Ron Perlman and Selma Blair return as Hellboy and Liz, and Jeffrey Tambor reprises his role as Agent Manning. While Abe Sapien is again played by Doug Jones, this time around he also provides the voice of the character; in the first film, David Hyde Pierce's voice was dubbed in. John Hurt appears again as Hellboy's adoptive father, but only in flashback.
Guillermo del Toro's next project is The Hobbit, the prequel to The Lord of the Rings. Hellboy II will certainly add to the fears of many fans that del Toro might not be the right person for the job. Favoring visuals over story is forgivable in a film based on a graphic novel, since that's a visual medium already. Doing the same for The Hobbit would be a serious mistake. However, I think Hellboy II's weak story is a reflection of the source material more than del Toro's ability. I also believe The Hobbit will prove to be more visually challenging than The Lord of the Rings, and will therefore require even better visual effects than Peter Jackon's WETA Workshop managed to produce for The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia. The short characters, like Hobbits, were the clumsiest visual element in The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit abounds with dwarves. Peter Jackson's previous films Meet the Feebles, Heavenly Creatures, and The Frighteners did not form the best basis for predicting The Lord of the Rings, and I am confident that Guillermo del Toro has the ability to faithfully deliver The Hobbit in the same vein.
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Article comments
1 - El Bicho
You have time to watch movies?
I agree with your assessment of the script's flaws, but it didn't bother me too much, although the whole thing between humans not liking him seemed forced and didn't go anywhere.
I am curious what you mean by "weak story is a reflection of the source material more than del Toro's ability." del Toro and Mignola worked on the story and del Toro wrote the script. It's not based on any "Hellboy" storyline.
2 - Phillip Winn
El Bicho, I generally catch the late showings of films. I think it was 10pm for Indy 4, 10:40 for Hancock, 10:50 for Iron Man, and 10:30 for The Incredible Hulk, but it was "only" 9:55 for Hellboy II on Saturday night. :-)
By "source material" I simply meant that the graphic novels haven't provided the same level of rich detail that Tolkein's books have. Although I haven't read all of the Hellboy series, the few I've read haven't seemed like the sort of source material that lends itself well to very complex characterization.
In some ways, the simple-mindedness of Red's devotion to Liz is actually nice, even though it's hard to imagine any relationship surviving that sort of pressure.
I'm not sure I managed to adequately how much I enjoyed this film in the the review. In many films, plot problems or story problems ruin the experience for me. In this one, I noted them but didn't really care. It's really a blast!
I think my next movie is a midnight showing of The Dark Knight on Thursday.
3 - Phillip Winn
I need to watch this one again!