Burning Love

Hellboy’s Campy twisted Vision Pummels Onward
by
Morgan P Salvo


What is it this year with the superheroes? Bringing to life more comic book superhero blockbuster razzle-dazzle, we now enter the monster-dwelling realm of Hellboy II. The original showed Hellboy (Ron Perlman) as the demon-turned-super-hero battling present day Nazis and inter-dimensional monsters, and the sequel continues pulling out all the stops.
The movie begins with a sickeningly cute Hellboy (as boy) brushing his teeth, excited for his bedtime story. And the story is? Yep, the saga of the Golden Army, told in wooden puppet form it looks pretty cool. Cut to: the present---the bedtime story is now a reality. An evil prince has to assemble together three scattered pieces of a golden crown to raise the ancient evil Golden Army from its dormancy to unleash Hell on earth…here’s where Hellboy excels. He likes to kick monster butt.
Hellboy’s plight is a convoluted one. Overly sensitive and insecure, his problems stem from being the spawn of humans and the Netherworld, accepted by neither. He doesn’t like people’s scorn for him, grinding down his horns to feel like he fits in a little. He takes pleasure in his wisecracks almost as much as clobbering ghastly creatures.
Hellboy resides in a paranormal research center which is actually the home of a bunch of human oddities that would fare well in a freak side show. Oh, and they fight crime. (You have to take it for granted that this team is always on the go, doing what they do because it’s not really explained). Everyone’s back, including side-kick fish-boy Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) but without David Hyde-Pierce’s voice. Stepping into the webs-flipper-gills, Jones brings some credibility. Hellboy’s girlfriend, Liz the Fire-Girl (Selma Blair) returns as does their totally lame and wannabe-touching love story. Manning (Jeffery Tambor) is once again the head of the government funded super-freak hideaway. Newest addition is the Gestapo-walking Johann Krauss (John Alexander), pressing the point that his name’s spelled with SS. He’s basically a deep sea diving suit containing gas.
Perlman is a perfect Hellboy--- a diverse actor that hardly anyone knows remaining even more incognito with all that demon red make-up and Samurai hairdo. Selma is always good but hasn't much to do here but whine and be supportive.

Director Del Toro extends his vision of the Pan's Labyrinth city. There are tooth fairies, little gremlin-like things with piranha teeth and bat wings, a legless troll and attached cart, crawling with sand crabs, a wormy troll-eating kitties (seen only through special glasses), a spiny monster with a ball and chain for a hand, a fortune-teller with a cathedral for a head, an eyeball-winged Angel of Death (resembling high-tech Harryhausen) and a Forest monster looking like an Earthday version of the creature in Cloverfield. And there’s more in the troll market - Psychedelic beasts of all shapes and sizes crawling out of the woodwork. A melting pot of the hideous where even Hellboy feels comfortable. The top notch creatures assembled from Del Toro’s imagination never give the feeling of overt high-tech showboating. It looks as though he infused the LSD-laden Fillmore/ Avalon ballroom posters from the 60’s with the Greco Roman and Renaissance period and a dash of Godzilla. He’s also big on gears and mechanical gizmos with all their precision. The skillfully choreographed fight scenes amidst grinding cog-wheels were proficiently violent and well-staged. Even the fact that there was hardly any blood didn’t bug me.
The music was well-chosen; the use of Eels’ “Beautiful Freak” was cool if not exactly original. But the winning scene when Abe and Hellboy drown their girl troubles with Tecate Lite and sing to Barry Manilow is absolutely hilarious.
Hellboy II has its moments of hokey cornball crap, and was sometimes too big for its own good especially near the end. It gets to be an overload, but this is a small price to pay for artistic comic book extravaganza. This movie has so much eye candy there’s no possible way one can get bored. Del Toro’s superb and extreme artistic vision actually really IS good for all ages. It also keeps a positive message left over from Pan’s: in death there is beauty. There’s plenty of twisted beauty in Hellboy II. It’s a campy romp with monster clobbering, a mushy trite love story and a bevy of repugnant/warped creatures that can conjure up a dangerous acid flashback within seconds…or so I’m told. This sequel packs a wallop. Hellboy II is a helluva a lot of fun.




 Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Jeffery Tambor, Doug Jones
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
 3 stars