Hellboy II. The Golden Army (Hellboy II: The Golden Army (DVD))

Member Name: FairyG

Product:	Hellboy II: The Golden Army (DVD)
Date:	05/09/08 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some unexpectedly marvellous imagery.

Disadvantages: A bit too long. some scenes dragged out.

In Hellboy 11, the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence is up against the ethereal and ruthless Prince Nuada. Nuada's father has maintained a truce between his invisible realm and humankind, but now the scheming Prince wants to awaken the ancient Golden Army of metallic monsters and take over the world. It's up to Hellboy and his team to stop him, although Hellboy has problems of his own to contend with. His relationship with his girlfriend, the fiery-tempered Liz is not going well and the repercussions are explosive. Meanwhile, the aquatic empath Abe is also falling in love.

There seems to be a developing trend in current hero films to fall back a little from the endless and sometimes monotonous shows of CGI that have been a feature in recent years, and spend some time on character development. Iron Man took this approach, with the ever charismatic and expressive Robert Downey Junior. Hancock, a somewhat surreal movie also succeeded very well in this respect, with Will Smith as the bumbling drunken anti-hero. The Dark Knight? Hmm... Christian Bale stands out as the most three dimensional Batman yet, but maybe that one went too far down the path of darkness. Anyway, I'm spotting a trend which is interesting and exciting, and it succeeds to a certain extent in Hellboy 11, although one particular drunken scene goes on far too long. It's time films went back a bit more towards to story and character, after the Hollywood love affair with the wonders of computer generated imagery.

Having said all that, the CGI scenes in this film are very often vivid and memorable, so I'm going to point out some of the more powerful imagery:

Goblin market: Wow! If you liked the alien bar in Star Wars or Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films you'll love this. Every kind of demonic goblin type you can imagine, done with Guillermo del Toro's own special gruesomeness. Look out for the baby!

Tooth Fairies: Aaargh! Don't let your kids see this film. It gives the Tooth Fairy a whole new and terrifying image. You don't want one of these reaching under your pillow for a tooth! Oh, and don't sleep with your mouth open.

Giant's Causeway: I won't spoil this by telling you what happens, but it's a magical and impressive scene. You'll see the Giant's Causeway in a whole new light, if ever you visit Ireland.

The Last God: Oh, what a stunning and unexpected moment at the end of Hellboy's battle with this nature god.

Anyway they are just some of the scenes that made a big impact on me. Don't let your children see it though. Some of this is the stuff of nightmares.

Summary: Entertaining, visually impressive and better than the first Hellboy movie.