Hellboy 2: The Golden Army: The Golden Army:

*** Introduction ***

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army was a film that I actually got excited about when it was released at the cinema. I wanted to go see it then but I don’t leave the house often to be honest and so I never got round to seeing it. I must have forgotten about it but I recently saw it for less than £2.99 and as I had vouchers I bought it. The version I have is the two disc special edition which looks lovely in its glossy slip case.

*** About Hellboy ***

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is the sequel to, (you guessed it), Hellboy. Hellboy is a big red demon from Hell but he is actually a nice guy despite him being a demon proven by the fact that he loves cats! He lives in a secret government agency type place with some other unusual characters like a fish-man called Abe Sapien and his love interest Liz who sometimes bursts into flames. Together they help solve problems involving other paranormal entities. The whole concept is not very original but it is well done.

In this film an Evil Elf Prince awakens an indestructible army of machines and wages a war on mankind. Hellboy and the team to stop the Prince and save the world from his onslaught, the prince is very evil and it is all done so well!

Hellboy is based on a comic of the same name written and drawn by Mike Mignola and published by Dark Horse Comics. The first publication of an image of Hellboy was on the cover of the program for the Great Salt Lake Comic Con in 1991. Since that time Hellboy has popped into other comics and had several “series” of his own. Hellboy comics are still running to this day. I have to admit that I have never read the comics but they are on several of my “wish lists” online so hopefully one day I will be able to see if the film makers have done it justice.

*** Direction and Screenplay ***

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army was directed by Guillermo Del Toro who also directed Pans Labyrinth. Mike Mignola and Guillermo Del Toro seem to have worked together on the film so hopefully it will be close enough to the comics.

For me the direction is great. I loved Pans Labyrinth too, if you have seen either you will know what I am talking about when I say that it the subtle direction that makes these films good. It is not overtly in your face like a lot of directors yet you can see that an enormous amount of attention to detail has been lavished on these films without it being paraded around.

Light and shadow play a huge part in the comics and it is great to see that this has been carried through in the films.

The screenplay is excellent and again I am glad that Mike Mignola worked with Del Toro although Pans Labyrinth has a similar, dark fantasy feel to it. This wasn’t as cheesy as a lot of Comic conversions which was a good thing.

*** Characters ***

The characters themselves are awesome; Hellboy is good fun and often makes me laugh out loud because of the way he looks and the way he acts; the two don’t seem to go together and it makes his character interesting. Abe Sapien is probably my favourite character; he is really intelligent and has a kind of empathic/mind reading hand which makes him thoughtful and also interesting. Liz is the weakest character, she is clearly messed up and seems like she could have a lot of depth to her but to be honest she feels like she is only there as a love interest for Hellboy. The other “support” characters in the film are also great and you get to know them quite well over the course of the two films.

*** Casting and Acting ***

Like the first film, I think the casting is pretty much spot on. I couldn’t imagine anyone playing Hellboy better than Ron Pearlman. He has a gruff but likeable style that fits the character perfectly and he is believable throughout. Abe is played by Doug Jones, (who also plays the Chamberlain and the Angel of Death in the film), and he is excellent in the roles. He is so good in fact that I didn’t realise he was playing three characters although there are heavy make-up, prosthetics and puppetry involved! I love the fact you get to know so much more about Abe in HB2 and Doug Jones is again very believable and you certainly warm to him. Once again the weakest of the three is Selma Blair who seems bored throughout and quite unlikable. Perhaps as her character is weaker she is doing the best with what she was given. She wasn’t awful though just not as good as the others.

*** Special Effects/Visual Effects ***

There are obviously a lot of special/visual effects in this film. Just getting Hellboy, Abe and the other preternatural creatures to look good must been a lot of work and boy do they look good. This is not like the Fantastic Four with that awful looking Thing! If you’ve seen Pans Labyrinth you will have seen how visually stunning Del Toro’s films can be and there is a lot of cross-over here.

This film contains Elves, (if you play D&D these seem a lot more like Drow), Cornish fairies, Trolls, Giant Sentient Trees and many more fantastical creatures and they all look realistic. They don’t look like special effects, CG and puppetry they are believable enough that your brain doesn’t question it; you can just sit back and enjoy the film.

The scenery is amazing, you get to take a trip to the “Troll Market”, a fabulous bustling market place under New York and it looked great and reminded me a lot of Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. You also get to see Ireland and in particular Giants Causeway, this one of my favourite bits of the film!

Explosions and fight scenes are breathtaking and again look so good that you don’t notice what is CG, what is a special effect and what is a puppet. There is some great melee fighting scenes which I love!

This film has had attention and obviously money, (but according to Del Toro), and talent lavished on it and the result is one hell of a great looking film!

*** Special Features ***
There are quite a few special features on this two disc special edition but I have to say extras aren’t really my thing. I really don’t want to see how a film is made let alone watch a making of that is actually longer than the film! There are so many features, it would bore me silly to watch them all and bore you reading them so I’ll give a bit of run down for you.

> Hellboy: In Service of the Demon – over two hours of the creation of Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. I have not and will not watch this so I can’t comment on it.

> Director’s Notebook: This is actually quite interesting; you get an insight into the way Del Toro works and his notebooks are beautiful. His writing looks like some kind of arcane text and his illustrations and sketches are beautiful. Just in case you think these “pages” are faked or CG or something you then get to see Del Toro holding the actual notebook! Well worth watching!

> Production Workshop Puppet Theatre: This is one of my favourite bits. You get to see a “flashback” flashback in the film and they did it with puppets because of budget problems and it looks amazing. I am so glad the budget was tight and so is Del Toro. You also find out that this is the part of the film that Mike Mignola worked on most.

> Set Visits: These are interesting and show various scenes being filmed. It is nice to see how some of the creatures still look so realistic even pre-production and you get to see Hellboy getting bored when Del Toro makes him re-take even the smallest scene. In fact the whole film seems to be filmed in tiny little sections less than a minute long, such is the attention to detailed possessed by Del Toro.

> Image Galleries: This is LOADS of artwork from the film. Not bad but quite boring, (apart from the one with Mike Mignola which is really funny and has him joking about how little input Del Toro gave him)!

There are loads of others to including an animated comic strip, commentaries with Del Toro and some of the cast, a tour of the troll market etc etc.

*** Boring Stuff ***

> Hellboy is certified 12 due to moderate fantasy violence and infrequent strong language, (I would say for some this may be a little high but fragile children may find some of the stuff upsetting).

> The Sound is Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound.

> There are subtitles in 23 different languages including, Italian, Hebrew, Spanish and Icelandic with many of them also featuring menu screens in that language.

> The films running time is 1 hour 55 minutes and the extra run for a total of 4 hours 20 minutes.

> The film is filmed in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen.

> Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is distributed by Universal Pictures.

*** Price and Availability ***

HMV: £12.99 including free postage
Amazon: New: £8.68 and eligible for free postage on orders over £5.00
Amazon Market Place: from £5.00 + postage of £1.21
Play.com: £15.75 including free delivery

*** In Conclusion ***

I loved Hellboy and I love Hellboy 2; I think it’s as good as the first film, maybe better because Abe and Hellboy’s characters develop so much over the film. The scenery is amazing and the direction is fantastic.

The extras are quite good and I found it fascinating to learn more about Mike Mignola and Del Toro. The insight was amazing and they are both funny guys.

For me this is, (based purely on how good the film is, not on how well it compares with the comics), is one of the best comic book adaptations I have seen. For anyone looking for a really fun movie then give this a go.

*** Useful Links and Resources ***

>For Wikipedia’s entry on Hellboy 2, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellboy_2
>For their entry on the first Hellboy film, go to: www//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellboy_(film)
>For their entry on the Hellboy in general go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellboy

>For the IMDB’s entry on Hellboy 2, go to: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411477/
>For their entry on the first Hellboy film go to: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167190/

>For the Dark Horse Website, go to: http://www.darkhorse.com/Zones/Hellboy

> For the official Hellboy 2: The Golden Army website, go to: www.hellboymovie.com

> For the Universal Pictures Website, go to: www.universalpictures.co.uk