Let this remind you why you once feared the dark. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Written: Jul 14 '08 (Updated Jul 15 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The Best Movie of the Summer thus far!
Cons: Nothing.
The Bottom Line: A Modern Faery Tale, a great action movie, and an outrageously good superhero flick. Check it out!
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| talyseon's Full Review: Hellboy II: The Golden Army |
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) Directed by Guillermo Del Toro.
”I will call upon the help of all the children of the earth! The good... the bad... and the worst.” Prince Nuada of the Tautha Da Danan.
I am going to try to write a no spoilers review. This movie is astonishing in its beauty and scope, a very odd thing for a superhero movie. The Villain of the piece is Prince Nuada, the son of King Balor One Arm and Twin to Princess of Nuala. When Balor signed the treaty with humanity, Nuada could not accept it, and lived in exile until he was needed. Apparently, that time is now.
What I love about this movie is its treatment of the Fair Folk, or Faeries. Over the years they have devolved from gods of the earth to Tinkerbell, and it shows our devolution from child of the earth to her rapists.
When the Celts lived throughout Europe, they saw the world as a fearful and changeable place. Everything had a spirit, and they were all interrelated, and if you wanted to live a good life, you would live in harmony with those spirits. Balor was called the Evil Eye, and Nuada was the one with the Silver Hand. That aside, the movie captures the spirit of the Fey very well.
Faery Folk were not sweet pixies and cheerful gnomes; they were the representations of the forces of nature. They were strange, mercurial, quick to anger, sometimes generous and always, always to be respected.
This movie recaptures that feel. Nuada is a warrior, capable of defeating an army on his own, able even to kill Hellboy. Nuala is a mystic, as wise and sensitive as Abe Sapien. There is a troll, Mr. Wink, who can duke it out with our redskinned hero, and many other creatures, strange, wondrous, and dangerous. I doubt after watching this movie, you will ever feel the same way about the Tooth Faery.
And here is one of the better sub-plots of the movie…Hellboy has more in common with the Tautha Da Danan than he does with humanity. When an elemental of the forest is attacking, Hellboy can recognize the beauty and wonder of it, even as it tears apart the city. He does what he must, but that does not mean that he does not feel the loss.
As man has moved to our high tech industrial life we have fallen further and further away from the spiritual bond with the world our hunter gatherer ancestors knew. Faeries, representations of storm, and seasons, plants and animals, have become comical sprites. It is the same way that serial killers treat their victims. First, they depersonalize them, then diminish them, and then they can do what they want. Let me make another example. If you were hungry could you eat a small animal weighing about 5 pounds? The answer of course is yes. If it was a Chihuahua named Nani? No, that moves it to a starvation situation. When you know something’s name, when you recognize it as a living thing with feeling, you tend to treat it better.
We have forgotten the names of the creatures that share our world; they are “just” animals and plants…we do not have a relationship with them.
And this movie, without being a bit preachy, reminds us of that. It gives Faeries back their fangs.
It is also a rollercoaster ride of action and adventure, with top rate special effects, and all the bells and whistles. It is the best movie of the summer so far…hands down.
The Cast
Ron Perlman ... Hellboy
Selma Blair ... Liz Sherman
Doug Jones ... Abe Sapien / The Chamberlain / The Angel of Death
Seth MacFarlane ... Johann Krauss (voice)
Luke Goss ... Prince Nuada
Anna Walton ... Princess Nuala
Jeffrey Tambor ... Tom Manning
John Hurt ... Professor Trevor 'Broom' Bruttenholm
Brian Steele ... Wink / Cronie / Spice Shop Troll / Cathedral Head / Fragglewump
Andrew Hefler ... Agent Flint
Iván Kamarás ... Agent Steel
Mike Kelly ... Agent Marble
Jeremy Zimmerman ... Auctioneer
Santiago Segura ... Distinguished Buyer
Roy Dotrice ... King Balor
Aidan Cook ... Two-Headed Shop Owner
Jeanne Mockford ... Bag Lady
Montse Ribé ... Young Hellboy.
It's a comic AND a movie: Hellboy animated.
Hellboy: Blood and Iron.
Hellboy: Storm of Swords.
The movies:
Hellboy
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Printed Page:
Hellboy: The Troll-Witch and Others.
Check out these Faery Tales.
MirrorMask
Night Breed
The Dark Crystal
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Legend
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
The Water Horse
Princess Mononoke
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Action Movie
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing
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talyseon
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Location: Texarkana, AR
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