Hellboy II: The Golden Army came out on the top of the heap this weekend, bringing in an estimated $35.9 million at the box office. I went to check the movie out on Friday, and while it was a very good movie, I still like the first Hellboy flick better. The acting was great, the makeup and special effects superb, but for some reason Hellboy II felt a whole lot like the first Men in Black movie. I think it had something to do with the background gags and music.
Speaking of Will Smith, Hancock slipped 47% from last week, but was still able to bring in $33 million.
8 Comments
the gags, while very funny, were distracting at time. lots of them felt out of place
I agree with your Men in Black vibe. I didn’t particularly like that the BPRD was made to be a secret organization to begin with but I was willing to go with it.
Danny Elfman was the composer on this flick AND on Men in Black so that might have helped alot with your associations. I didn’t recognize it at all but once I saw his name on the credits the popular music selections and the choir vocals all started to make sense.
Overall I enjoyed the film but it didn’t have that special something the first one did.
The only major problem that I had with this movie is the same problem that I have with a lot of sequels… established couples fighting and making up because they find out they’re pregnant. WHEE. GAH. *bangs head against the wall*
I thought that this movie was better than the original, but it’s hard to explain why. I felt this movie had a more defined plot. Bad guys established early, rising action, confrontation, resolution.
Where as the first movie, while good and enjoyable, I felt, was missing something. Maybe it was the fact that most of the first movie was spent getting to know the characters. (it was also my introduction to Hellboy) I felt that the inclusion of a bad guy was somewhat tacked on at the end, in order to have some resolution to the movie. (Much in the way the first FF movie just had Dr. Doom realize he was a bad guy in the last 30 minutes of the film)
While I enjoyed the first movie, I feel more attached to the second. Probably because I got to see a depth to the characters that wasn’t there the first time around.
That and Abe and HB got drunk together, that was awesome. I could do without the twins storyline though.
Let’s hope for a 3rd film.
I thought the same thing about the monstrosities in the background, but overall I enjoyed this film more than the original. The characterization was better to me, and I laughed hysterically during certain scenes.
While I enjoyed this movie, I felt the biggest problem was some forced “anime” humor. In that it was funny because it was forced to be funny. It felt good to have a “non-POV” original character in the film, as it is with the comics. I could go on a lot longer, but I won’t. Here’s to Roger & Lobster Johnson in Hellboy 3!
I saw the movie yesterday, and while i felt it was good exercise in imagination the only well acted parts in my opinion were the main villian nuada and doug jones as abe sapien. everyone else took a back seat in my opinion. the direction was a bit unsure on delivery at some of the more interpersonal moments and the “men in black” feel i think distracted from the Bureau for paranormal … The first one it felt like an orginaztion… this time more like a club or orphanage for strange creatures. the whiny guy got on my nerves. I like the twist on the tooth fairies and i like the execution for the golden army. One of my grievences with the film would be that why is it that hellboy being such an important magical creature would not be able to see creatures that are technically lesser than him? small point of contention but it annoyed me. over all and enjoyable movie, the acting from the lead could have been a bit stronger but over all for that i would blame del toro for allowing that minimal amount of delivery to be enough for the film. very surface level on the acting and direction but watchable overall.
@Adam
I watched the director’s cut of the first film and it seemed to me that there were a handful of scenes with Rasputin that were cut out or shortened. In the end I kind of thought that the film was stronger for having them removed (most of what happened was a pointless reminder that, yes, Rasputin was alive and he’s hanging out in the sewers zOMGBBQ). Without those scenes he does indeed feel rather tacked on.
I enjoyed this movie a lot, but preferred the first one. This one felt a bit less coherent, I think because several scenes were added just to showcase “del Toro’s Crazy Cool Creature Designs”; and cool those creatures’ designs were, but it did make severas scenes feel tacked on. That’s not the pant that really bugged me, though.
Spoilers below, be forewarned…
The part of the movie I really don’t get is that everyone seems to forget about the magic twin (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwinTelepathy) thing until the very last minute. Nuada actually threatens his sister in an attempt to manipulate Abe, and noone seems to remember the fact that he clearly won’t kill her because it means he’ll die as well. Now, maybe I’m remembering this part wrong, but if not, what the hell?