Searched for a recent thread about Hellboy II but couldn't find one that I could reuse (there's a funny one (in retrospect) predicting Hellboy owning Iron Man in box office returns or quality) - so I am starting a new thread.
I got the DVD the other night out of those extremely convenient redbox kiosks. I had liked Hellboy (the first movie) quite a bit. The whole idea of how Satan has sent Hellboy over but he chooses to side with the good guys, the whimsical otherworldly beings, the "father" bit, the girlfriend 'on fire' bit. In short, I can say that I'm a fan of the first movie.
Then I saw the trailers for Hellboy II and loved the concept. Plug: Tad Williams' Shadowmarch series of books has a similar concept of how the Faerie folk have gradually been disenfranchised by humans and now start moving against the humans is a wonderfully evocative, dreamy, eerie, long, well-written series (third part coming out early next year). One of the things that captures my imagination about the Elves/Fairy in related books is that these magical/wonderful beings' star is on the wane due to the rise and eventual conquest of all things by Man. It is the inherent noble tragedy aspect of it that I like. And the trailer had that, special effects, heart aplenty.
I also loved Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. Eerie, grand, fanciful and somewhat enigmatic. Did placing the root below the pregnant step-mother help in any way? we never know...
However, I am disappointed by the Hellboy II movie. It just had no heart in it. One never quite sides with Nuada and what's the point of having the Elvish Prince fight back against Man if some part of you doesn't side with him. We don't like him (of course) when he commits patricide, when he tries to kill his sister (how would that have worked out? wouldn't it have killed him too?) or even his relationship with the care-taker. Even when Hellboy has killed the caretaker with whom he must've spent several hundred (thousands?) of years, we never really feel his pain. They did make him a bad-ass (the initial knife-lance practice session reminded me vaguely of Ray Park and his SW: The Phantom Menace skills), looks gorgeously alien, wears the requisite exquisite raiment of an Elvish Prince and yet never captured the tragedy of a person fighting against his people's doom. Even when he is asking Hellboy to join him and stop fighting for the humans, I didn't get a sense of how he should be able to understand Hellboy's isolation/rejection from the humans and see how Hellboy is affected by the continuous rejection based on his looks.
I had no idea why they did the Liz is pregnant routine either. There's never the emotional payoff that I expect from those initial scenes with her and Abe. Hellboy isn't likeable either. Most of the times, he's a jerk to people. (I haven't read the comics so don't know if that is the real personality for Hellboy). They setup the whole Abe really digs Nuala but again there's no real payoff to that. I failed to get the point of introducing the new "smoke" captain of the team either. Is Hellboy supposed to learn a lesson? Is he a great leader or a poor leader or what? Is all he's meant for is to support Hellboy at the finale when Hellboy chooses to flout the orders from his superiors, by being ok about it?!
The whole Angel of Death thing - what was that about?
I was even left cold by the Troll Alley (below Brooklyn bridge) sequence which everybody praises. Sure it has lots of odd artistic touches but imo I would still cite the Pale Man sequence from Pan's Labyrinth's for del Toro fans as being more bizarre/affecting and unique).
The one thing that somehow appealed to me was the death of the Forest God (it's never quite explained what a Forest God is) and how it turns everything into green plants - the road, the car, the building. It is the only thing that really evokes the sense of what the world is losing in the death of these unique creatures.
The worst part of it for me is this - Guillermo del Toro is a good director (unless Pan's Labyrinth was a fluke) and the overall plot had everything going for it - but he wasn't able to turn that into a movie that had a heart. It seems far too much by-the-numbers kinda directing and presentation.
Is it that the studio messed with his cut? Cos now I'm worried about the Hobbit. If he ends up making The Hobbit with zero charm but laden with special effects and cold characters, it just won't do.
I got the DVD the other night out of those extremely convenient redbox kiosks. I had liked Hellboy (the first movie) quite a bit. The whole idea of how Satan has sent Hellboy over but he chooses to side with the good guys, the whimsical otherworldly beings, the "father" bit, the girlfriend 'on fire' bit. In short, I can say that I'm a fan of the first movie.
Then I saw the trailers for Hellboy II and loved the concept. Plug: Tad Williams' Shadowmarch series of books has a similar concept of how the Faerie folk have gradually been disenfranchised by humans and now start moving against the humans is a wonderfully evocative, dreamy, eerie, long, well-written series (third part coming out early next year). One of the things that captures my imagination about the Elves/Fairy in related books is that these magical/wonderful beings' star is on the wane due to the rise and eventual conquest of all things by Man. It is the inherent noble tragedy aspect of it that I like. And the trailer had that, special effects, heart aplenty.
I also loved Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. Eerie, grand, fanciful and somewhat enigmatic. Did placing the root below the pregnant step-mother help in any way? we never know...
However, I am disappointed by the Hellboy II movie. It just had no heart in it. One never quite sides with Nuada and what's the point of having the Elvish Prince fight back against Man if some part of you doesn't side with him. We don't like him (of course) when he commits patricide, when he tries to kill his sister (how would that have worked out? wouldn't it have killed him too?) or even his relationship with the care-taker. Even when Hellboy has killed the caretaker with whom he must've spent several hundred (thousands?) of years, we never really feel his pain. They did make him a bad-ass (the initial knife-lance practice session reminded me vaguely of Ray Park and his SW: The Phantom Menace skills), looks gorgeously alien, wears the requisite exquisite raiment of an Elvish Prince and yet never captured the tragedy of a person fighting against his people's doom. Even when he is asking Hellboy to join him and stop fighting for the humans, I didn't get a sense of how he should be able to understand Hellboy's isolation/rejection from the humans and see how Hellboy is affected by the continuous rejection based on his looks.
I had no idea why they did the Liz is pregnant routine either. There's never the emotional payoff that I expect from those initial scenes with her and Abe. Hellboy isn't likeable either. Most of the times, he's a jerk to people. (I haven't read the comics so don't know if that is the real personality for Hellboy). They setup the whole Abe really digs Nuala but again there's no real payoff to that. I failed to get the point of introducing the new "smoke" captain of the team either. Is Hellboy supposed to learn a lesson? Is he a great leader or a poor leader or what? Is all he's meant for is to support Hellboy at the finale when Hellboy chooses to flout the orders from his superiors, by being ok about it?!
The whole Angel of Death thing - what was that about?
I was even left cold by the Troll Alley (below Brooklyn bridge) sequence which everybody praises. Sure it has lots of odd artistic touches but imo I would still cite the Pale Man sequence from Pan's Labyrinth's for del Toro fans as being more bizarre/affecting and unique).
The one thing that somehow appealed to me was the death of the Forest God (it's never quite explained what a Forest God is) and how it turns everything into green plants - the road, the car, the building. It is the only thing that really evokes the sense of what the world is losing in the death of these unique creatures.
The worst part of it for me is this - Guillermo del Toro is a good director (unless Pan's Labyrinth was a fluke) and the overall plot had everything going for it - but he wasn't able to turn that into a movie that had a heart. It seems far too much by-the-numbers kinda directing and presentation.
Is it that the studio messed with his cut? Cos now I'm worried about the Hobbit. If he ends up making The Hobbit with zero charm but laden with special effects and cold characters, it just won't do.
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