Caught the late showing of Hellboy II last night with my son and some buddies. I thought we'd beat the crowds seeing a 10pm showing on a Thursday night, so I was shocked to find our local UA theater teeming with people. Luckily they were all there for the midnight premiere of Dark Knight. I'll be catching that one next week!The second installment of Mike Mignola's good-guy demon creation, written and directed again by the muy talented Guillermo del Toro, is entertaining enough; I give it "B-." It sports more humorous dialogue---something we saw glimpses of in a darker, more serious H1---but the story isn't as tight as its novel predecessor. You seem to know the jist of the plot quite early into the movie, even as to how the antagonist might meet his demise (at least in theory). This steals a bit of the mojo from the story arc, making a 2-hour movie seem little longer.
That being said, the film does not disappoint in entertainment factor and is definitely worth the gas to the theater. With the characters already established this time around, we get to enjoy their personalities more (man, Ron Perlman was born for this role). The special effects are top notch and del Toro keeps the story marching forward with entertaining fight scenes and some lol banter between Hellboy and his cohorts (fyi: you'll love the Barry Manilow bit). In short, the sequel delivers a worthwhile evening with popcorn and the boys. The story is no doubt left open for another installment, and chapter 2 is strong enough to pique my interest in number 3.
1 comment:
I concur with your assessment. Here's my breakdown...
Story = B
Action = A
CG/SFX = A
Definitely entertaining and the special effects were used to enhance the movie not BE the movie...man I hate when when there's no story just FX. The 3D modeling and animation were top notch.
It's impressive to mix seriousness, comedy, and action all in one movie and pull it off without it turning into cheeze wiz, but they did it.
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