I hope you are all having a wonderful summer of movie fun. This week boys and girls I am going to talk to you about Hellboy II: The Golden Army, a sequel to 2004’s Hellboy. Just like the first movie, this one is written and directed by Guillermo del Toro with writing assistance by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.
A war is about to happen between the mythical world and human kind and only the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense can stop this from happening. Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is joined again by Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), and Bureau Director Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) in their battle against the Mythical Creatures.
Years ago the good King of Mythical Creatures was in a war with mankind. During that war he had a Golden Army created to destroy all the humans. After the first bloodshed by these monsters was complete, the King opted to strike a truce with the humans. A mystical crown was created that only royal blood can wear to control the Golden Army. This crown was broken up into three parts - two stay with the King and his family while the last piece is sent with the humans for protection. This was done to stop the Golden Army from ever being used again, their power and strength is too much for one man to wield.
Today, the war will be starting again as Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) wants to rule both lands and rid the world of humans. It seems that the humans are too materialistic and with their always growing mentality, they have forgotten about the creatures that use to walk the lands with them. To to do this, Nuada must connect the three pieces of the crown together and locate the Golden Army. One piece is held by the King, with the second piece being held by his sister, Princess Nuada (Anna Walton).
Enter Hellboy and the gang. They are first brought into the mix when Nuada and his right-hand monster, Mr Wink (Brian Steele) steal the human’s part of the crown from an auction in Manhattan. Mystical creatures known as a “Tooth Fairy” have killed everyone at the auction by eating human body parts for the calcium. Hellboy and the gang must now locate the Prince and stop him from his goal of destruction while protecting the Princess from being caught.
You don’t need to see Hellboy to understand Hellboy 2. Nor do you need to see the two direct-to-dvd animated movies that came out between these two either.
Compared to the original Hellboy, this was a decent movie that covered all the bases of a sequel (bigger and badder) but still could have been polished a bit more. Some of the mystical creatures such as the Tooth Fairies seem to be straight out an episode of Torchwood or Doctor Who with the Golden Army looking as if they may have battled the Power Rangers prior to being shut down. The fighting got a bit tiresome due to the tons of CGI work being used on the creatures and for me, took me out of the fantasy and back into reality. As for the run time it could have been tighter by cutting 10-15 minutes allowing for a tighter pace.
Overall if you liked Hellboy, you’ll want to see Hellboy 2. If you’re new to the Hellboy character and story, you may want to see this with someone that can help you understand the characters and plot. Hellboy II: The Golden Army is rated PG13 for sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and some language.
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Written by: Plus1 on Fri, Jul 11, 2008