Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Rating: 7/10 (21 September 2008)

If only Hollywood filmmakers had even half the imagination that Mexican director Guillermo del Toro possesses. Then perhaps the crop of lacklustre blockbusters that assault us every summer would be able to rise above their empty narratives. Like the brilliant Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Hellboy II: The Golden Army is a tour through del Toro's eye-achingly vast imagination. The sheer delight of watching the myriad creatures and locations flit across the screen is more than enough compensation for what is really nothing more than an average plot.
After a couple of title cards explaining Hellboy's origin, we open on army base on Christmas Eve, 1955. A young Hellboy is put to bed by his surrogate father Professor Bruttonholm (John Hurt) with a bed time story about an ancient battle between humans and mythical creatures. In a stroke of creative brilliance, Hellboy, whose only experience of the world outside the army base is 1950s children's television, imagines the characters in the story as wooden marionettes.
As Bruttonholm's story goes, Balor, king of the Elves, built an army of 70 times 70 indestructible clockwork warriors (the Golden Army of the film's title), which could be controlled by those of royal blood as long as they remained unchallenged. The Golden Army was so merciless in its destruction of the human forces that Balor called for a truce: the humans would keep the cities, and the creatures would keep the forests. Balor took steps to prevent the Golden Army being raised again, but his son, Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), resented his father's peaceful ways and went into self-imposed exile, vowing one day to finish off the humans.
Fast forward to the present. Prince Nuada has declared war on humanity, and begun work on resurrecting the Golden Army. Cue Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and the B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense). As in the first film, it is their job to save the world from otherworldly forces. But there are other problems. Not only does Hellboy have to come to terms with the fact that he may never be fully accepted by those he is trying to help; but he also has to deal with his burgeoning relationship with Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), his on-again, off-again girlfriend of the first film.
What stands out most in Hellboy II is the sheer inventiveness of Guillermo del Toro's designs. It's in the aforementioned prologue, and it's in almost every other scene in the film. There is such a huge attention to detail, that you'll need to see the film several times before you see everything there is on offer.
This is especially evident in the "Troll Market" sequence. Hidden beneath Brooklyn Bridge, the Troll Market like a folklorish Mos Eisley, with every kind of creature you could imagine, and then a load you probably couldn't. It's a sequence made for DVD: you could rewind and watch it again and again and notice something new each time.
But what is most impressive is that a large portion of these peoples and places have actually been built, as opposed to rendered with computers. From your run-of-the-mill trolls and goblins, to fantastically original designs such as the Angel of Death (one of the best creature designs I have seen in any film), they are there, interacting with the other characters, and that's more than impressive in today's CGI-driven cinema.
Special mention must also go to Doug Jones, the actor behind not one, not two, but three of Hellboy II's creatures: Abe Sapien, the Chamberlain (a pale-skinned, rectangular-headed officiator), and the Angel of Death. He was also one of the humanoid insect things in del Toro's Mimic (1997), as well as both the Faun and the Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth. Jones is surely one of cinema's greatest living performers: he gives his characters each their own personality, despite usually being buried underneath prosthetics.
That the look of Hellboy II is its best aspect is a blessing, because the narrative is nothing to get excited about. It's not bad, by any means; the story moves along nicely, and the characters are likable enough (especially the three main leads: Perlman's Hellboy; Blair's Liz; and Jones' Abe).