Hell Boy 2: The Golden Army

[quote name='sophistry']I might be willing to be that you're rarely impressed with superhero movies in general.

If you didn't like the first, then yeah, you're probably not going to like the second.

What I like about the two is that they're clearly grounded in fantasy, they integrate CG effects with live action seamlessly - so well, in fact, that I think most people don't even realize it (that big red hand isn't animatronic, people) - and Red's struggle with trying to be a 'regular guy', when clearly he isn't.

We're not talking about Shawshank. It's a superhero action movie based on a comic. And, considering the other crap that's out there, this one's near the top. As a movie in general, it's still pretty decent. The art style ... as I've said ... is just stunning.

My opinion, of course. Just trying to approach it subjectively.

Also, I didn't think the 'one liners' were as cheesy as the first movie. There were only a few, but well placed for some comedic value.[/QUOTE]

Naw, I absolutely love Superhero movies... when they're done well. Iron Man, Batman Begins, the Spiderman series (well, except 3)... absolutely fuckin' loved those movies. The difference is that they had characters that actually had some depth to them, and they didn't spend the entire movie making wisecracks. While I loved the setting for the last part of Hellboy 2, the rest just didn't feel like it had much creativity to it, either.
 
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[quote name='whoknows']Tempted to go see this, but less than a week until The Dark Knight so I'll wait til this hits the cheap theater.[/quote]

There are no cheap theaters in my area unfortunately.

I do like this film. I saw it this morning..
 
Just saw this today. I didn't like it at all, which is said cause I really enjoyed HB1. The one saving grace was how amazing and interesting the creatures were. I could've watched an entire movie based on that troll market.
 
Some early info about the DVD release:

Anyway, Home Media Retailing has a brief story up today on director Guillermo del Toro's plans for the eventual DVD and Blu-ray release of Hellboy II: The Golden Army (which hits theatres today). The gist is that his goal is to top the awesome 3-disc set for the first Hellboy film. We should mention that Javier Soto, del Toro's producer on the DVD project, will be participating in our DVD/Blu-ray Producers 2008 panel discussion down at Comic-Con later this month.
Click to expand...

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#hel2


Loved the film and can't wait to see what Guillermo does with the Hobbit!
 
Forget all the haterade people, go see this movie if you are even remotely interested in special effects and film making. Seeing this movie isn't about having some kind of life changing realisation due to a deep story and intense dialog. Its not a "thinker" like No Country or There Will Be Blood. This is a fun, fast paced action-scifi-fantasy movie with incredible attention to detail and craftsmanship. Guillermo Del Toro has quickly become one of my favorite directors and currently there are very few directors who have the imagination or vision of this guy. If you cant bring yourself to cough up $10 to see it in the theater, Save your money for the Blu-ray cuz this is gonna be a hi-def must have even if you decide to play it on mute. Check out my blog for a more in depth rant on how dope this flick was.
 
I can't wait to see what body part GdT puts an eyeball next!!!

:pray: for the anus


J/K It was great, but the ending needed to have a bigger scale
 
[quote name='Maklershed']Just saw this today. I didn't like it at all, which is said cause I really enjoyed HB1.[/QUOTE]

I'm not going to be as brutal as you - I didn't feel ripped off or anything - but I did not like it as much as the first one. I loved the first one but the new film has too much "fantasy" in it, while the first one was set in a primarily in a city and had a better vibe to it. At times during Hellboy 2 I felt like it was the cast of Hellboy dropped into some less-bloody Pan's Labyrinth universe.
 
Well, I shouldn't have said I didn't like it at all ... It's just that I really loved Hellboy and this movie seemed like a bit of a let down. All and it's not that bad. I was just disappointed. But like I said before, I think seeing the characters like that were in the troll market or the angel of death were worth the price of admission.
 
I just saw this today. Pretty crazy how it melds all these different genres. It had elements of high fantasy, religious imagery and steam punk. Do elves really know who the devil is? Are they Christian? Crazy stuff but I though the effects were worth the $7 I paid on their own.

Anyway, the one thing I found completely unnecessary was the entire "the people I'm trying to save don't appreciate me" subplot. After the Burton-era Batmans, 3 Spidermans and 3 X-men movies, I don't think I can take any more of "I'm trying to help these people but they think I'm a menace!" Regular humans don't understand you because you have superpowers. We get it.
 
[quote name='jalu6']I just saw this today. Pretty crazy how it melds all these different genres. It had elements of high fantasy, religious imagery and steam punk. Do elves really know who the devil is? Are they Christian? Crazy stuff but I though the effects were worth the $7 I paid on their own.

Anyway, the one thing I found completely unnecessary was the entire "the people I'm trying to save don't appreciate me" subplot. After the Burton-era Batmans, 3 Spidermans and 3 X-men movies, I don't think I can take any more of "I'm trying to help these people but they think I'm a menace!" Regular humans don't understand you because you have superpowers. We get it.[/quote]They are merely building up the hate so he will go nuclear in the third one where he has the decision to bring about the end. I want to add I really didn't like Liz in this one as much as the first one. She seemed...robotic.
 
[quote name='Chacrana']Naw, I absolutely love Superhero movies... when they're done well. Iron Man, Batman Begins, the Spiderman series (well, except 3)... absolutely fuckin' loved those movies. The difference is that they had characters that actually had some depth to them, and they didn't spend the entire movie making wisecracks.[/QUOTE]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Iron Man was practically a stream of non-stop smart-ass remarks from Robert Downey Jr. And at least the gruff one-liners are in keeping with the character of Hellboy from the comics, which is more than I can say for "Nice coat" in Batman.

[quote name='Scrubsy']Who else freakin loved the elf prince? I thought he was amazing. He also played the head reaper from Blade 2.[/quote]

He's also going to be Steve Fox in the live-action Tekken movie.
 
Movie was passable.

I haven't seen the first - I plan too - nor have I read the comic books, but it seemed like there was little more to get than "a demon works for the government."

Visually, there's some cool stuff. Mos Eisley Cantina being under a bridge in New York. Yeah ok. I don't get any director's fascination with building up an array of rather nice looking fantasy characters/monsters/beings, and then only showing them on the screen for maybe two seconds average. Or showing them onscreen for a few seconds right before they die, or right before they fight - and thus wherein the camera jolts around so that you can't really make out much anyway - or to deliver one or two simple moments before they vanish. Let me look at them some more. Criminy. Especially when the ones you DO show me a lot of look ripped out of a video game (World of Warcraft, Silent Hill) or are the really generic enemy-monster-type (Troll from Harry Potter, Troll from Lord of the Rings, Troll from any movie in which a Troll appears).

I also take away points for making characters look like Korn album covers.

There's a lot of timing issues with the dialogue. Don't care what anyone says - some lines were just delivered poorly, or delivered waaaaay too late. Just. Lots. Of awkward. ... Pauses. Like. Th. Is.

Pacing of the movie wasn't that great either, nor was some of the movie's logic. They walk into a building with tons of little monsters, and the girl doesn't just instantly erupt into fire? Is that a new thing? Superheroes who figure out what to do eight minutes after everyone else did? There's more plot holes, but maybe I'm just not paying attention to the adequate justifications to tell me why X happened, or maybe the movie doesn't cover it like the comic does. I don't even know if I want to list them, because I don't know if I care enough for some Mignola nerd to come and explain everything to me. (Side note: Is Hellboy done? Could I buy a complete anthology cheap and just read it myself?)

I mean it was enjoyable. I didn't feel like I'd wasted my time, and despite the predictable nature of the movie, there's some good moments and lines here and there.

Result: "It could have been worse."
 
I was very disappointed with Hellboy 2. The first seems like it tried to capture the atmosphere of the graphic novel series. Characters aside, I barely felt any connection between the second movie and the Hellboy graphic novel series. But, such is the way with adaptations and people wanting to make easy money.

*sigh*
 
Damn, that's all I've been hearing about this movie. My friend said he didn't like it, but he loved the first one.

Didn't get a chance to see it on Saturday, but I might still end up watching it the week after TDK comes out. Just hope I won't be as disappointed as everyone else.
 
Saw HB2 on Friday and I enjoyed it. It was funny and my sister, her boyfriend, and I all found ourselves laughing at the right moments. Everyone keeps mentioning the HB and Abe drunken scene and it's as funny as they say. The creature design was incredible, especially the elemental one. Overall, it was an enjoyable movie.

I was stuck in an airport earlier that day and managed to rewatch HB1 in anticipation of the sequel. Originally, I didn't like HB1, but this time I really enjoyed it. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood or didn't know what to expect when I first saw it, but now I really enjoy the series and hope GDT can complete the trilogy.

If you liked HB1, then go watch HB2. Otherwise, the sequel isn't going to change your mind if you didn't like the original.
 
[quote name='chasemurata']I was very disappointed with Hellboy 2. The first seems like it tried to capture the atmosphere of the graphic novel series. Characters aside, I barely felt any connection between the second movie and the Hellboy graphic novel series. But, such is the way with adaptations and people wanting to make easy money.

*sigh*[/QUOTE]

Are we pretentious much? Maybe you should do some research and actually see how much involvement Mike Mignola had. Or for that matter, how much dedication it took from Guillermo del Toro to make this film for under $80 million.
 
[quote name='cognitive77']Are we pretentious much? Maybe you should do some research and actually see how much involvement Mike Mignola had. Or for that matter, how much dedication it took from Guillermo del Toro to make this film for under $80 million.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, kind of tough to paint this one as a pale shadow of the comics when Mignola was on-set, working with Del Toro pretty much every day.
 
I was hearing good things so I went to see it matinee showing opening day. And I gotta say I was disappointed. It was not nearly as good as all the praise it was getting. I mean it was enjoyable but the story was a really weak. Essentially the movie could have ended lets say about 30 minutes in when the prince went to meet his father, don't want to say more and ruin anything. But yeah if I paid more than the $8 I would have been pretty pissed but at $8 it's not a bad movie.
 
I've gotta say, I'm shocked at all the hate and 'disappointment' about this movie. Granted, I've never read the comic, but I know the backstory. I liked the first movie quite a bit, and I thought this one was much better; character development greatly improved, visual effects were stunning, bad-ass elf prince and creepy/hot elf princess. I thought Liz was a much better character in this one, and Abe maintained his position as my favorite character.

My biggest problem:
I don't want to see any little Hellbabies running around in the next movie
 
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