Hellboy II: The Golden Army

The comic book universe is a visual universe. Without comparable visual creativity and skill, a comic book movie falls flat (see the Joel Schumacher Batman movies for evidence of this). This is certainly not the problem with either of Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy pictures; in fact the films may actually improved upon Mike Mignola’s 2-D incarnation. The titular character (a demon raised by humans to defend against various mythical nair do wells) and his team of misfit crime fighters come to life in a way that the Hulk, for example, never has. The trouble with Hellboy II: The Golden Army is once the visual spectacle is realized, the filmmakers offer us little else in the way of character depth, creative plot, or captivating dialogue.

Hellboy II is a glorious ode to cinema's “creature features” with homages to Ray Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts, Jim Henson’s Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, George Lucas’ Star Wars, and James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein (a tie-in which surely made the suits at Universal happy). del Toro’s cast of stunning beasts proves that there is plenty of wallop still to be had in using old fashioned make up, prosthetics, animatronics, and miniature models in lieu of a constant barrage of computer generations(stick around for the credits to see how many artists it took to create the creatures and you can see why many filmmakers have become addicted to CGI). It is with these visually bizarre characters that del Toro has the most fun and that exuberance captures the audience as well.

Perhaps del Toro got so deep into his role as monster maker that his roles as storyteller and, particularly, screenwriter fell by the wayside. The film lacks a uniform feel. The first third of the movie oscillates between knock off versions of Men in Black and Lord of the Rings. Once it finds its footing the ridiculously derivative plot (which includes bringing three pieces of a crown together, an evil twin, a quest for the salvation of humanity etc.) and Dungeons-and Dragons-quality dialogue (viewers should prepare for long passages spoken in Elvish)drag the movie into the relm of the uninteresting. Aside from a few choice one liners, the sharp humor of the original movie does not shine so brightly on this go around. Hellboy’s gruff-guy-with-a-tenderness-for-cats scthick was wearing thin by the end of movie one and its charm is utterly gone by hour two of The Golden Army.

A great deal of energy is spent in this movie setting up a third installment of the Hellboy franchise. What appeared to be the theme of the film (Hellboy grappling with the fact that the human race he has given everything to protect will never embrace him) is not quite tackled head on. Instead there are several allusions that this will be the subject of the next film. In past experience (i.e. the Back to the Future or Pirates of the Caribbean movies), committing so much time in one movie to “set up” another usually becomes detrimental to both. Though, it is certain that Hellboy III will be replete with enough jaw dropping spectacle to arouse interest, no matter how lacking it is in the story department.