The movie looks great. Ron Perlman has Hellboy down, and the rest of the cast is fine, too, though I did kind of miss David Hyde-Pierce as the voice of Abe Sapien.The plot is your basic ring-of-power tale. A crown is divided into three parts that, if reunited, will give the wearer power over the Golden Army, which can destroy the world. So our paranormal heroes have to get the crown. Complications: Hellboy and Liz are having domestic difficulties, and Abe Sapien falls in love. This results in a lovely duet by Hellboy and Abe on "Can't Smile without You." Barry Manilow would be proud. Other complications: the human world isn't as fond of Hellboy and his pals as it should be, so will they go over to the dark side? Maybe because I've never read the comics, I didn't get some of the backstory stuff about Johann Krauss, and his seemingly sudden change of character threw me at one point.
Lots of fights, lots of explosions, and the screen is crammed with wonders. I didn't think it was a masterpiece, as a lot of people seem to, and it went on a little too long. While it's clearly a much better film than Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D in just about every way, I had a lot more pure fun watching that one.
Oh, and if you're wondering why I didn't go to Mama Mia! it's because the theater was (I'm not making this up) sold out.
8 comments:
I have been looking to buy Hellboy on dvd. Is it possible to enjoy 2 without seeing 1?
Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: You'd like it better if you'd seen 1.
I'll go ahead and pick up Hellboy this weekend and catch the sequel before it leaves the theaters.
Probably a wise decision.
I caught up with this one this afternoon; I have to get my superhero schedule in sync. Very enjoyable. Dr. Krauss kind of made it for me, even though you're right about the character shift. I hope you get to see Mamma Mia! in short order. I know how important that is to you.
I'll get there eventually, even if only via the DVD.
david: definitely see 1 first, as it has the whole origin story.
And I don't agree with Bill - I thought 2 was wittier and more fun with all the Guillermo del Toro creatures.
And I loved the Manilow duet.
Oh, the theater where we saw it was sold out for the 2 pm Saturday show.
Of course, every show of The Dark Knight has been sold out... .
Jeff
quuwkgI'd have to disagree with Jeff...I thought the first had more wit, that the second was too broad most of the time, and was trying to do too much even in its relatively long running time. The attempts at tragedy didn't quite gell, for example, since not enough groundwork was laid (and at least one pivotal scene was far less effective than it should've been, had we already known a crucial fact about the siblings that we don't learn till later; even the hint at it comes a few minutes later). I agree with Jeff that del Toro was definitely getting his monster on, and that aspect was cheerfully contagious.
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