Oh Hell
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Regal Gallery Place
Washington DC
35mm
I love Guillermo Del Toro. And I love Hellboy. But I did not love Del Toro's Hellboy. I wanted to, I really did, but I just didn't. There a number of reasons.
Such as:
1. The pacing felt a bit off
2. Agent Myers
3. I didn't buy the Hellboy/Liz love story
4. Didn't get why they made Hellboy and the BPRD secret and felt like too much time was spent on the agency's secrecy
5. Agent Myers
6. Abe Sapien disappears about halfway through
7. Agent Myers
Hellboy II fixes most of the problems I had with the first film within it's first thirty minutes, although the lil kid Hellboy makeup is a bit dodgey. This is the movie I wanted the first one to be.
One of the biggest problems with the first movie is that it seemed like there was a studio mandate to invent a "normal" character through whom we could focus on the freaks. Enter Agent Myers. In this one Myers is dispatched with a single line of dialog and we get to focus on the weirdos.
And oh boy are there weirdos. Just about every scene is stuffed with monsters, from tooth fairies (of a variety that Del Toro first used in the short story "Tasty Teeth" that closes the Hellboy short story collection Odder Jobs), to trolls, to elves, to things that lurk somewhere in the dark cobwebby recesses of Del Toro's imagination. There's a book coming out called The Monsters of Hellboy II that I just have to get. If only to see everything that's in the Troll Market sequence...
...and that's where I stopped writing a week ago. At the time, Hellboy II was the best thing I had seen in 2008. I suspected that that would change within a week and I was right.
But that's for next time.
Hellboy II: The Golden ArmyRegal Gallery Place
Washington DC
35mm
I love Guillermo Del Toro. And I love Hellboy. But I did not love Del Toro's Hellboy. I wanted to, I really did, but I just didn't. There a number of reasons.
Such as:
1. The pacing felt a bit off
2. Agent Myers
3. I didn't buy the Hellboy/Liz love story
4. Didn't get why they made Hellboy and the BPRD secret and felt like too much time was spent on the agency's secrecy
5. Agent Myers
6. Abe Sapien disappears about halfway through
7. Agent Myers
Hellboy II fixes most of the problems I had with the first film within it's first thirty minutes, although the lil kid Hellboy makeup is a bit dodgey. This is the movie I wanted the first one to be.
One of the biggest problems with the first movie is that it seemed like there was a studio mandate to invent a "normal" character through whom we could focus on the freaks. Enter Agent Myers. In this one Myers is dispatched with a single line of dialog and we get to focus on the weirdos.
And oh boy are there weirdos. Just about every scene is stuffed with monsters, from tooth fairies (of a variety that Del Toro first used in the short story "Tasty Teeth" that closes the Hellboy short story collection Odder Jobs), to trolls, to elves, to things that lurk somewhere in the dark cobwebby recesses of Del Toro's imagination. There's a book coming out called The Monsters of Hellboy II that I just have to get. If only to see everything that's in the Troll Market sequence...
...and that's where I stopped writing a week ago. At the time, Hellboy II was the best thing I had seen in 2008. I suspected that that would change within a week and I was right.
But that's for next time.
posted by PunchBuggyBlues at 10:31 AM
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