It’s a tough sell for a summer blockbuster – no A-list stars, a largely unfamiliar comic book character and a Mexican auteur at the helm. But if any one aspect of Universal’s marketing for Hellboy II: The Golden Army sticks out, it has got to be the monsters.
And damn are they good.
Straight off his brilliant, Spanish-language fantasy pic, Pan’s Labyrinth, director Guillermo del Toro returns to the world of Hellboy for a much-improved sequel. The allotted budget, though modest for a big summer release, has given del Toro the creative freedom to transpose every last wild creature he can realize.
From start to finish, Hellboy II moves along the fairly predictable patterns of any superhero film. But with the benefit of an endless imagination del Toro keeps his audience guessing as to what on earth will pop up on the screen next: flesh-eating tooth fairies, a paraplegic troll, The Angel of Death?
Underneath the incredible array of monsters, the film has something else few summer spectacles can lay claim to: The big red guy has got a lot of heart.
Where Ron Perlman (Outlander) had to carry much of the first film as the charming, cigar-smoking, beer-guzzling hero, the better-embraced comedic aspect of the second film allows the actor much more freedom. Del Toro’s script is equally funny and thrilling with far more tonal balance than the previous film. Someone has finally figured out how to make the superhero flick for an adult audience.
In a brief flashback to Hellboy’s childhood, we learn the story of the indestructible Golden Army. With heavy nods to The Lord of the Rings – lest we forget, del Toro will eventually bring us The Hobbit – professor Broom (John Hurt, Recount) tells the tale of a time when the elves of Bethmoora put aside their grudge with the human people and made a truce to never call upon the Golden Army again.
That is, until Prince Nuada (Luke Goss, Deep Winter) returns from exile looking for blood and the missing piece of the crown needed to summon the army out of slumber.
Wasting no time, del Toro cuts to the chase and unleashes his monsters in full force. He successfully marries the intimacy of his Spanish-language films with the adrenaline-punch of his American work.
And believe it or not, there are moments of poetic beauty in Hellboy II, albeit the lushest moment in the film arrives via an exploding plant god severed by Hellboy’s oversized revolver – but visual poetry comes in all scopes.
The stunning set pieces get ace treatment thanks to del Toro’s cinematographer of choice, Guillermo Navarro, whose gliding camera keeps Hellboy II’s fantasy mystique intact from Trenton, N.J., to the Irish coast to the Troll Market (located under the Brooklyn Bridge, for those who didn’t already know).
In front of the camera, the supporting cast refuses to play second fiddle to their eye-catching nemeses. Reprising her roll as fire-wielding Liz Sherman, Selma Blair (The Poker House) trades in her sullen look for sass this time around. Her relationship with Hellboy, though physiologically puzzling, grounds the more fantastic elements in something emotionally relatable.
As the government’s worst-kept secret, Hellboy craves recognition and the acceptance of the outside world. He blows the cover off the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense and invites the wrath of his boss, Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor, Superhero Movie). The Washington brass deems it necessary to appoint someone to watch over the Bureau.
Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) provides the perfect comic counterbalance for Perlman in the form of supernatural bureaucrat Johann Krauss, another one of del Toro’s sketches come to life.
It would be unfair to call Hellboy II a one-man show – in fact, it’s far from it, with all the machine working in perfect tandem. But behind the entire production, del Toro’s unmistakable vision shines through.
How incredibly fitting Universal Pictures, home to classic movie monster flicks from Frankenstein to Dracula, should be the studio to pick up Hellboy II after Sony abandoned the franchise. The days of Universal Horror may be long gone, but there are still men who know just how to treat a monster.
zherrm@umd.edu
