Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Luke Goss, and Jeffrey Tambor
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 112 min.
by Brian Eggert
Reviewed:
07/11/2008
Original Release Date:
07/11/2008
Guillermo del Toro makes movies that require you to watch again and again, because his work pulsates with visual stimuli he’s labored over and supervised in every detail. Impossible to consume in one sitting, his pictures contain tangible life, as he cares not only about providing escapist entertainment but creating art. And so, given the director’s superior output and his usual attention to detail, Hellboy II: The Golden Army is something of a disappointment.
Inspired by the Dark Horse Comics characters created by Mike Mignola, this time around Del Toro isn’t pinned down to a story straight from the comic page. Instead, he invents his own canvas and paints away with his trademark affinity for that which is beyond imagination. Unfortunately, here he’s painting with the subtle nuance of Jackson Pollack. All the key elements are present, especially the one-liner dispenser Hellboy, played with blue-collar swagger by Ron Perlman (under hours worth of red makeup). Our hero still hunts and puts-down monsters for the government’s Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense; he still smokes cigars, drinks beer, and loves kitty cats. But apart from character traits, this is a different movie than its 2004 predecessor Hellboy, and not in the good way sequels should trail their predecessor.
Del Toro roams freely about his own visionary subconscious, exposing us to wonders realized with impeccable invention, but not much focus. Imagine a film set exclusively in the Star Wars’ cantina on Tatooine, or Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley; the entire film bustles with activity via random tooth fairies, elemental jumping beans, and tumor babies serving up a sensory overload of dark magic. And then there’s the tone, which abandons the grave profundity and sarcasm of the first film, replacing it with slappy humor and broad commercial appeal. The impending end-of-the-world seriousness can’t compete with the film’s cheeky-comedy intent, which reduces its hero to mere comic relief.
This time around Hellboy, fishy psychic Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), and flame-thrower Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) aim to stop Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) from bringing the magic world out of the hole its been buried in for centuries. Tired of watching humans destroy the earth, Nuada seeks to unleash an unstoppable Golden Army of robots, spelling certain doom for anyone in their path. Once the army has wiped away the human race, all those mysterious beings will reclaim their planet, no longer forgotten and dismissed as lore. But the heroes have a few fresh tricks, namely their new gaseous leader Johann Krauss (voice of Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane) and Nuada’s twin sister Nuala (Anna Walton).
Where this sequel fails is its deficiency of humanity, leaving audiences without a reference point or way to discriminate. Perhaps with his blockbuster-sized budget, Del Toro was so preoccupied constructing a lush fantasy that he forgot the necessity of humanness. He wrote-out Agent John Meyers, point-of-entry man from the first film. Initially I was pleased with the decision, but as this sequel played out I realized Meyers, even Professor Broom who died in the first film, brought a sense of irony to the monsters they employ—their humanness helps both identify and differentiate Hellboy. Here that distinction is gone. And no matter how much Del Toro humanizes the monsters in his film, defining their placement within the human world is crucial.
Each of Del Toro’s films exists in two worlds simultaneously: the “real” world and the magical one his protagonists discover (or find themselves haunted by). From Cronos to Pan’s Labyrinth, there’s a division between the two, emphasizing their divergence. Half of his narratives always take place in known reality, making the escape into fantasy liberating. Hellboy II: The Golden Army spends every minute embracing other-worldly fantasy, whereas the interesting subplot about our hero’s rejection from “normal” society was barely breached. Instead, we endure forced, amateurish attempts at humor exploring love and pregnancy, none of which are affecting or very funny.
Granted, Del Toro’s artistry adorns the journey with expert CGI, makeup, and puppet effects. And there’s some nicely filmed battle-laden thrills here too. But we’re not engaged on an emotional level by any of it. For Del Toro, whose films I generally admire with great enthusiasm, to lack emotion is a rarity, a complete turnaround from his usual temperate and beautiful pictures—and a mistake I hope he avoids in future projects.
