Movie Review 1 ( Hellboy II: The Golden Army )

Movie type: Action/Adventure, Horror, Suspense/Thriller
MPAA rating: PG-13:for sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and some language
Year of release: 2008
Run time: 110 minutes
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Anna Walton, David Hyde Pierce, Doug Jones, Luke Goss, Ron Perlman, Selma Blair

Hellboy 2 summary: After an ancient truce existing between humankind and the invisible realm of the fantastic is broken, hell on Earth is ready to erupt. A ruthless leader who treads the world above and the one below defies his bloodline and awakens an unstoppable army of creatures. Now, it's up to the planet's toughest, roughest superhero to battle the merciless dictator and his marauders. He may be red. He may be horned. He may be misunderstood. But when you need the job done right, it's time to call in Hellboy.

I have always been a fan of fictional stories from books and comics turned movie. So when I heard that hellboy has its second sequel lined up in the movie cinema, I rescheduled all my activities just to make space for my hellboy. Hellboy was issued last June on other countries but here in the Philippines, it's almost September yet there's still no sign of the big red ape and his fiery girlfriend(not to mention their fish-like creature bestfriend). But of course, that wont stop me from having my eyes laid on that movie. I was able to watch hellboy 2 from a DVD rip given by my friend (in which I'll give his blog link later on)

Hellboy 2 is an independent kind of a story since you dont have to watch the 1st sequel just for you to understand the story. There are some similarities from the 1st movie with regards to their character (and to my thought they would eventually mature). I wont spoil you guys so I wont tell the rest of the story but I would be giving my critic review for the movie Hellboy 2, so here goes.

Finally, a hero who looks much like a villain himself. Imagine, a scruffy, cigar-chomping, red horned, well, devil. The unusual will always have its way on the interest of the many. Unlike any other hero who can showcase great talent, strength and not to mention "looks", who would have thought that someone like him, can save the world and be a hero?

You don't need to have read the comics or seen 2004's "Hellboy" to play along, but here's the FAQ: Hellboy - actor Ron Perlman under a ton of glazed-ham makeup - is a demon raised from childhood by humans and currently employed by the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. (It's supposed to be top secret, but Hellboy has a bad habit of turning up on YouTube.)He's short-tempered and sardonic but basically a good sort, keeping his horns sawed off and sharing quarters with girlfriend/human torch Liz (Selma Blair) and an aquatic empath - sort of a Creature From the Psychic Friends Network - named Abe Sapien (Doug Jones). Their job is to keep the occult legions (goblins, trolls, balrogs, you name it) from infesting the human world.The elves, apparently, have had enough of this nonsense. The Kabuki-face Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) overthrows his father (Roy Dotrice) and embarks on a campaign to unleash a crew of unstoppable battle-bots called the Golden Army on mankind. Our heroes are called on to foil him, if Hellboy and Liz can stop arguing about his pet cats overrunning their apartment.

It all sounds terribly silly, and it all plays like a charm, because the cast stays in the spirit (tongue-in-cheek but committed), and because del Toro lets his inner comics-freak rip. The Mexican-born director hit the big time with 2006's "Pan's Labyrinth," but he has always balanced his art-house side ("The Devil's Backbone") with gonzo genre work ("Blade II"), and here the two come close to blending entirely.If you've seen "Pan's Labyrinth," you'll recognize the visual design of the various nasties in "Hellboy" as the product of del Toro's brain and sketchpad: weathered faces lacking eyes, molting wings with eyes, a gargoyle who has a miniature cathedral growing out of his head. There are tooth fairies, but you'd better pray they don't get anywhere near the children.In one scene a gargantuan, plant-like "elemental" stalks lower Manhattan, towering over the buildings like Hieronymus Bosch's rethink of the Jolly Green Giant. When it's wounded, flowers and moss spring up from its blood - a touch of unexpected lyricism amidst the mayhem.Indeed, you may wonder whose side del Toro and his co-writer, "Hellboy" creator Mike Mignola, are on.


The hero's job is to protect us helpless humans, but next to the elves and other eldritch beings, we're made to look puny and small-minded, turning on the big fella with mob fury in one scene. It's not pretty. Worse, it's not very believable."Hellboy" thankfully pulls back before he starts mewling like Peter Parker. Blair's Liz, though, has less to do than in the first film and more emotional water to carry, and the actress doesn't look too happy about it. "Hellboy" is more successful at building a romance between Abe and the villain's twin sister, Princess Nuala (Anna Walton); they're two delicate souls carving out a quiet space (complete with Tennyson verse) between the crashes and ka-booms.Another character I wish we'd seen more of is Johann Krauss, a German paranormal specialist imported by the BPRD to keep Hellboy on a leash. He turns out to be a psychopathic gas - a ghost - inside a diving suit, and he looks for all the world like Darth Vader without a head. Two actors, John Alexander and James Dodd, are credited with his physical movements, but the persnickety Teutonic voice comes from Seth MacFarlane of "Family Guy," who gives the rivalry between retentive Krauss and explosive Hellboy the topspin of classic vaudeville patter."Hellboy II" is bigger, louder, and a smidgen more mainstream than the first movie, and I expect hard-core fans of the comic won't like it as much.

There are signs of tired sequelitis in the personal dilemma Liz faces halfway through, in Jeffrey Tambor's officious BPRD bureaucrat, and in the way the clanky plot outstrips the wit in the final scenes.The movie's rescued time and again, though, by the soulful swagger of Perlman's performance - he plays Hellboy like a smarter Thing or a fully self-actualized Hulk - and by del Toro's flair for the baroque. The filmmaker loves the tatty pop energy of comic books, their speech-balloon dialogue and muscular sense of fantasy. He knows that on the page, as on the screen, you can draw anything and make it spring madly to life.

Well, that's just it. Now, this review is just my opinion, you could just simply watch the movie and enjoy it yourself. Till next movie review!

comments and suggestions are highly appreciated and are welcome in here.

for hellboy 2 DVD rip. You can download it in my friends blogsite, he has a torrent link which can give you an easier task upon downloading the said movie ( http://central-movies.blogspot.com/ )