Howdy Doody Time

Rating: 4/10 (8 October 2019)

Added to the clockwork motif from the first Hellboy movie, for this sequel, is puppetry. This is established early on with a flashback of young Hellboy being a fan of "Howdy Doody" on TV (a puppet show that also featured a clock in its opening) and hearing a bedtime story from his father that is visualized as a puppet show about the Golden Army, which are magical militaristic puppets to their master. Writer-Director's Guillermo del Toro's admitted fetishizing of objects seems to even extend to the supernatural creatures here. The troll market, reminiscent of the cantina scene in "Star Wars" (1977), may be the best example of this, with a multitude of monstrous creatures serving only as objects of curiosity. The irony is that the story concerns Hellboy and company being ostracized from human society. In a sense, they're objectified for their appearances.
Unfortunately, the movie doesn't follow through very far with this thread and, instead, mostly focuses on the romantic coupling of the "freaks." Moreover, the X-Men movie series had already better-developed the theme, as it had better incorporated Nazis into the same framework as opposed to the Indian-Jones-type nonsense of "Hellboy" (2004). Even the quick glances here of Hellboy's TV showing Universal's classic monster movies such as "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935) and "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (1954) come off as lazy shorthand to latch onto what other films followed through on. Otherwise, "Hellboy II" wastes time setting up another sequel that, as of over a decade since (and a reboot, to boot), has never materialized. There's no other reason, but to setup a subsequent movie, for the sequence involving and leading up to the encounter with the Angel of Death. Additionally, again, as in the first movie, there's a sword-swirling baddie, with all of the silly swoosh-and-whoosh sounds effects. There's also some other twirling about, some slow-motion action, and this sequel seems especially fond of characters sliding backwards on their feet during fight scenes. On the other hand, Hellboy and the merman drunkenly singing is a nice change of pace from the usual clockwork of this superhero franchise, and the creepy tooth fairies were rather effective at making me feel itchy.