'Hellboy II' packs heat
Guillermo del Toro gives comic-book sequel “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” plenty of visual and emotional power.
Director: Guillermo del Toro Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Luke Goss Grade: B+ Rated PG-13: For sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and some language
by Tom Long
So stuffed with imagination, humor and action that its flaws can be easily forgiven, "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" is an often dizzying and resolutely offbeat comic-book movie that has more on its mind than most Oscar-nominated dramas.
But none of the intellectual worrying gets in the way of this film's big-fun attitude. It's hard to get too serious when your hero is a wisecracking red guy with horns on his head and a cement fist.
Yes, that's Hellboy (Ron Perlman), spawn of another dimension.
He loves cats, stogies and old TV shows. He loves Liz Sherman (Michigan home girl Selma Blair), the human fireball he lives with, even more.
Director Guillermo ("Pan's Labyrinth") del Toro's first "Hellboy" laid out their story with wonderful chutzpah. This one has the duo, along with merman cohort Abe Sapien, tackling a much broader mythology, while Hellboy wrestles with his feelings about trying to fit in among humankind.
The groundwork here is so complex that the visionary del Toro spends the film's first five minutes or so explaining things, although in a typically maverick manner: He has the backstory acted out by a bunch of wooden puppets.
Earth, it turns out, was once inhabited by humans and a more magical species. After a particularly bloody war, the other folk built an indestructible army of golden robots. After those robots easily laid waste to hordes of human warriors, a truce was called and the other folks retired the robots and went to live underground.
Now they're back in the form of Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), who wants to raise the army and obliterate mankind.
And why shouldn't he? His species was superior in the first place, and man has brought nothing but misery to the planet. Even as Hellboy battles Nuada, he knows he has a point. He also knows the humans he's fighting to protect will never accept him.
But del Toro, who also wrote this film, doesn't stop there.
"H2" is about the line between natural and unnatural, about how we define monsters, and about personal sacrifice versus the greater good.
You'd think all this heady wrestling would weigh things down, especially since it's none too subtle, but del Toro's ripe visual imagination offers constant infusions of wonder. Once the too-ponderous set-up passes, he rolls out creature after fabulous creature -- trolls, warriors, fairies and monsters -- that keep the razzle-dazzle high while the intellectual rumblings stay low.
And del Toro tops it all off with a constant stream of humor, ranging from slapstick to banter to the best use of a Barry Manilow song ever.
Problems abound, unfortunately, from the overly complex set-up to the awkward ending to a late-breaking gop of mush. Too often characters stand around watching other characters perform, and Liz and Abe are woefully underused.
But del Toro's creature parade (at times it feels like the film has become a Dali painting), humor and intelligence always win the day.
The film's flaws wither in the light of its brilliant ambitions.
"Hellboy" is unthinkable without Ron Perlman in the lead.
Perlman's gruff exterior and acerbic-yet-primal delivery is so pitch-perfect throughout the film he makes the unbelievable -- remember the cement hand, not to mention the red rubber suit -- seem casually familiar. He was born to this part.
No actor could be better suited to a role and no director working today is more inventive than del Toro. Together they make "Hellboy" a red hot blast.
