Blockbuster Review

Overall Rating: D+

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Release Date: July 11, 2008

Cast: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair

Jun’s Rating:

I watched this on the plane ride from Peru and almost died from its stupidity. I give it a D!

Chris’s Rating:

Great fight scenes and really funny, but it does not make up for having a bad story. I give it a 6.3.

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Review:

I absolutely loved “Pan’s Labyrnth”.  So when I heard that Guillermo del Toro, the director from “Pan’s Labyrnth”, was a part of the film, I had mildly high hopes for “Hellboy 2″.  The first one was garbage, so I thought, “Hey, it can’t get any worse, right?”

Boy was I wrong.

The movie tries way too hard to be funny, and the action scenes are pretty boring.  Let me rephrase that, most of the action scenes are pretty boring, except for the ones with Prince Nuada played by Luke Gross.  The reason I actually even bothered watching the movie on the plane ride back from Peru was because my brother said it looked pretty cool.  He had seen the 10min scene where Prince Nuada revolts against his father to wage war on the human race.  I must admit that this was a pretty cool scene that has an overused plotline attached to it:

Humans are disrespecting and destroying the earth, so they must be destroyed before they destroy the planet.

Sound familiar?  It seems as though every month a movie with the same plot comes out: “The Day The Earth Stood Still”, “The Hapenning”, “WALL-E” (an amazing movie btw), and a whole bunch of others.

The worst part about “Hellboy 2″ is that it leaves everything unresolved!

Hellboy is being bashed by the humans and the media who he is trying to save.  So you would think that at the end of the movie, there would be a scene where he does some very heroic act and the humans realize what a great guy he is.  Nope, not at all.

The human race is a plague on the earth and needs to be destroyed or we will destroy the earth.  In a way, the prince’s war seems kind of noble.  He can pretty much be seen as a good guy if you look at it from a different perspective.  So you would think that at the end of the movie, there would be a scene where the humans realize that they have been acting very poorly towards the planet and that we should change our ways.  But nope, the movie just ends where Hellboy kills the prince for no good reason other than “it’s his job.”

Worst of all, they set up the movie to have another sequel!  What have we done to deserve this!

Oh well, at least I didn’t have to pay anything to watch the movie.  Look forward to reading your comments and hearing back from you guys!

Chris’s Review: I would have to disagree slightly with this. I thought that this movie was very funny, but I suppose it’s just because I like Ron Perlman. Besides Ron Perlman’s comedic flair, Seth MacFarlane (better known as the creator of “Family Guy”) also lends his voice to one of the characters in this movie.

The script for this movie was humorous, but I will agree that the story really sucked. The plot was so cliche: a hero has to stop some villain from destroying the humans who are themselves destroying the earth. This story has been told so many times in books and films. Why do they keep coming out with new ones? Are there no truly original ideas for stories left?

The fight scenes with Prince Nuada were awesome; Luke Goss makes all of the moves look so effortless. Surprisingly, even Hellboy’s fights with Prince Nuada are very fast-paced. Watching the movie and comparing it to the first movie, Hellboy fights depending more on brute force over speed or planning. But in this movie, Hellboy seems to be the exact opposite in his fights with Nuada.

The special effects and costume designs were also pretty good overall in this movie. As a sci-fi film, movie-goers expect a lot of amazing effects, and I would say that they got their fair share. This movie also had a lot more monsters/creatures than the first movie, and the costumes looked great. I did feel that the elves, with their long white hair and pale complection, looked a bit like the leader of the Morlocks in the 2002 remake of “The Time Machine”.

Bottom line: wait for the movie to be shown on TV and then decide if you really want to watch it.

Pros:

• Great special effects
• Prince Nuada kicks ass

Cons:

• Guillermo del Toro shows that other than “Pan’s Labyrnth”, his movies are garbage
• Tried too hard to be funny and hugely missed the mark
• Left many plotlines unresolved
• Hellboy is a crappy hero
• Come to think of it, his whole gang is pretty crappy.  I wouldn’t want any of their powers

Hellboy II: The Golden Army - Movie Trailer