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]

Ron Perlman really inhabits the character of Hellboy (note: I did not see the first movie).

Well, like I was saying, I have seen the first movie, and have been reading the comics for a decade, and I couldn't agree more. Perlman was born to play the big red lug. I couldn't be happier with the casting there.

Also, PAMCAKES!

Little Hellboy is unholy world-destroying love.

scans_daily has also had a flurry of Hellboy/BPRD love recently to go along with the movie. I'd particularly recommend this bit from Plague of Frogs, wherein Abe finally learns some of the tragic backstory of his mysterious origins, and The Wolves of St. August, my absolute favorite stand-alone short Hellboy piece (well, not counting "Pancakes", of course.) That one little ghost really gets to me every time...

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

To me, the film just confirms one truth of our time. Whether they're willing to admit it or not, everyone is capable of singing along with Barry Manilow.