Hellboy II: The Golden Army

[drugmassacre]

(and this is the 2nd genre movie this summer to waste the marvelous John Hurt). .

Seeing as how he died pretty early in the first movie, his appearance here was more of a cameo than anything else.

I don't remember the first one all that well. Still, Hurt deserves a bigger movie role sometime in the future.

Maybe if they make another ALIEN...

don't know how big they are, but he's in 7 more movies before the end of next year, according to IMDB

He has been in 90 movies between Alien and HB2 also...

[Doh]

It's good to know Hurt's still working. I haven't seen him in much lately.

[digitaldreammachine]

Saw it last night. Loved it for the most part. I'm glad a second film got made and I think a third could really combine the best of the first 2 films.

A FEW DISLIKES:

Hellboy Jr., was pretty annoying and downright goofy looking. I think removing the buck teeth, better prosthetics, and less of a 'yipee, gee dad' voice and he would have worked better. Kind of fun to see though in a way. Given what happens later, it would have been funny to see Brum having to do that father-son birds and bees talk with Little Red though! Hahaha.

Hellboy was a bit too red and his prosthetics look different this time around. More noticeable because they were a bit larger perhaps?

I'll agree Hellboy was kind of an ass in the movie. A little more so than his usual self but not so much that I hated him or anything. He had such charm in the first on.

Speaking of asses, Johann was definitely one of those. I certainly don't remember him being as much in the comic books, but at least near the end of the film he starts to adapt a bit more to the BPRD and his sense of humor comes through. I thought they could have used a few minutes with his back story. His gadgetry in the front of his mask was a little distracting too.

Manning's character started to show a bit of understanding at the end of the last film, especially after Hellboy saves his live, and again very slightly in the first part of 2. However, he seems to really become the buffoon again. I think you liked him better once you showed he had a decent side.

SPOILER:

Hellboy and Liz having kids? Already? Hmmm...

SPOILER END.

The baby tossing scene...yeah, should have been on the cutting room floor.

Death of the elves. The ended up looking like sculpted butter.

Not enough of the BPRD. I want to se more of the inside. A few more unique agents and less MIB, which are fun and cheap, but we need more "freaks."

The Golden Army was cooler than I expected, and I like the puppetry stuff at the beginning, but I really would have liked to see the true badness of this goblin-crafted team.

MY LIKES:

Though I didn't like Liz as much in the first film, I thought she almost stole the show from Big Red this time around. Much better acting and better effects for her.

The designs of the world, the creatures, the sets. Del Toro, Mignola, and crew really give us some fun stuff to look at. The goblin, the Angel of Death, Wink, the entrance to the Golden Army lair, the tooth fairies, all were fantastic.

I actually like the Elemental. Definitely very Miyazaki-like, and homaged a few older and recent monster movies, but it just about took you out of the story. I think they needed to tie the elves, the forest world, and the creatures together a bit more. The little jumping been was maybe a bit too reminiscent of the Sammael creatures though.

Great score again!

The cheesy 70's style film ending...hahahaha...too funny! Not sure it was entirely appropriate, but a decent attempt. And I would agree that most of the humor in the film wasn't funny enough.

I'm sure there's more, but these are my initial thoughts.

I had to leave before the end of the credits though...did I miss something?

[CameronStewart]

I had to leave before the end of the credits though...did I miss something?

Nope. I was actually surprised, since it's so in vogue to include little post-credits tidbits these days.

[HellboyOne]

I had to leave before the end of the credits though...did I miss something?

Nope. I was actually surprised, since it's so in vogue to include little post-credits tidbits these days.

In the making-of book, there's a bit where del Toro wanted to shoot a post-credits scene with a crazed Zinco (the Acme of the Hellboy comics) going to the Arctic (or Antarctic) and discovering a shitload of frozen Nazi equipment, Kroenen's head in a jar, and Rasputin waiting for them. The budget didn't allow for it.

[digitaldreammachine]

I had to leave before the end of the credits though...did I miss something?

Nope. I was actually surprised, since it's so in vogue to include little post-credits tidbits these days.

In the making-of book, there's a bit where del Toro wanted to shoot a post-credits scene with a crazed Zinco (the Acme of the Hellboy comics) going to the Arctic (or Antarctic) and discovering a shitload of frozen Nazi equipment, Kroenen's head in a jar, and Rasputin waiting for them. The budget didn't allow for it.

Holy crap! That would have been cool Rick! Maybe a bonus for the DVD/Blu-Ray??

[Gobukan]

I'm a little late seeing Hellboy2...and Kelly Tindall's friend has already delivered my thoughts on the movie.


"He said that the story waddled between action sequences... Johann and Abe's actors gesticulated so wildly it looked like they were trying to perform magic... Doug Jones' voice was weak... The movie felt like a highly neutered del Toro movie... And the jokes were awful. "

I'll add these few thoughts:
I really didn't like this movie and when Abe and HB:2 started singing together I got up to leave the theater. I was done. I'd had enough. The movie already stunk of goofy hijinks and silliness (Liz's introduction in a heated arguement with HB:2...aye, aye, aye). I stayed because my friends asked me to. They also let me sleep through a the boring stuff in the middle...what boring stuff I can't exactly remember.

A lot of this movie felt like a TV pilot to me. The creatures were top notch, but the acting was not. Has Doug Jones got any other movements besides waving his hands around, hunching his shoulders and twitching his head to the side? I read in an interview that Guillermo and he worked on all of the movements and that you would not be able to tell which characters were Doug. I don't know how you couldn't know! If the creature moved like Abe and had skinny fingers it was Doug Jones.

On a final note, whoever is responsible for the giant teeth on kid Hellboy:2 should be forced to have that scene played over and over in his brain for the rest of his life. In his minds eye he will see nothing but giant toothed Hellboy: 2 and nothing else! His dreams will be nothing but an endless loop of HB: 2 brushing his stupid giant teeth, and asking poppa whatsisname for a bedtime shtory! Only then may he or she begin to understand the horrible punishment to the eyes that they unleashed on we the poor movie going audience!

On the other hand I am now terribly excited to see "Space Chimps" and "Fly Me To the Moon".

j.

[HellboyOne]

On a final note, whoever is responsible for the giant teeth on kid Hellboy:2 should be forced to have that scene played over and over in his brain for the rest of his life. In his minds eye he will see nothing but giant toothed Hellboy: 2 and nothing else! His dreams will be nothing but an endless loop of HB: 2 brushing his stupid giant teeth, and asking poppa whatsisname for a bedtime shtory! Only then may he or she begin to understand the horrible punishment to the eyes that they unleashed on we the poor movie going audience!
.

Although to be fair (and I agree with you, by the way), there's only one guy in charge of approving anything that made it to screen and that's the director.

[chris_lutes]

I thought the scene with Rasputin and the Baba Yaga under the tree from Wake the Devil would have been a great post credit sequence since they were supposedly trying to introduce more folklore stuff into the movies.

[Tinman2040]

Hi I just saw this, yeah little late to the party but well what can you do when a movie gets released 2 months after in another country.

Okay the Good.
Johann: Couldnt get enough of this character, he was certainly a standout.
Music I really enjoyed it I had no idea it was Elfman until the credits.
The Puppet Story at the beginning very good and fun!!
Liz character much less annoying this time around
The Mignola Creature Designs
NO KID Moments!!

The Bad
The storyline if you cant work out how it ends your stupid.
Bad dubbing of Hellkid at the beginning, it was just bad lip sinking it reminded me of an Italian spaghetti western.
Hellbabies.......... I TOLD YOU SO!!
Hellboy personality became more unnecessarily aggressive like a Big Spoilt Kid.
The whole BPRD being a big secret!!
The Troll what was that all about??
Where was the HellMobile?

Thats all I can think of this minute but definitely a better film than the first!!

[HellboyOne]

I thought the scene with Rasputin and the Baba Yaga under the tree from Wake the Devil would have been a great post credit sequence since they were supposedly trying to introduce more folklore stuff into the movies.

Del Toro wanted Baba Yaga in the movie but Mignola didn't. Mignola won the argument.

[Kelly Tindall]

Mike was really against the troll market too. Maybe he was just against the giant stupid monster-killing rolling spike thing that didn't do anything else.