the sidelines and given the bare minimum of time onscreen, the final battle between good and evil ends before it truly begins and the ultimate 'twist' that sees the downfall of Nuada is far too predictable. Hellboy himself remains boorish and arrogant, making him a thoroughly alienating protagonist and Del Toro blatantly overdoes it on the aforementioned 'tongue-in-cheek-ness', grasping for comedy at every opportunity. Thus such scenes as Hellboy and Sapien drunkenly singing Barry Manilow's 'Can't Smile Without You' in between sequences of battle and carnage, appear horrendously misjudged.
All in all, a disappointing outing, especially with regard to the excitement that preceded it. However, despite its flaws, of which there are many, Hellboy II : The Golden Army, remains a visually impressive piece of work, containing every imaginative element that has helped Del Toro to achieve his much-deserved auteur status. An improvement on the original Hellboy, we can only hope the saga will continue to improve. 7.5/10
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