Review: Hellboy II: The Golden Army (LAFF)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Opening Date: 07/11/2008

STUDIO: Universal

TRAILER: Trailer

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

The Charge

Believe it or not… he’s the good guy.

Opening Statement

Universal bookended the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival with two visually impressive adventures. Upfront was Timur Bekmambetov’s Wanted and on the backside, Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The original Hellboy — adapted from the beautifully twisted mind of comic book writer/artist Mike Mignola — was far from a commercial success, but developed a tremendous cult following, despite being a rather pedestrian fantasy/action picture. In fact, if you hadn’t known del Toro was behind the camera, you’d be hard pressed to find any of his now signature stylings. That’s not a problem here. The sequel leaves Hollywood paint-by-numbers behind and goes deep into the distinctive imagination of the revered Mexican filmmaker. In fact, there’s so much going on, you need a second or third viewing just for your brain to digest it all. And yet, when the lights come up, Hellboy II leaves you strangely unfulfilled. Sure, good films leave audiences wanting more, but this one feels like we were somehow shortchanged.

Facts of the Case

Just another day at the Department for Paranormal Research and Defense, a government strike force that doesn’t officially exist. But with Hellboy (Ron Perlman) becoming more of a celebrity figure (both beloved and despised), that ruse is getting damn near impossible for agency chief Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) to maintain. But help is on the way in the form of a new team leader, the ectoplasmic Johann Kraus (voiced by Seth MacFarlane), whose mission is to bring a new sense of discipline and purpose to the agency.

For you see, something nefarious is afoot. The long standing truce beyond the worlds of humanity and ancient magic is crumbling. Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) is fed up with his eternal third class existence and seeks to restore his once proud race to their rightful place atop the Earth’s food chain. To do so will require the assistance of the Golden Army, a legendary, mindless, indestructible fighting force created by Nuada’s father, King Balor (Roy Dotrice), to squelch the human uprising of eons past, but whose effectiveness was so decimating they were locked away deep within the Earth, never to be utilized again. When Nuada makes his intentions known in grand and disturbing fashion, it’s up to Krauss, Big Red, Liz (Selma Blair), and Abe (Doug Jones) to end this otherworldly rebellion before it gets started.

The Evidence

Hellboy II is one of those films you respect for the ride it provides, thanks to Del Toro’s mastery at filling every inch of the screen with an overabundance of action and creatures to tease and tantalize the mind. And while the majority of people attending the closing ceremonies of the Los Angeles Film Festival had never seen the original Hellboy, they didn’t need to. There was enough exposition upfront to give them everything they needed to know, courtesy of a magnificent flashback sequence in which Professor Broom (John Hurt) reads the tale of the Golden Army to a prepubescent Hellboy as a bedtime tale. This sequence, a brilliant blend of centuries old puppetry and modern computer animation, lays the foundation for what should be a fantasy adventure for the ages. Unfortunately, for all its buildup, the story eventually runs out of steam resulting in a rather anti-climactic finale.

At 110 minutes, Hellboy II feels about 20 minutes too long. Opening with a disturbing bang, the first two acts of the chess game between Big Red’s team and the forces of Prince Nuada are mesmerizing. The places they go and the things they see are truly a wonder to behold, and Del Toro’s signature is on every frame. Production designer Stephen Scott and art director Peter Francis give us several breathtaking worlds to explore, as captured with astounding clarity once again by Del Toro’s cinematic eyes, Guillermo Navarro. Good god, the Troll Market alone is a masterpiece unto itself. But by the time the Golden Army comes into play in the third act, the pacing slows and what should be a frenetic finish feels anything but. It’s almost as if the film isn’t fully baked and the padded run time tries to mask the deficiency. It’s unfortunate because the characters and this adventure deserve more of a resolve than a rather conventional setup for a third film.

As with any Del Toro film, it’s the characters who make it work. Ron Perlman is fantastic once again as the anti-hero who refuses to take anything seriously. And he gets more to chew on this time around, as pathos plays a big part of the story. Selma Blair’s second go round as Liz feels a bit neutered, as this once complex character loses her blue flame and an inner conflict which were so much a part of the first film. I find it hard to believe that she’s resolved all of these issues so quickly and become just another member of the team, complete with a bitchy and wholly unpleasant attitude. Doug Jones gets to play and voice Abe this time, but David Hyde Pierce’s distinctive vocal inflections are missed. Nothing against Doug’s performance; those are just big shoes to fill. Abe does get some well played character development though, courtesy of a love interest in the form of Princess Nuala (played beautifully by Anna Walton). I only wish we could have seen more of this arc and less of the Hellboy / Liz relationship problems. That got old fast. And so did the presence of department head Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor), whose extended screen time only muddled an already crowded screen.

The reason the ensemble worked so well the first time around is that it was primarily Hellboy, Abe, and Agent Myers (who receives a one line send off, due to Rupert Evans unavailability for the picture). Here we add three more regular characters to the mix in Liz, Manning, and Kraus (played physically by John Alexander), who has some fantastic moments, most notably the locker room sequence. But there was so much going on, these characters had to fight for their moment in the spotlight and that sense of team never quite gelled. There’s a great deal of humor infused in their dialogue, as if trying to indicate “Hey, we’re team with history together.” Unfortunately, it often comes across as more forced than organic. It’s disappointing because a more cohesive unit would have played so much better off the devilish performance of Luke Goss as Prince Nuada. A worthy villainous successor to the first film’s Rasputin, Goss chews every bit of scenery he can and then some. But again, a poorly executed closing act diffuses an otherwise exceptional character with what feels like a less deserving resolve.

Closing Remarks
Ineffectual elements aside, one can’t argue that Hellboy II: The Golden Army is a feast for the senses. Juiced by a classic Danny Elfman underscore, we travel to worlds heretofore unseen and ones many filmgoers are likely to revisit multiple times in theatres and on DVD. My only hope is that the third film will be smaller in scope, giving these great characters room to breathe and audiences more of an opportunity to savor the fantasy we’re thrust into.

The Verdict

8/10

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