Smash followup kicks butt

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2009)

I think Hellboy 2 supersedes the high standard set by Hellboy the First. I never read the comic books, didn’t know anything about Hellboy, didn’t know where he was from, what he was, anything, and the movie addressed all that for me. But after the backstory’s been told, the audience craves something exciting, a tale that makes sense and doesn’t run counter to what they know about the characters.
In Hellboy 2, the Bureau gets a new, er, bureaucrat to replace Dr. Broom (John Hurt, seen in a flashback). Johann Krauss is a disembodied ectoplasmic spirit housed in a diving apparatus. (No, really.) He’s German, so that means he’s rigid and regimental and does things By the Book. I wonder how Hellboy will react to this? The dynamics of the Bureau’s top agents are as muddled as ever. Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and Liz (Selma Blair) are together, but kind of snapping at each other, as if they were a married couple, or something. He’s a lazy slob, she’s a nag, etc. Luckily, Blair and Perlman are both aces here, and they work very well together. Then there’s Abe Sapien, the alien who sounds an awful lot like C-3PO; he’s the brains to Hellboy’s brawn. So really the team is functionally dysfunctional, or something.
The antagonist here is an exiled evil prince who’s trying to revive the Golden Army, a large group of robot monsters that simply cannot be stopped. All he needs is all three parts of an ancient crown, and the world will be his! AHAHAHAHAHAA. The prince looks a lot like Lucius Malfoy, but he’s got the mad ninja skills of a Jackie Chan, so he’s a formidable opponent. He’s also helped by a giant golem, which means we’re sure to see at least two epic battles between Hellboy and Some Bad Guy, causing a boatload of damage to New York City. Along the way, the Bureau’s outed, much to Krauss’s chagrin and to Hellboy’s delight. Tough to be a covert paranormal investigative unit when your pictures are all over the news.
Perlman is an excellent Hellboy - sarcastic, cigar-chomping, fun-loving, and full of crap. So much so, in fact, that you sometimes forget he’s a giant red… thing. But look at him! He’s covered in makeup and prosthetics, and yet it’s Hellboy’s acerbic, witty, pained personality that comes through. That there is some fine acting.
Guillermo del Toro’s stylish (as always) comic-book movie gets high marks for flash and substance, allowing multilayered, unorthodox characters to seem as regular as the neighborhood mailman, save for the superpowers and massive strength and intelligence. Hellboy 2 is an elegant, ravenous blend of humor, horror, and deadbolt action, a worthy successor to the original.