Hellboy II: The Golden Army [movie]

[chomiji]

Just got back from seeing this with my family, the Young Lady's best friend, and smillaraaq. I'm not doing a huge review, because I'm not a huge movie person ... but I enjoyed it. There was a certain amount of horrific nastiness, but most of it was over in about the first 25 minutes of the film. And yes, it was violent, but of the type of violence that any shounen manga fan would find quite resonable.

A couple of little points, some thoughtful, some just silly ... Ron Perlman really inhabits the character of Hellboy (note: I did not see the first movie). You only have to compare his performance as the adult Hellboy with that of the competent young actor who played the juvenile Hellboy in the introduction. I was constantly aware of the kid's makeup as makeup, but I completely stopped thinking about it with Perlman after the first minute or so. And he is such an excellent character for me, so reminiscent of so many wisecracking RPG sessions and snarky manga heroes. But when he starts trying to be friendly with the average man in the street, and fretting over why people don't like him, I whispered to smilla that he reminded me of a very large, red Goku. And she whispered back that his friend Abe Sapien was clearly Hakkai. And it was so true. Although when both of them get sloshed about halfway through the flick and started sappily maundering about love, the dynamic began to get more like just-buddies Gojyo and Hakkai.

See, everything comes back to Saiyuki eventually.

Anyway, the whole thing rattles along at a marvellous pace - I couldn't believe nearly two hours had passed when the credits began to roll.

Comments

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the guy who's done most of the novelizations is competent enough, but having someone other than Mignola doing the writing feels almost as off to me as having someone other than Mignola doing the art. It's still a cool world, but I like the original flavor the best, not the variations. The shortfic anthologies are uneven, but when they hit they hit really hard. I really liked Poppy Z. Brite's take on Liz's backstory, for instance.

(Did you notice Roger the golem lurking off in the background at the beginning of this one? Cute touch, tho' it didn't make me squeal quite as much as the gratuitous pancakes in the first movie...)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

If I ever see a Hellboy comic with competently-drawn feet, I shall be quite sad! XD

(No, missed that! XD)

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

This is why the BPRD and Weird Tales stuff has just never quite clicked as strongly with me -- don't get me wrong, I still enjoy them immensely, but without that quirky stylized Mignola art, it just doesn't feel the same...I love his art, pointy feet and all. XD

(It's in the very beginning, when they're walking through the building and all sorts of business-as-usual weird crap is going on in the hallways and side offices as they pass...I wanna say he was up to the left of the screen. Looking quite dead, I guess with all the changes in this continuity he never got the zap of life...)