Release: 11th July, 2008 (US) / 22 August, 2008 (UK)
Dir: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Seth MacFarlane, Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Jeffrey Tambor, John Hurt
Improving on the original Hellboy was never going to be difficult (and I was a fan of the original), but The Golden Army has done well.
I found it to be just as endearing, brutish and crude as the lead character and it definately had a certain charm to it. Not for the most serious of people, I can understand it’s short comings in both plot and dialogue but as long as it’s viewed with an open mind and a good sense of humour, this film will not disappoint.
del Toro has brought in some fantastic visualisation and character design, similar to those of his celebrated Pan’s Labyrinth as well as the inspired choice to cast Family Guy and American Dad creator Seth McFarlane as the voice of Hellboy’s new boss Johann Kraus – “a disembodied ectoplasmic spirit with psychic abilities who maintains a tangible form via a containment suit”.
In a sense, it’s a shame that the character and comics aren’t as established as the likes of Superman/Batman/Spiderman et al, and that people are going to expect the same kind of epic special effects and budget as that is what’s expected now with the comic > film genre.
It was great to see more involvement from the character Abe and also a higher standard of acting from Selma Blair whom I’m non-too impressed with for the most part of her acting career.
It’s set up for a trilogy, and I can only hope that for the comic’s sake that it fulfills where both this and the original fall short and finally does the franchise justice.
