Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

Rating: 8/10 (12 July 2008)

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is based upon the comic book of the same name by Mike Mignola and was previously a live action film entitled "Hellboy" in 2004. In the film a beer drinking and cigar smoking misunderstood mutant with attitude who also acts as a superhero along with a special team set up by the government, has more on his plate to deal with when some other mystical creatures with evil plans come around and an above average comic book film with outstanding makeup, sets and special effects follow. In case you have not already noticed, 2008 is definitely the year of the comic book movie. We have gone from Iron Man to the Hulk and this summer's most anticipated superhero movie The Dark Knight hasn't even been released yet. To some people all these hero movies must be someone's dream summer for movies, I on the other hand am getting tired of it real quick. I would much rather be watching an original thought provoking character study, or just something entirely new and not based upon previously published material like a comic book, video game, television series, etcetera. I guess I will probably have to wait till fall to get my wish. It's not like Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is a bad film, no far from it, but it still follows the same type of hero formula that we have seen all too often in past years and even within the first few summer months of this year with the kind of films the distributors are releasing. Hellboy 2 is probably a lot better than the previous hero films of the summer because it's makeup and visuals are outstanding and almost cry for effects Oscars and there was a good deal of humour, personality and even edge to these characters and the story, which made it more than just a cliché of these type of films. A lot of the different creatures in this film look fantastic and to design some of these things one must admit and admire all the talent that went behind it. Still there was enough in here that was fairly predictable and by the books. Had it been a little darker, or spent a little more time with these characters that were more interesting than the plot itself, than it could have been a lot better. Also, I found that the film did drag a bit in the second half and I was beginning to lose interest. Judging by the online reviews and the reviews of critics, I'm sure this film will be a hit commercially and with the film going audience. And while it is not a bad film it is still nothing new, or exciting and I probably would have had more of an experience seeing one of my own movies in my collection. 2008 is so far a very weak year for movies, especially compared to last year's really good line-up, and one can hope that it will only get better.