Fantastic, Brilliant, A vanguard for the not so tall dark and handsome only one quam

Rating: 9/10 (31 August 2008)

I saw an advance screening of this four days ago and I was not disappointed. This movie has everything that made the first one great, the characters and the good story. It also has some nice welcome additions such as influence from Pan's Labyrinth, and a new character.
The great thing about Hellboy: The Golden Army and its prequel, is the characters. These are characters who are not tall dark and handsome, completely flawless, but are in fact quite "human" (despite their abilities) while performing outstanding feats. They are also so sympathetic. The movie also features character development. Hellboy is not tall dark and handsome, but fat, red, bald, and has a stylised beard. He likes having beer, cigars, and (in the prequel anyway) working out. More importantly, he like cats, in most movies the heroes are dog lovers but Hellboy likes cats, a major pluss in my books. Even though he is the strongman of the team, he is resourceful, skilled and innovative. In a lot of movies the tough guys will treat the nerds as a joke, but Hellboy is a close friend and confidante to Abe, and love Lisa to the extent that he will give up his cats for her. Liz is also a great character, she is not slim, long haired and big busted, outgoing, but rather she has an oddball hair style, is toned, her bust size is of no concern in the movie, and will lash out if provoked. She is not a damsel in distress, with Hellboy needing her help in both movies. She is also a capable fighter with firearms. Abe, while being the nerd of the group is not a typical nine gram weakling with buck teeth, but is well spoken, able to use a gun, and functions as survellaince and forensics for the team. Johann starts off as the streotypical by the book yes man, but later turns into a character ready to break the rules for his close friends, and capable of outwitting Hellboy.
A great feature of this movie is the character development. Abe show that he too is overcome with love for a woman and is unable to express his feelings, and tries singing pop love songs to woo her. Hellboy and Liz go from a loving couple, to a bickering couple (although the argument does interfere in their work, and Liz defend him from a hostile crowd different from other movies with bickering couples). Johann starts off as a lackey, but turns into a maverick like his team mates. In the end they all put each other first. We also get to see Hellboy as a boy, living as a typical kid, watching TV shows featuring puppets, believing in and waiting for Santa, having a bed time story read to him, and going to bed with a cowboy gun. I liked that.
All round these are human characters with human concerns, Liz feels uncomfortable telling Hellboy about the baby but tells Abe (their mutual friend), they scuffle of "their stuff", Hellboy likes to shave and keep beer in his locker, Hellboy and Johann fight in the locker room, Hellboy and Abe get drunk together and talk about women, and all feel the pangs of love.
What is also good, is that Guillermo takes influence from his own move Pan's Labyrinth and places them here. It works well, blending fairy tales and the occult.
A good scene is while Hellboys father is reading the story, Hellboy imagines the human, elfs, dwarfs etc as toys, as kids would. Not epi humans.
My only gripe is that Liz's role was downplayed. Although she does contribute great;y, burning the tooth fairies, making the deal with the angel for hellboys life, melting the crown, and carrying the crown.
A great movie all round. Worth it whether free or paid for.