2 reviews

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Andrea Hopkins September 9, 2008

I would never have thought of going to see this movie if it hadn't been for Brendon Connelly's review below, and thus would have been deprived of two hours or so of very great visual pleasure. So thank you, Brendon. I would also like to put in a good word for the Elven prince, a visceral, athletic performance. Who was that under the spooky white makeup? It was Matt Goss!! Extraordinary.

I am currently feeling so swoonsome towards Hellboy 2, I’m not sure if I should compose a review or a sonnet. Hopefully I’ll easily convince you to shell out for a ticket, but let me tell you first up what you’ll actually be buying into.

A prologue within a prologue uses carved wooden puppet characters to deliver a backstory engine for the antagonist and supernatural threat at the heart of this particular Hellboy ‘episode’: an Elven prince can raise an all powerful army and vanquish mankind from the Earth by collecting three pieces of an enchanted crown. It’s a beautifully designed sequence, and offers clear evidence that when Del Toro’s film of The Hobbit comes along in a few years it’ll sit nicely with Jackson’s Rings films without simply blending into them, but there is some shame in that the puppets are not actual puppets at all, but so-so CG creations. This is all the more disappointing in the face of the practical effects work throughout the film, the wonderful craftsmanship that eschews the digital to render fabulous creations from latex, fibreglass, copper wire and elbow grease. Geeks worldwide are already abuzz about the Troll Market scene, so rich in fabulous creatures, in wit, imagination and unfettered creativity that it alone will inspire generations of FX and make-up technicians for decades to come.

Note that one of the key beasties is named a Fragglewump, seemingly nodding towards Jim Henson muppetry at the same times as the drippy, seedy creatures of The Naked Lunch. This is definitely an apt combination of references.

So, who is this Hellboy? He’s the heir to throne of Hell and though predestined to bring about a world destroying apocalypse, is living out some kind of extended adolescence as a cat loving, candy-munching, cigar-chomping, spookbuster for the governement. His secret agent cohort includes telekinetic amphibian intellectual Abe Sapien; the pyrokinetic Liz Sherman, who is Hellboy’s girlfriend; and, this time around, the undead vapour cloud Johan Krauss. Krauss’ body (for want of a better term) was played by two different actors while his dialogue was recorded by Seth McFarlane, creator of the inane Family Guy in a role which single-handedly plucks him from my personal Room 101. Together, they root out the things that go bump in the night and “bump back”.

About a year or so ago, I read a script for Hellboy 2 that was very close to the finished film. Some sequences seem to have been rejigged for budgetary reasons, others in a fashion that renders them more visceral, if perhaps a little less esoteric. Nonetheless, the scenes have not lost any of their overall power and many seem to have even gained a little. Have no fear that this is a watered down vision - nothing as idiosyncratic as this can ever be forged by focus groups and market research.

While Pan’s Labyrinth may be splendid, definitely more ambitious in theme, and certainly touts a World Cinema hipness with certain biased audiences, it is by no means as accomplished a film as Hellboy 2. This is Del Toro’s most brilliantly executed film to date as well as his most flat-out entertaining. I’ve seen the film twice now and enjoyed it even more on the second viewing. Roll on number three.

Brendon Connelly 18 Aug 2008