Review

Review Date: 13-July-08
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

I left Hellboy II: The Golden Army absorbed in a jumble of thoughts. Among them were the dichotomy between individual and collective loyalty, the tiredness of gender stereotypes, the infectious nature of Barry Manilow, and whether humans deserve to exist on Earth. Guillermo del Toro's follow-up to his modest 2004 hit embraces more themes and traditions and moods than can comfortably fit in a two-hour movie, which might be better suited to the serial form of its comic book origin. Although Hellboy (Ron Perlman), the demon raised by humans to be a U.S. agent, remains the hero, the story is really a group affair. His beloved Liz (Selma Blair) is questioning their relationship at a critical juncture, giving rise to a slew of women-are-mysterious and men-are-lovable-slobs crap (to use Hellboy's favorite word). The self-absorbed fed who manages their paranormal unit (Jeffrey Tambor) is, er, fed up with Hellboy's desire for public recognition, prompting the arrival of a new commander who turns out to be a wisp of German ectoplasm without a flesh-and-blood body. (Voiced by Seth MacFarlane, he is quite amusing.) Their enemy is a goblin prince (Luke Goss) who wants to resurrect an invincible army of mechanical warriors to topple human dominion on Earth. To complicate matters, he is a sympathetic character with valid grievances (and hot, despite looking like a cross between a Tolkien/Jackson Elf and a mutilated corpse) and comes equipped with a twin sister (Anna Walton) who steals the heart of Hellboy's friend Abe Sapien (Doug Jones). The myriad struggles run the gamut from funny to action-packed to romantic and question whether personal allegiances are more important than communal ones. No clear answer is provided, which leaves several openings for another sequel.

The movie's crowded narrative is not a major indictment, though, because style outweighs substance when del Toro is at the helm. The Golden Army bears unmistakable associations with The Lord of the Rings, plus a touch of Princess Mononoke and the Star Wars cantina scene, but most of all it is the type of visual smorgasbord expected of the writer/director of Pan's Labyrinth. (Obviously the success of that film won him more creative freedom, for this feels very different and more fantastic than the first Hellboy movie.) From the opening fairy-tale-within-a-flashback, del Toro unleashes a nonstop stream of interesting images, some beautiful (like the symbols of goblin royalty) and some grotesque (like the angel of fate or death whom Hellboy and Liz meet on the Irish coast). Of particular note is a scene where the prince summons the last forest god to fight Hellboy in a New York street, sufficiently staged for derring-do yet redolent with sadness for something beautiful and lost. Del Toro seems to frequent a universe where most people, including other filmmakers, do not normally go. It is this aspect of his work that makes The Golden Army a juicy experience.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.