Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) Universal/Fantasy-Action-Adventure RT: 120 minutes Rated PG-13 (sequences of sci-fi action and violence, some language) Director: Guillermo del Toro Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro Music: Danny Elfman Cinematography: Guillermo Navarro Release date: July 11, 2008 (US) Cast: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, John Alexander, James Dodd, Seth MacFarlane (voice), Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Jeffrey Tambor, John Hurt, Roy Dotrice, Brian Steele. Box Office: $75.9M (US)/$160.3M (World)
Rating: ***
As with the previous Hellboy film, I didn’t give much thought to Hellboy II: The Golden Army after I saw it at a matinee one weekday afternoon. All I really remember about it is being bored by all the noise and fury. Granted, the sequel is louder and more CGI-reliant than its predecessor. However, I enjoyed rewatching the first movie so much; I thought maybe I’d like the second one on a repeat viewing. I did! While not as good as the first movie, Hellboy II: The Golden Army has enough going for it to make it worth watching.
If the first movie took its cue from Raiders of the Lost Ark with the Nazis messing with dark forces, the opening of Hellboy II: The Golden Army is ripped from the pages of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books. It’s a lot to get into. In the midst of an ongoing war between humans and magical creatures, elf king Balor (Dotrice, Amadeus) accepts an offer from a goblin blacksmith to build an indestructible mechanical army (aka The Golden Army of the title). When it nearly wipes out all of humanity, Balor makes a truce with the humans. They get the cities; magical creatures get the forests. He then breaks the crown controlling the Golden Army into three pieces (one crown to rule them all, right?). This angers his son Nuada (Goss, Blade II) who goes into exile. By the way, this information is conveyed via a bedtime story Trevor (Hurt in a brief return appearance) tells to adolescent Hellboy circa Christmas 1955.
Cut to present day where we learn Nuada is back and wants the three pieces of the crown. He’ll stop at nothing, including patricide, to obtain them. He gets two pieces while his twin sister Nuala (Walton, TV’s Reign) escapes with the third. Meanwhile, Hellboy (Perlman, Cronos) and Liz (Blair, Cruel Intentions) are experiencing relationship problems. She’s pregnant and doesn’t know how to tell him. She’s also had it with his selfishness, his TV addiction (there are several playing at once), his cats and everything else. For his part, Hellboy hates operating in secret. He wants to be recognized for protecting humanity from monsters, aliens and other evil supernatural beings. After revealing himself to the public while dealing with a “tooth fairy” attack at an auction, the Bureau brings in an ectoplasmic German medium, Krauss (Alexander and Dodd, voiced by McFarlane), to keep Hellboy under control. Yeah, good luck with that.
In short, Hellboy II: The Golden Army deals with Hellboy and company’s efforts to stop Nuada from obtaining the final piece of the crown so he can reactivate the Golden Army and wipe out mankind. It’s a plot right out of a comic book which this movie surely is. In a time when comic book heroes beg to be taken seriously (look what they did to Superman), writer-director del Toro takes a comparatively light-hearted approach to a demon from Hell who’s conflicted about protecting a race of beings that fear him. He has a sense of humor about it though. Once again, Perlman nails it. He does justice to a character that could have easily been achieved by CGI or motion-capture. It’s the right move to cast an actual actor under tons of makeup and prosthetics in the role; this tangibility lends a strong note of dare I say, humanity. I’m not going to waste space commenting on the acting in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Let’s just say the performances are measurably better than such material usually deserves.
I like how del Toro handles the romance aspect of the story. Now I’m not just referring to Hellboy and Liz. Aquatic agent Abe Sapien (Jones, The Shape of Water) gets something going with Nuala. It’s a sweet romance actually. I know, I can’t believe I’m calling an interspecies romance “sweet” but since it’s del Toro, it’s really not that strange. Speaking of the Spanish filmmaker, his unique visual flair is once again on display. In fact, this is the one area in which the sequel surpasses the original. The investigation takes our heroes to a secret troll marketplace underneath the Brooklyn Bridge (where else?). I doubt I’m the only who thought of the cantina in the first Star Wars movie. All manners of mythological creatures are present. It’s an impressive sequence. There’s also a great action set-piece where Hellboy fights a creature in the streets of New York that can only be describes as the Jolly Green Giant’s mutant cousin. It’s scary and beautiful at the same time. Artistically, Hellboy II: The Golden Army is off the charts.
As for the Golden Army itself, it’s cool but nothing we haven’t seen before. Look, I’m not going to waste a lot of time extolling every virtue of Hellboy II: The Golden Army. It’s a good, entertainingly silly movie with a terrific score by Danny Elfman. The special effects are pretty awesome even if most of them are computer-generated. The plot is ridiculous without being convoluted. It’s longer and noisier than it needs to be, but what the hell? No movie is perfect, right? Well, a few are but a majority are not. What’s important is that Hellboy II: The Golden Army is fun and, at times, funny. It’s one of those movies you watch with your brain in the OFF position.
