Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Title: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Cast: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones
Year: 2008
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and some language.
Date of Review: July 14, 2008

One of the hardest parts of writing a good story (whether it be prose, screenplay, or one of the many other mediums) is keeping a consistent tone. The feel of the movie has to have a natural flow, so that any deviation from that (comic relief, or a good scare) doesn’t seem out of place. This means the writer - and in this case, filmmaker - must have a good sense of timing. Like the ignoramus who cracks a "dead baby" joke in the middle of a maternity ward, a misplaced quip can ruin the mood completely. This is the biggest problem in Hellboy II: The Golden Army - it doesn’t know what it is. Like the big red hero himself, the film is so unsure of its own purpose that some scenes leave you scratching your head, wondering why, exactly, it was necessary to include such a thing.

"Visual spectacle" seems to have been the number one goal on the mind of Guillermo Del Toro with this film, which is really too bad considering the beautiful stories he has told over the years (including the original Hellboy, with its surprisingly touching love story). The love story between Hellboy and Liz Sherman is continued here, but mostly for comedic effect. Abe Sapien also finds love in this entry, but again, most of it is just used for comedy. These scenes tie together the various action set pieces, each of which try to outdo the last, and each is big and loud enough to have been the climactic scene in its own movie. The best one occurs around the middle of the film, where Hellboy does battle with a "forest god" - this enormous, pale green monster emerges from a under a busy New York street and begins to wreak havoc. As news and police helicopters arrive and begin to scan over the beast with their search lights, it brings back memories of Cloverfield, and its infamously strange monster. And as the "forest god" lumbers around the city block, it covers anything it touches (or bleeds on) with beautiful outgrowths of flowers and bushes. It’s one of the film’s many beautiful yet hollow sights.

And there are just too many of these beautiful sights with nothing to back them up. We see oodles of monsters throughout the course of the film, each one a visual delight unto itself. One scene involves Hellboy and Abe Sapien venturing to "The Troll Market", a safe place for monsters located under the Brooklyn Bridge. This scene is somewhere between the Star Wars cantina, and a Jim Henson movie, as all of these monsters engage in commerce, each of them looking like something lifted right out of the pages of (surprise!) a comic book. Like the rest of the movie, it’s a visual treat...but so what? They go there looking for Princess Nuala, an Elven Princess, and we seem to be building up to a great mystery - how will they find her? Coincidentally, this just happens to be the exact same time that the Princess is sneaking around the market, looking as suspicious as possible. So, of course, it doesn’t end up being much of a challenge for our heroes to find her.

This is just lazy writing, and the film is plagued with it. The opening scene shows Hellboy as a small boy (and if there was ever a bad child performance, it’s here) being told a bedtime story about the Golden Army, Prince Nuada, and lots of other stuff that explains everything you need to know before going into the movie. Stylistically, it’s pretty neat the way that they had Hellboy’s imagining of the story in his head appear as an animated film for us to see. But it also foreshadows the painful level of exposition which occurs throughout the entire movie. Every monster introduced in the film is given a convenient "explanation" before they come on screen, then when they leave the screen you can be guaranteed you’ll never see them again. The "Angel of Death" character is truly a sight to behold, but its presence is a deus ex machina in its purest form. Hellboy, Liz and Abe are searching for help, a no-legged troll just happens to wander by and offer to bring them to someone who can help, he brings them to the Angel of Death who then helps them and (literally) vanishes into thin air. It’s not satisfying from a narrative point of view, and it’s a great representation of the huge differences between this film and the first one, released in 2004.

The first Hellboy had heart and soul, and Hellboy himself was a character we rooted for. He was well-rounded and interesting, and his internal struggle to discover whether he really is a demon, or if his human upbringing made him good was a great story. The sequel just doesn’t have this depth, and despite its many attempts to have heart, it fails. Scenes used to inject humanity into the characters are very funny, but they don’t really make them feel any fuller. In one scene, Hellboy and Abe sit together, drinking beer and singing along to Barry Manilow, both frustrated with how women can be so hard to understand. Scenes like this try to give the film the same heart that the first one had, but like the action scenes, they jump in and out without much to back them up, so watching Hellboy and Abe get drunk together may be funny, but it doesn’t give us the emotional connection we need.

The whole movie is just all over the place. Juggling between romantic comedy, horror, fantasy, action and drama, it never really finds what it really is. Some scenes are magical, and feel like a Jim Henson movie for the new millennium. Other scenes feel more like the Guillermo Del Toro we knew from Blade II, with fast-paced action and even some frightening visuals. Then other scenes, such as the very final shot of Hellboy’s confused face coupled with happy-go-lucky frolicking music feel satirical in their sense of humor. It’s all very confusing to take in, and it just doesn’t blend together all that well.

Perhaps another viewing is in order, and knowing what to expect will help smooth over the bumps and see the film as an entirely different beast from the first. But its differences are jarring, and while it is visually similar to the first - using the same colour palette and beautiful amber lighting - Hellboy II: The Golden Army feels more experimental than anything. It wouldn’t be surprising to read that Guillermo Del Toro was inspired by Spider-Man 3’s departure from its predecessors, and while this isn’t the colossal train wreck that Raimi’s threequel was, it proves that gorgeous visuals alone do not a good film make.

6 / 10