Walking around the premier party for Hellboy II, and listening to the chatter of fellow attendees, I began to question my taste in films. Surely I had seen a different film than everyone else. Director Guillermo del Toro's signature visuals, his eye for creature design his choice of color, etc.- all my cup of tea.
But I didn't like Hellboy II.
Its predecessor was a bit of a mixed bag. Most people I talk to tend to agree with me, in that it was good, but not great. Why not great? Not sure I can pinpoint exactly why. Maybe it was the tone. Maybe it was the pacing. Point is, you want to like it, and do, mostly, but feel it could have been better.
With Hellboy II, I was trying to like it, but it was right around the point where Hellboy makes his move to "come out", that the film lost me. It was that scene when it dawned on me- del Toro has made a really self-indulgent movie, and good script be damned, he's going to shove everything he can in the film, because he, well, can!
The films opens with a really inspired prologue, set in the 50's, and has Dr. Broom (John Hurt playing a younger version of his character from the 1st film) reading a bedtime story to a young Hellboy. The adolescent demon is puppet obsessed, so he imagines the story, a battle between Man and creatures of myth, like elves and trolls, played out as wood puppets. Now normally, this would set the perfect tone for this sort of film, but one of my issues with the film is the inconsistent tone, so from this point on, the film became an uneven ride of "wow, that looks cool!" to "uh, maybe that looked better on paper..."
(BTW, from this point on, I'm going into spoilers. You've been warned, my friend.)
What follows the cool intro are juxtapositions of the elven Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), hell-bent on resurrecting the fabled Golden Army to take back the world from Man; and our team of heroes, each with a different issue they're trying to deal with. Hellboy and Liz are arguing- Hellboy (Ron Pearlman) wants to be out in the world, without trying to hide; Liz (Selma Blair) wants some space, and has a secret she's trying to keep from Hellboy. And Abe (Doug Jones) ends up falling in love, and is unsure how to deal with it.
Okay, all sounds good, right? Unfortunately, in a movie called Hellboy, I should not be waiting for scenes with the title character acting like he's in a bad sitcom to end, just so I can see more of the villain. And that's one of the keys to my disappointment right there- I like the villain better than the hero. The Prince makes a convincing case for his cause. I can understand why he wants what he wants, and can sympathize. In the case of Hellboy, Liz, and Abe, all of their actions are motivated by greed. I don't understand why they do the things they do, other than their selfish needs. There's no moment where the characters rise to the occasion, and face the perils of the situation for the greater good of the world.
Where I think the film really starts to unravel further, is the introduction of the character Johann Krauss (voiced distractingly by Family Guy's Seth Macfarlane), who comes in to put Hellboy and gang in line, after they're exposed to the public while investigating a case. While cool in concept- basically a ghost inside of suit that contains the ectoplasm- Johann really serves no purpose to the story, other than as another visual indulgence on the part of del Toro. When a major character is introduced into a story, that character should affect the other characters, in that they either learn or grow from the character, or the character learns or grows from the other characters. Johann serves only to annoy Hellboy, and then as we go into the 3rd act, has a sudden change in disposition, and decides to help Hellboy, with nothing more than a flimsy "I was in love once too" moment.
Love as a theme throughout the film is really what causes it, for me, to loose its heart. When HB is severely injured by the Prince, he and Liz decide to go find him, to make him make Hellboy better (ooookay). Abe decides to go after the Prince because he has kidnapped his own twin sister, Princess Nuala. And since Abe has fallen in love with her, he even goes so far as to give the Prince the very item that will activate the Golden Army to save her. But here's the catch- the Prince can't harm his sister, since every injury that happens to her happens to him. Talk about writing yourself into a corner, as all Abe would have needed to do to save her was NOT go after her. You follow? Instead we get to see the selfish side of Abe, who risks destroying the world, just to get his chick back. And when the other characters find out what his intent is, it's turned into a joke. No one is ready to sacrifice for the sake of the world they live in; they'd rather do it out of selfishness.
Some heroes.
And poor Jeffery Tambor, who's back again as Tom Manning, the human in charge of the "Freaks". Manning is the only voice of reason the protagonists have. He's the one that tells Hellboy it's a bad idea to "go public". And when they do, and it backfires as public outrage against them, he's the one to point it out. Never is his advice incorrect, and in the end, the characters quit on him, for reasons I'm still scratching my head over. He didn't do anything but try to guide the heroes on the right path.
I guess in the end, it's not the film that was made that's so frustrating, but the film that could have been made that is. So many missed marks- Manning should have been the father figure in this (maybe step-father figure), stepping in for Dr. Broom. Drop the monster/human love bit, as that was what the 1st film was about. What about our heroes rising to defend the world they're in, despite it hating them? This was a totally under-utilized theme.
Maybe my taste in films can be questionable, and maybe I'll be one of the few that really doesn't like this movie. I've got a feeling that film geeks love del Toro, no matter what he does. And why not? Guillermo is on a high right now- Oscar nominated, set to direct two hobbit films, and getting to put whatever he wants into a film, and call it Hellboy II. My hope that as his career moves forward, his love for putting monster characters on screen doesn't come at the sacrifice of putting real character up there, as well.
Gil Brooks
gil@movieweb.com
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