Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Writer/Dir: Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Blade II, The Devil's Backbone, Chronos)
Cast: Ron Pearlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Jeffrey Tambor, Seth MacFarlane
USA, 2008

Seen: July 11., 2008 at the Varsity

Reason to see: Loved the first film

I was really looking forward to seeing Hellboy II: The Golden Army. In terms of wide releases for films this summer, the only other film that comes close in terms of excitement is X-Files I Want to Believe. That said, I wanted to believe in Hellboy II, but I found it fell short too many times. I was a huge fan of the first film with its quirky humour, charismatic performances and fascinating world in which it was set. Technically this sequel has all of those things but I just wasn't feeling the love. First off, I wanted more Hellboy! Although I loved some of the new characters and old favourites like Abe, Red gets far less screen time then you'd expect. I was also very surprized at how, shall we say, 'familiar' the back story was, to the point at which I was having trouble keeping the giggles in. I was disappointed with the choices made with the development of some of the characters, especially Liz. Overall, you have to give props to the fact that it was visually stunning and it did wrestles with interesting questions but I felt it lost a little heart.

Shannon's Overall View:
I didn't love it, but I wanted to
I'd watch it again and likely buy it
I'd recommend it as a fun action movie

12 minutes of preshow including zero commercials (yay!) and 5 previews: Star Wars: Clone Wars, Babylon AD, Eagle Eye, Death Race and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

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© Shannon Ridler, 2008