The only thing that is similar to the first Hellboy film is the characters. Guillermo del Toro has completely reinvented the Hellboy franchise. The first Hellboy film, while fun in some parts felt too formulaic, especially from a director of del Toro’s imagination. He seemed too restrained in the first film. He seemed to be sticking to more conventional Hollywood ideas. Hellboy II he seems to have left that all behind him.
Guillermo del Toro’s imagination is unleashed, in full force on this movie. Watching it I almost forgot there was a film that preceded it. It’s so alive, full of vibrant colorful characters and awe-inspiring creatures.
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Guillermo del Toro truly is a visionary director. That word gets thrown around a lot I know, but after you’ve viewed movies like The Orphanage, Pan’s Labyrinth, and now Hellboy II, you’ll see that “visionary” describes del Toro’s work quite well.
While the story of Hellboy II is a bit lacking, and watching Selma Blair act is at times unbearable, the movie more than makes up for when it comes to pure scope and detail. The design of the creatures in this movie took me back to the early Star Wars films. So much care and detail went into every little troll and goblin, even if it was only seen for 15 seconds of footage. And when the Elemental God was unfurled in all its angry green glory, I sat back and just said, “Cool.”
But, once you take a step back from all the creative monsters and cool special effects you’ll see that Hellboy II really is a neatly packed character drama. Hellboy is trying to fit in with the humans he’s so desperately trying to save. The humans mock him. They don’t accept him.
It’s clear though that this is del Toro’s movie. His attention to detail is almost exhausting. Each and every character and creature is created to perfection. He eschews the CGI as much as possible and elects to stay with more conventional puppet methods, which make it much more realistic.
This summer was packed full of great comic book movies and Hellboy II is one of them. While it may not pack the emotional punch that The Dark Knight had, it creates a sense of wonder that will stay with us like the first bedtime story we were told as children.
Article comments
1 - bibbyroo
any idea if this is the only release, or are they going to release an extended version in six months like they did with the last one?