Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008)
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008) 5/10
Guillermo Del Toro is actually a very good director, but he is not good at making big budget superhero flicks. His best films are often those made in his native language and depends more on characters than CGI, like “THE DEVIL”S BACKBONE” or “PAN’S LABYRINTH”. While Hellboy 2 is a tad more entertaining than the original, it feels like a generic Hollywood actioner, full of sound and fury but lacking in emotional heft. The main reason for this is that its characters are simply one-diemensional cardboard pieces. Hellboy, that big red beast, is supposed to be the main star, but he is played as a one-note character. A petulant teenager inside the body of an old beast, who likes wisecracks, cigars and breaking rules. In other words, boring. His supporting cast does not fare any better. Both the villians and the rest of Hellboy’s team elicit a big yawn. They look interesting for sure, with nice costumes, nifty moves and good CGI. But that can only interest you for a few minutes before you realise that they are so utterly generic characters. The film attempts to add romantic subplots, which fail miserably because in addition to being cardboard characters, they do not have chemistry at all. As for the plot, it is just another excuse to introduce the Golden Army, which honestly isn’t that impressive.
What the film does right is its occasional moments of humour and lightheartedness, but this is a superhero movie and not a comedy, and if the wisecracks are the highlight, then something is seriously wrong. As for the action, thankfully it is handled with some finesse, although there is nothing special here that hasn’t already been done in other big budget Hollywood actioner. Overall, the film is unengaging and it fails mainly because the characters don’t connect with the audience. As for the plot, well its the usual “We want to collect special artifacts so we can destroy the world! Mwahahahaha!” The film looks good, has nice CGI, costumes and visuals. But it is like a sterile painting, full of style but no substance. I read through my original review of the first Hellboy (which incidentally gets a 3/10 from me), and i’ll just repeat a line from it which captures what i feel about Hellboy in general: “CGI is decent, though the obvious overreliance on it makes the film a soulless entity”.
