Review: ‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army’

Ram Man:

Big Red , Selma Blair, Guillermo Del Toro and the B.P.R.D. (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense) gang are back in the second installment of the Hellboy franchise… Hellboy II:The Golden Army. Guillermo del Toro is back at the helm to tell the continuing story of these people that make humanity safe from creatures they don’t even know exist.Ron Perlman is back as the title character with Selma Blair at his side as Liz Sherman (Pyro-kenetic chic) .Doug Jones is back as Abe Sapien (fishman) and new comer Johann Krauss, a ectoplasmic mystic from Germany. A German leading Hellboy, can you see the fight coming?

In the Golden Army, Del Toro tells the story of an ancient truce between Humans and the Woodland Realm of creatures. Whomever is King of the Woodlands (New Jersey) and has the 3 pieces of the crown controls and unbeatable army of 5000 soldiers..The Golden Army. Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), an elf that makes Legolas from LOTR look like the Keebler elf, has had enough of exile and the Human race destroying his lands. Nuada breaks the truce and begins to assemble the crown in order to control the Golden Army and wage war against humanity. He didn’t take into account the defender of humanity Hellboy! Princess Nuada (Anna Walton), the prince’s twin sister, understanding her brother has gone off the deep end and wanting to continue the peace between the two worlds..takes the final piece of the crown and goes into hiding to prevent the resurrection of the Golden Army. Princess Nuada runs into Abe and is brought to BPRD headquarters and Hellboy is brought into the fight.

Del Toro has packed Hellboy II: The Golden Army with plenty of fascinating creatures, knock down slobber knocking battles, and some great comedic moments. One of the highlights is a Barry Manilow sing-a-long with Red and Abe…yes I said Barry Manilow and highlight in the same sentence. The Golden Army is the second story of a trilogy, to give you a clue on the story line of the follow-up, Guillermo has my permission to use “Three Demons and a Little Lady” as the title! Go check out Hellboy2: The Golden Army and see what a “real” hero is suppose to be!

4 1/2 out of 5

Michelle:

Our red-horned, rosary-carrying, wisecracking, cat-lover, Hellboy, is back for another round with the paranormal world. A misanthropic Prince Nuada (reminiscent of Jeremy Irons’, pasty faced Uber-Morlock from 2002’s ‘The Time Machine’) sets out to unleash hell on Earth. By committing patricide on his father, King Balor, Nuada ends the centuries old truce between humans and magical creatures with the rebirth of the Golden Army. An unfortunate event introduces the public to the secret agents of The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) comprised of Hellboy’s girlfriend, Liz (Selma Blair), empathic Abe (Doug Jones), and their new leader, Johann Krauss (Seth MacFarlane) who comes with troll seeing glasses. We find Hellboy torn between his destiny to destroy the Earth and fighting on the side of the humans. His relationship with Liz is rocky, at best, and she has a certain “something” hidden from him throughout most of the film.

Oscar winning director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) acquaints us with the mystical world of the Troll Market where, in the search for Nuada’s twin-sister Princess Nuala, the B.P.R.D. agents blend right in. What Del Toro does with the elaborate mythical sets and creatures far surpasses anything we’ve ever seen from Star Wars – the granite and floral behemoths are truly astonishing. With Del Toro’s evenly paced screenplay having Hellboy spewing “You woke up the baby” one-liners, his final act brings about the awakening of the “70 times 70 soldiers” Golden Army. We’re witness to a battle akin to ‘Rock ‘em, Sock ‘em Robots’ along with a fight-to-the-death finale between Hellboy and Prince Nuada. The hilarious “it” scene of the film has to be Hellboy & Abe commiserating over the dealings with the women in their lives with a Barry Manilow sing-a-long moment.

Not quite as funny as the first and certainly missing David Hyde Pierce’s unmistakable voice, Guillermo del Toro gives us another fun adventure… can’t wait to see what he does with “The Hobbit.” It should be one Hell-uva fight between Hellboy and Hancock this weekend.

4 out of 5

Travis:

First, the short version … I have been waiting eagerly for the sequel from the moment I left the theater after watching the first ‘Hellboy’ movie. I have anticipated great things, followed the sequel’s development but managed to avoid becoming too much of a fan-boy as I didn’t want to ruin anything for myself. (Charles?) Overall, the sequel was great! It satisfied all of my waiting and pondering and, while I don’t think it quite meets up to the level of success of the first movie, its pretty darn close and I’m cool with that.

Guillermo del Toro returns to direct ‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army’ and does so brilliantly and clearly with more greenbacks stuffed in his pocket to do so. It was very clear that del Toro was given mush more freedom to explore his dark, creative side for visual effects and creature design in this sequel. With the development of the back story done and behind us with the original, the sequel is much more free to delve into a completely new story … and that it does.

The film begins with a flashback of The Professor (John Hurt) reading a pre-teen aged Hellboy a story just before bed, sending him into a grinning dreamland of a fantastical ancient time on Earth that has long past … or has it? From here, we’re thrown into modern times. Led by the big red guy, the Bureau heads out to investigate an eerie and violent encounter at an auction house. Soon after arriving, the team discover they’re up against an entirely new force that far outnumbers their own. After the team’s “secrecy” is again compromised, Agent Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) is forced to bring in a mysterious new agent to lead the team in place of Hellboy (Ron Perlman). Special Agent Johann Kraus (physically performed by James Dodd and voiced by Seth MacFarlane) immediately rubs Hellboy and Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) the wrong way as Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) takes quickly to his keen intellect. Doug Jones once more gets kudos for carrying the load of three roles in the film.

As it turns out, the stories The Professor read to Hellboy as a child were based in reality. The team discovers that the Elven Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) has plans to steal a magical crown that will allow him to bring the indestructible Golden Army out of dormancy and command them into war with the humans. This basically sets up the premise for this film, but there’s romance as well. We’re already familiar with the love interest between Hellboy and Liz … the sequel takes it further and expands on their relationship. In addition, we find another member of the team falling head over heals for the twin sister of Nuada, Princess Nuala (Anna Walton) and ultimately causes a unique series of leverages and consequences in their mission to keep Nuada from succeeding in his diabolical plans.

Personally, I wasn’t really put off by the approach to the love stories being told in this film, but I can see where others have waned in favor of lesser opinions. Much of the story gets engulfed in the romance of the film and, while it does play an integral role in the story, it can at times be distracting from the action/adventure element … that is, of course, if you’re not a Hellboy fan-boy that’s interested in seeing the whole package and not just the masculinated Hollywood action-fest that other films become. It virtually goes without saying that the visual FX were outstanding. It should get no less than an Oscar nod for this category, and if not … heads will roll! I’m recommending this film to everyone based solely on the special effects. This way, once you see the movie … everything else is pure cinematic viewing profit!

4 out of 5

ZAC:

Guillermo del Toro returns to the comic franchise Hellboy and he has crafted a fantastical, action packed, and hilarious film that is the best live action entry of the Summer and possibly the year.
I can not sing the praises of this film enough. This film opens with a young Hellboy being read a bedtime story to him by Prof. Broom about the indestructible Golden Army built by the elves of ancient earth to help fight the humans during their ancient wars. After their original and only use, the Golden Army massacred the humans and the Elvin King who controlled them deemed them too powerful, splitting the crown which controls them into three pieces; much to the chagrin of his son Prince Nuada (Luke Goss). The King gives one piece to the humans as a truce and the elves move to the forests of the world, not to interact with the humans way of life, Nuada retreats into exile in protest, vowing to return when his people needs him most.
Flash forward a few millennium to present day, Nuada has returned, reclaiming the lost piece of the Golden Crown hostilely at an auction and drawing the attention of Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and the rest of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. The team is roughly the same, minus Myers thankfully, plus one new member, Johann Krauss, an ectoplasmic disembodied spirit that embodies a suit when he is a tangible person instead of a floating mist. Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) is back, and has a crush on Nuada’s sister Nuala, while Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and Hellboy seem to be having relationship issues the can be a bit “explosive.” Manning (Jeffery Tambor) has more of an active role in setting up campaigns for the team while still trying to cover up the exploits of Hellboy on YouTube.
I won’t really go much more into the plot as this film pretty much hits the ground running as soon as the team investigates the auction house Nuada massacred. The film is full of life though, del Toro has greatly expanded on the fantasy of the Hellboy universe and the world is just endlessly populated with cool monsters and wonderful creatures that give the series a new depth and imagination that it is capable of. You can tell Universal gave del Toro free range and put their confidence behind him as he has crafted one of the better fantasy film worlds in recent memory which has allowed him to craft one of the finest comic book adaptations to date.
Del Toro’s look to this film is also just beautiful, there is always something imaginative and creative happening on screen and it just leaves one awed on a number of occasions. The opening bed time story is told through an awesome animation that looks like a mix of stop motion and puppeteering that really stands out and helps you look past the only hiccup in the movie; which is the actor’s portrayal of young Hellboy, it just didn’t feel right for whatever reason. The Golden Army is just awesome, and when it comes to the big fight with them the effects work is just amazing. Speaking of fights, the film is full of them, they just keep coming one after another with a total of 6 major fight scenes (and that’s not counting the times Hellboy just punches the shit out of a few characters) sprinkled throughout if my memory serves me correctly, with each getting better as you go. The effects work is also top notch like I previously mentioned, with the CGI and the animatronics work (which there is a ton of) just looking grade A almost all the time. It is also a breath of fresh air to see so much practical effects work in this film, and it goes to show that it is possible to awesome effects work with out having to do everything on a computer.
The acting in the film is also great across the board. Rob Perlman expands upon Hellboy and makes him even more sarcastic and likable while also taking on even more physical duties on the film. Doug Jones takes over voice and acting duties for Abe Sapien and he does an excellent job as well. Abe has a far meatier role and is consistently funny in his back and forth’s with Hellboy and Manning. The two above mentioned also deserve special props for everything involved in the scene where they bond over there love for women; priceless and hilarious. Selma Blair takes it up a notch as well and remembers how to act at a high caliber. The filmmakers also decide to ramp up the sexy factor on her to bring in the horny boys as well. Luke Goss is an excellent villain in Prince Nuada handling the fighting and acting very well all around. The voice and physical work for Krauss is also very funny as they are able to create such an interesting character that is technically nothing but a white mist. Finally, Jeffery Tambor also improves upon his Manning in an even meatier role providing a fun authority figure for Hellboy to disregard.
But enough rambling praise, in the end, Hellboy II: The Golden Army is an excellent sequel in that it expands on the world while providing a more compelling story now that the origins are out of the way. Hellboy II is hilarious, action packed, and full of endless creativity. Guillermo del Toro has given us an amazing fantasy world to enjoy and one that I hope he gets to come back to after he is done with The Hobbit. Comic book and fantasy fans should not miss, as this is probably going to end up as being one of the best films of the year when it is all said and done.

(4.5 out of 5)

[Rating: 4.25/5]