|
So again I saw an early sneak (this time Hellboy 2) and thought I'd post my thoughts on it.
Overall, I liked the movie, maybe even a bit more than the first one (I didn't think the first one was super-fantastic-wonderful, but I did have fun and didn't think it a waste of money to see in the theater and buy on DVD). This time there is no human agent acting as the audiences "in" and instead lets the Freaks have most of the screen time. Most of the focus in this movie is between Hellboy and Abe Sapien. Liz Sherman is still present in the movie, but she really is less of a character and more of a plot device that motivates and informs Hellboy's actions.
The movie deviates from the comic books in that Hellboy and Liz have a relationship (not really a spoiler if you've seen the first movie) and it has settled into a rocky patch. In a way this relationship is the best and worst things about the movie. It provides a lot of the direction and focus of the overall story, but unfortunately it relies on some cliches of the "relationship on the outs" story genre. Ultimately it doesn't hurt the movie as much as it helps it, but it could have definitely gone either way.
Abe Sapien gets a lot more screen time and the actor in the costume (Doug Jones) actually gets to speak the lines this time (in Hellboy 1, the voice was provided by an uncredited David Hyde Pierce). He's able to pull off the speech mannerisms perfectly and without careful examination there is no reason to believe they aren't the same voice. Abe gets a bit of a relationship story to himself and his is more the "awkward guy pining for the pretty girl" story.
The overall story for the movie is pretty straight forward from the trailers. The son of the elven king seeks to bring mankind down for their reckless destruction of the magical world and to do so he seeks the means to control the Golden Army. Most of the scenes thru the remainder of the movie involve either investigation (in the Hellboy "tell me what I want to know or I'll hit you" style) or actively trying to prevent the prince from obtaining his goal. There are no big twists...the secrets are all revealed fairly early on, and you are just left to see exactly how they'll resolve themselves in the end.
The big positive point for me was the humor of the movie. There are more genuinely funny moments in this movie than the previous and they worked fantastically given the characters involved. A new uptight character (Johann, voiced by Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane) doesn't mesh well with Hellboy loose and fast nature and seeing the two of them have at it is hilarious. And a buddy bonding moment between Hellboy and Abe steals the show.
The special effects are really amazing throughout. Most of the stuff is pulled off with practical effects (costumes, sets, etc), with only the most alien stuff touched by CGI. Most of the introduction explaining the origin of the Golden Army is a fantastically designed piece of CGI meant to recreate the look and feel of stop-motion puppetry. Also, in comparison to the first movie, there are a LOT more monsters running around, many of whom are uniquely designed.
So in the end, I'd say its definitely worth the theater at full price.
Disclaimer: The showing I was at featured a Q&A session with Guillermo del Toro (Director), Doug Jones (Abe Sapien), and Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy). All three were fantastic guests and spoke with a lot of humor and fun. Rumors came out of it:
- "if Guillermo directs a hemorrhoid commercial, Doug will be in it" which indicates a likely spot for Doug in the Hobbit.
- Guillermo intends to do as much of the effects as he can for the Hobbit practically, using CGI only when absolutely necessary.
- If he gets to do a Hellboy 3, he fully intends to have Bruce Campbell show up as Lobster Johnson.
Also, Universal Pictures doled out loot. Everyone got Hellboy 2 t-shirts (although they didn't really account for the typical sci-fi/fantasy build by only having up to XL size) and they covered everyones tab at the theater (which considering the theater served food and beer, was probably substantial...the tab for me and a friend would have been around $40).
|
|
Thanks for the post, I'm a huge Hellboy fan but I was disappointed by the first movie. I'm trying to figure out whether to wait for the DVD for the second.
Honestly, not having a background in the Hellboy comics, I'm not sure what you didn't like about the first one. That said, I can't think of anything that stylistically changed between the first and second movie and if you didn't care for the first, I think its likely you may not care for the second.
|
That is good news. A nice, balanced review which encourages my desire to see the film. If you had been all doe-eyed, or extremely negative, I would have just figured you for a fanboy, but you provided some nice insights.
Interesting about Abe. When I first saw Hellboy, I swore it was David Hyde-Pierce, but then I saw a documentary about Doug Jones and they didn't mention DHP doing the voice, so I thought it was Doug Jones that did everything. Then I saw Sword of Stones, and although it was Doug in the credits, the voice was definitely different. So until I read your post, I was very confused.
I hope to see it on Friday.
|
Honestly, not having a background in the Hellboy comics, I'm not sure what you didn't like about the first one. That said, I can't think of anything that stylistically changed between the first and second movie and if you didn't care for the first, I think its likely you may not care for the second.
D'oh!
If you haven't read the books, I seriously recommend it, the movies pale to them in comparison.
Hey thanks for H2 lowdown... Personally, I love Mignola's art, but that's just me... I'z weird like that!
|
|
Just got back from the showing 5 hours ago, with some thoughts.
1) Abe's "voice" fits pretty well, although watching 1 and 2 back to back it would probably stick out more.
2) Very much appreciate the elimination of the human "guide" character.
3) Why did they get Seth MacFarlane to voice Johann? They could have hired any capable German actor. I am sure Juergen Prochnow would have been available. Worst part of the movie for me.
4) Very good story, but made it difficult to cheer for the "heroes".
5) Good fight scenes at the end.
6) Was actually fairly long, but I didn't notice until afterwards.
One thing I found funny was that it had a very pro-environmental theme.
I also thought it was a perfect setup for Hellboy III (which I can't wait for).
|
|
One thing I found funny was that it had a very pro-environmental theme. ** spoiler omitted **
I also thought it was a perfect setup for Hellboy III (which I can't wait for).
You know, aside from the murders, I often found myself cheering for the villain. He was just trying to save his people (maybe not their way of life).
|
|
3) Why did they get Seth MacFarlane to voice Johann? They could have hired any capable German actor. I am sure Juergen Prochnow would have been available. Worst part of the movie for me.
Acc'ding to Guillermo (at the Q&A screening I was at), Seth was always their first choice for Johann, but they didn't think they would be able to get him, so they tried someone else first. The other actor (I think Thomas Kretschmann) didn't work out...they felt that it was too flat, so they went ahead and asked Seth and he was more than willing to do it.
When he came in, they told him that they were aiming for the voice of a Eurotrash socialite and that it couldn't sound like Stewie. Apparently, Seth speaks fluent German and an hour or so later, the voice of Johann was born.
Overall, I found the protagonists (Hellboy & allies) to be too unsympathetic causing the movie to be oddly distasteful. The film's theme and tone are all over the map too--which may be intentional but came off as just muddled.
Thumbs down.
|
|
Acc'ding to Guillermo (at the Q&A screening I was at), Seth was always their first choice for Johann, but they didn't think they would be able to get him, so they tried someone else first. The other actor (I think Thomas Kretschmann) didn't work out...they felt that it was too flat, so they went ahead and asked Seth and he was more than willing to do it.
When he came in, they told him that they were aiming for the voice of a Eurotrash socialite and that it couldn't sound like Stewie. Apparently, Seth speaks fluent German and an hour or so later, the voice of Johann was born.
I really disagree with their decision then, just because he can speak German doesn't mean he has a good accent. When I hear his voice I think of an American putting on a German accent (lots of zees and zis), plus the fish from American Dad. Monty Python had better German accents. It was very off-putting, I think they would have been better off having a bland-accented American and just say he was German.
I saw the movie last night. Here are some of my thoughts on it.
I really dislike the look of Guillermo del Toro's films. I don't know what the guy has about eyes being in weird places, but it was mildly interesting in Pan, it was just stupid in this movie. Also something just felt kind of lame about the "brute" bad guy (guy with the metal hand), the tooth fairies, and even the guy with a castle for a head. I wasn't sure if I was watching HB2 or Mirrormask. Don't get me wrong, weird looking creatures are fine, just not when it feels like the story is there to show them off and not that they are there to help the story.
Acting:
Abe was the only one in the entire movie that was remotely interesting. I especially liked him sliding and dodging the big guy outside the shop. I'd have liked to see Abe do a bit more of that kind of thing in fights. They totally wasted him in the fight at the end with the Golden Army. He could have been tricking them to hit one another or something, instead of just standing around. Hellboy just seemed pretty lame and flat the entire movie, maybe Pearlman is just getting too old to play those parts. The german guy had two good parts, the slapstick scene in the locker room and the golden army scene. Most of the time I just wanted to grab a dirt devil and come after him though.
Story:
Maybe I'm just getting too old myself, but I am really tired of these "humankind is the worst thing ever" stories. Maybe I'm just overloaded with it because I saw WallE last weekend and saw HH2 yesterday, but it just strikes me as intellectual laziness. Like Hellboy is wrong because he shoots a creature that is attacking hundreds of defenseless people. Maybe he should have just let the creature kill the baby, that would have been better. Frankly it would be nice once if there was a likable character with a call for moderation. That someone can like pretty flowers and woods, but can also like sappy love songs played on CDs. Too bad that aspect is never played up, instead we are left with "humans are bad, m'kay".
I also don't understand why humans have to always be totally morons. Let's see, big monster killing people, Hellboy shoots and kills it, Hellboy must be the bad guy, WTF? I didn't buy it.
Overall, I give it a C+, maybe a B-. It is worth seeing, just don't have your hopes up too high. Leave your thinking cap at home and just accept that it makes some kind of sense within itself.
P.S. Did anyone else catch the "4 elements" at the end.
Liz = Fire (obviously)
Hellboy = Earth (Stone hand)
Abe = Water
Johann = Air
|
I have to disagree with you Pres. This movie was awesome. Having read everyone of Mignola's graphic novel in both the BPRD and Hellboy series I felt this movie was much more in line with the comics. It embraced the idea that although hellboy is special there is a bigger world around him with all sorts of mythical creatures. The whole troll market part was fun. it was also nice to see them expand on Abe's character as he was just as big a main character as Hellboy in the series and honestly I liked that Liz and Hellboy got to be together in the movie which was always my dislike with the comics. Liz and Hellboy in the comics seemed to care a lot about each other but never found common ground that would make a relationship work, that and Hellboy goes off on his own have way through the series. Anywho great movie, I am glad they did it the way the did.
|
|
Very enjoyable! I had a great time and thought that it was very well done. My only criticism was that it felt rushed through some of the scenes...obviously for time,but I reeeeeeally didn't noice the length until the lights came back up and I looked at my watch. I hope there are about 15 or 20 minutes of footage that got edited out on the DVD (which I will definitely own).
|
|
Saw it last night... Hellboy 2 definitely rocks!
Loved those albino elves! loved the "villain" too!
I was really hoping Hellboy would take pity on the Forest God... but then again the elf conjured it to "kill" Hellboy, so I'm guessing his whole "this Forest God is the last of his kind" schpiel was just garbage to stall or maybe recruit Hellboy. Hard to say... How can the elf just conjure a Forest God? (which initially looked like a portable jumping bean to boot? wtf?)
In short, this movie made me want to learn more about Hellboy's fictitious world. I hope they publish a movie picture book discussing the various races of the underworld, etc.
Creative Director
|
Saw this earlier today, and while it's not quite the powerhouse to dethrone "Cloverfield" from my #1 of the year, it DID bash its way through "The Ruins," "Encounters at the End of the World," and "Iron Man" to settle in at #2.
Del Toro has yet to make a movie I don't love, which is why it's ALL THE MORE IMPORTANT for him to get going on "At the Mountains of Madness." I'm sure "The Hobbit" will be awesome, but having to wait for that one to be done before we get giant penguins and shoggoths is gonna be tough...
|
|
Del Toro has yet to make a movie I don't love, which is why it's ALL THE MORE IMPORTANT for him to get going on "At the Mountains of Madness." I'm sure "The Hobbit" will be awesome, but having to wait for that one to be done before we get giant penguins and shoggoths is gonna be tough...
He was asked about "At the Mountains of Madness" at the Q&A...he'd love to do it, but acc'ding to him "Lovecraft" is a four-letter word as far as studios are concerned. No one is willing to finance it to the level it would take to do the movie correctly. (I believe I read elsewhere that he considered financing it on his own, but couldn't afford it).
Del Toro has yet to make a movie I don't love, which is why it's ALL THE MORE IMPORTANT for him to get going on "At the Mountains of Madness." I'm sure "The Hobbit" will be awesome, but having to wait for that one to be done before we get giant penguins and shoggoths is gonna be tough...
Yes. Yes. YES! Del Toro is the only director I trust with handling a movie of any of Lovecraft's tales. He'd be perfect for it.
I saw the movie on Friday and I loved it. I thought it was even better then the first one. I agree that it was pretty cliche in some ways, looking back on it, but I don't care because I enjoyed it immensely. And of course, half the fun is seeing all of the great effects. Del Toro has really outdone himself. The visuals are even shinier than in Pan's Labyrinth, which is really saying something!
"I'm not a baby, I'm a tumor."
Just saw it. I thought it was really good, definitely an improvement over the first one, in my opinion. More goofy than the comic and a bit more grounded in the real world, but still enjoyable on its own. I still wish Mignola would go back to writing and drawing the comics himself, but as long as Guy Davis takes drawing duties for at least one series, I can deal. The rest of the miniseries, though...
As far as MacFarlane as Johann: I imagined his voice differently, based on his (much more sympathetic) comic character, but I think for the movie version, the voice fits. Part of what makes Hellboy unique is the "Reese's Cup Factor". "You got Pulp in my Folklore! You got Lovecraft in my Golden Age Superheroes!" The source material is a blend of many sources, a major component of which being Pulps. So, with that in mind, the clearly American voice person trying to sound German kind of works for me.
I had intended to watch Hellboy 2 the day it had come out, but work interfered.
Perhaps on Friday before I go watch the new Batman movie I've been looking forward to for so long.
Thanks for the review, I will go see this movie for sure now.
Luke Goss makes a bad ass villain.
I guess he finally got the answer to his old question "When will I, will I be famous?" then. ;-)
|
Luke Goss makes a bad ass villain.I guess he finally got the answer to his old question "When will I, will I be famous?" then. ;-)
Is he really that Luke Goss? I guess redemption is possible for everyone, then...
Is he really that Luke Goss? I guess redemption is possible for everyone, then...Luke Goss makes a bad ass villain.I guess he finally got the answer to his old question "When will I, will I be famous?" then. ;-)
Indeed he is. :-)
|
|
I saw it the other day.
It is awesome.
The only part that was a bit off was the pacing. It had too many "big fight scenes" for the last one to come off as particularly significant.
I loved the mythology.
As for Del Toro doing Lovecraft, the studios are idiots not to recognize the potential. Then again, I would worry about just how much SAN loss would be involved with him depicting shoggoths and elder things.
*SHUDDER*
|
|
Is he really that Luke Goss? I guess redemption is possible for everyone, then...Luke Goss makes a bad ass villain.I guess he finally got the answer to his old question "When will I, will I be famous?" then. ;-)
You know, despite this revelation, I still think he portrayed the most identifiable, emotionally deep, and LIKEABLE elf character in cinema history.
PS. Did I mention I don't like elves and their holier-than-though attitude?
Saw this earlier today, and while it's not quite the powerhouse to dethrone "Cloverfield" from my #1 of the year, it DID bash its way through "The Ruins," "Encounters at the End of the World," and "Iron Man" to settle in at #2.
Del Toro has yet to make a movie I don't love, which is why it's ALL THE MORE IMPORTANT for him to get going on "At the Mountains of Madness." I'm sure "The Hobbit" will be awesome, but having to wait for that one to be done before we get giant penguins and shoggoths is gonna be tough...
I hope to all the outer gods that Del Toro gets to make "At the Mountains of Madness".
Speaking of which, did anyone else notice the "Elder Things" walking around in the background of the Troll Market. I am sure when I get Hellboy 2 (which by the way I loved!) on DVD I will find a dozen other small hints and homages to Lovecraft within it.
As a more general note, I really enjoyed Hellboy 2. I think the relationship between Abe and the Princess was a little forced, and maybe Del Toro really isn't that great at doing love on screen, but all in all it was a great and surprising movie. So rare is it to find good humor within a geeky, yet otherwise serious film. It also means he is breaking with the classic plot convention of a dark 2nd act.
From what I understand Hellboy 3 will be the apocalypse. Fun times. Oh and I loved Johann, thought Seth did a fine job with the voice.
I was dissapointed by the amount of humor in the movie.
Singing Barry Manalow for WAY to long, the lame talking tumor, Liz blowing up the door and part of Hellboy's room over a tiff about cleaning up after himself, fighting the elemental while throwing a baby around.....and the god-awful locker room scene where Johan fights Hellboy.
It felt more like Men in Black that Hellboy. Heck it used more humor than the Brendan fraiser Mummy movies. :(
Now Im ashamed to say my opion is swayed by those around me. And I went with 3 freinds who hated it for not being played more seriously.
I get that feeling if I see it again I will like it more but upon first viewing I groaned more than I said Cool.
Oh and is it just me...Or is the elven princess really beautiful? With the weird skin and eyes that may make me a freak...but I thougt she was really hot.