I’m totally psyched to see the movie, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which has finally come to theaters this week. I’ve been a huge fan of the creator, Mike Mignola and the director, Guillermo del Toro for a long time now, so my expectations are pretty high for what they’re going to do this time around with the Hellboy character and his universe.
The thing that intrigues me most about this one (as opposed to the original movie) is that, although they worked on the film together again, this looks to be more del Toro’s vision than Mignola’s. In the supplemental materials on the Blu-ray of the first Hellboy movie, for good or ill, del Toro talks about how much a fan he is of the comic and how he wanted to adhere to the look and feel of Mignola’s creation. In Hellboy II, at least from the trailers, the film appears to be something more akin to the fantasy world of del Toro’s Academy Award winning film, Pan’s Labyrinth than to the gothic, Lovecraftian nature of the first Hellboy film (and comic), and that has me excited.
I’ll have a POSTview up soon, and post whether the film lived up to my expectations or not, a few of which are:
• an expansion of the Hellboy Universe where we’re seeing more of the “monster” world rather than the “human” world
• more character development, especially between Hellboy and Liz (hopefully the John Myers character is out of the picture), and more Abe Sapien, a favorite character in the comic and movie
• more “Guillermo-infused” than the original movie
• a bigger, more epic storyline
As far as my viewing went, I think it lived up to all those things you listed!
They traded in a bunch for the humor, but I think it worked.
I loved it. I was pleased that 1) the long lines and crowded theatres were for the Joker Show, and that Hellboy was relatively quiet and easy to enjoy. 2) there was SO much to see I wish had a pause button; especially in the marketplace… such beautiful creatures!
Humour was okay… I like the tongue-in-cheek approach; loved the elves. Never read the comics, but now I’m considering it.
ominouskevin, i agree, it did hit the bullet points, but still, it didn’t completely work for me.
herodyssey, i liked it, but didn’t love it. i’m writing my thoughts on it now and will post it soon. but yeah, the marketplace was awesome!
I haven’t seen Hellboy II, but I did see “Journey to the Center of the Earth”
in Digital 3D. The 3D effects are great.
Hellboy 2 was fun… for sure that director has an amazing imagination, reminded me a lot of his work in Pan’s Labyrinth