Hellboy II

Hellboy II (***1/2)

Writing this just over 24 hours before I plan on seeing The Dark Knight [yeah, it took me a while get around to finishing it], its sort of difficult to constrain my fanboyish hype long enough to think about any other movie, except in terms of how much less badass I'm anticipating it being in comparison to The Dark Knight. Nevertheless, I did see Hellboy II last weekend, and even though the timing of its release means its pretty much destined to be overshadowed, its a very good comic book movie in its own right. Like the original Hellboy film--which wasn't perfect and had some pacing and plothole issues, but was a movie that I nevertheless felt was underrated--the sequel was helmed by Guillermo Del Toro, who (very much deservedly) gained mainstream praise for his dark fantasy epic Pan's Labyrinth. Visually, this film is much closer to what Del Toro did in Pan's, and dark, fantastical, brooding atmosphere is one of its strongest points.

If you didn't see the first Hellboy movie and aren't familiar with the premise, here's the Cliff's Notes version: There's a secret government agency called the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) that gets called in any time something shows up that looks too much like something out of an H.P. Lovecraft book for the normal feds to deal with. Its agents include Hellboy. a demon that was summoned through a portal into our world by Nazis during World War II, Abe Sapien, a "mer-man" type guy who can intuit stuff about people and objects by waving his hands around, and Liz, who can set stuff on fire though not always control it that well. This second iteration expands greatly upon the mythos of the series, introducing an entire underworld of elves, trolls, and other races that you may have encountered with your World of Warcraft character. As I said earlier, the visuals are the film's strength, and there are no better visuals in the film than the throne room of the elves, which kind of looks like Lothlorien from Lord of the Rings if it was crammed entirely within a sewer. There's also a troll market hidden away underneath a New York City bridge, that Roger Ebert beats me to the punch in comparing to Mos Eisley from the first Star Wars.

The villain is the prince of the elves, who's been alive for as long as mankind has existed and is pissed off at our penchant for clearing down forests to make way for strip malls. His plan for revenge involves the Golden Army, a legion of mechanical warriors created for his father the king thousands of years ago before the elves were exiled to the forest. The story of the army's creation is told in the form of a bedtime story that was told to Hellboy growing up and represented through stop motion animation with old world-looking wooden puppets. Back in the present, the prince is attempting to collect all the pieces of the crown that allows its bearer to command the Golden Army which have been scattered between the human and elven worlds as part of the truce that ended the war in ancient times.

Plots like that of Hellboy II are pretty much a dime a dozen in the realms of fantasy and science fiction. Aside from the visuals, what sets this movie apart is its wit, which is no more readily apparent in Ron Pearlman's performance as Hellboy. The appeal of Hellboy as a character is that he's not the stoic, emotionless figure you'd expect an otherworldly being to be, but rather a grumpy blue-collar guy who doesn't like work because it cuts into his drinking time. Ron Perlman encapsulates this perfectly. The voice of Abe has been switched from David Hyde Pearce to Doug Jones (who does the rest of Abe), which is fine with me because Jones seems much more into the part, whereas I imagine David Hyde Pierce opining about how he wishes Frasier didn't get canceled while in the recording studio. Abe has more to do in this movie, and seems more like a character on equal footing with Hellboy, rather than the bumbling sidekick. Added to the cast is an odd German scientist, voiced in the most stereotypical and exaggerated of accents possible by Seth McFarlane for Family Guy fame. The character is a little too cartoony, but does provide a great foil for Hellboy for some great comic relief.

As I said, Hellboy II's plot is somewhat derivative, and the ending may be something you see coming from midway through the movie, but the charm of Hellboy as a character is still there. Add to it Guillermo Del Toro's more Pan Labyirinth-esque visuals and some actually decent, not hit-you-over-the-head obvious social commentary, and you have a pretty good comic book movie. It's just not The Dark Knight.