SYNOPSIS:
The fate of mankind hangs in the balance when a ruthless prince awakens an unstoppable army of creatures and wages war with the human world. It’s up to Hellboy and his team of paranormal outcasts to face off with the forces of darkness in the ultimate battle of good versus evil!
From the visionary director of Pan’s Labryrinth, Hellboy II: The Golden Army takes you into fantastical worlds with imaginative creatures and thrilling fight sequences unlike anything you’ve ever seen before!!
MOVIE REVIEW:
The Hellboy movies had always enthralled with it’s rich characterization and imagination. It might not be as eventful as a certain Dark Knight’s movies but there’s something about Hellboy and co that makes it highly rewatchable.
Partly it is not so anguish-fill like The Dark Knight (more lighthearted which make re-watching easier) and another reason would be how the various characters are being handled with loving care.
The interactions between characters are the highlights of this film. Starting from the introduction of Johann Kraus, the gaseous entity that became Hellboy superior, it was fun to see both of them wrestle over control. Johann’s predicament is also one of the most intriguing characters to be introduced into Hellboy’s world. His fragile appearance of being housed in a containment suit gave one of the most pleasant revelations when he took charge of things and show why he is worth his weight in gold (pun intended).
Abe (Abe Sapien) is back too with more screen time and more involvement of his character with the story. The camaraderie bonding session between Hellyboy and Abe, over Barry Manilow’s “Can’t smile without You” was one of the highlight of this movie that still make me and my friends chuckle and warm up to.
The romantic dilemma with Hellboy and Liz (Liz Sherman) has also been brought further to the next level. Although both characters belongs to supernatural group, their romance woes are so akin to what usually goes on in normal human romantic problems. The revelation of what’s been bugging Liz just made this fanboy wet with anticipation of what going to happen in the third film.
The other thing that was rather enjoyable was the reference to Hellboy’s destiny. Although the Golden Army moved away from the biblical “End of Days” climax that happened in the original film, it doesn’t steer away from reminding what Hellboy’s eventual role in the end of mankind. There was even a subtle jab at this potential antichrist’s destiny when Hellboy suffers from potentially fatal spear injury to his rib cage (much like what happened to Jesus at the cross).
This film also touches on issues such as the dark nature of men and the destruction that we bring to those around us. It could be ecological or beauty of fable, it made a point to show that it’s just in our nature to corrode what is beautiful and rare. This issue plays a bigger part in Hellboy’s dilemma as a protector of human when the human don’t even appreciate his hard work at all.
Overall, it’s not so much of the plot device in Hellboy 2 that matters but the characters that inhibit this movie. They are so rich and imaginative yet grounded with certain human traits that made them relatable and awesome. These are good stuff that only Director Guillermo Del Toro and Creator Mike Mignola could bring to the table. Worth watching over and over again.
SPECIAL
FEATURES:
Feature Commentary with Director Guillermo Del Toro
It’s always a delight to hear a Director talk about the movie making process, particularity when the Director had so much love for the movie. Director Guillermo Del Toro shared plenty of insights into the choices made for making this movie that give film schools a run for their money.
From the choice of telling the origin story of the Golden Army with puppets due to budget constrain to minor fun trivial such as Hellboy’s locker number is numbered at 333, (the half of 666, indicating his half demon status), it’s a blast listening to Guillermo Del Toro and these insights gave the film more layer to enjoy.
This extra feature even comes with English and Japanese subtitles.
Set Visits
There are 7 segments here that shows the workings of various moments of the film. Particularity interesting as it revealed how certain special effects were filmed (see The Elemental Baby) to how special effects were created on the set (see Disintegrating Royality).
Director’s Notebook
In this segment, viewers are treated to the design process of various characters that inhibited this movie. Characters such as King Balor (King of the Elf) to Johann Kraus the bodiless bureaucrat, Director Guillermo Del Toro explains how they were created and the constrain that faced. It also reveals the set for the final confrontation and the fight Abe and Wink had in this movie. This is an eye opener extra to the filmmaking world of Director Guillermo Del Toro that shouldn’t be missed.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, the Visual for Hellboy 2 is as sharp as anyone would expect from a movie that’s just been released. Fine contrast of colors and darkness brings this colorful world of fable comes to vibrantly alive.
The film is presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital for English, Japanese and Thai languages. There are English, Japanese, Indonesian, Cantonese, Korean, Mandarian and Thai subtitles.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING:
Review by Richard Lim Jr
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