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Hellboy II
Had some really pretty imagery, some beautiful cinematography, some decent fight scenes, and some really neat creatures. It was enjoyable to look at. Past that, though, the film seriously sucked ass. Abe is a simpering C-3PO with emotions who stumbles and stammers his way around serving no real purpose in the film except to act as a cute Merman friend to Hellboy. Johann Krauss is a buffoonish robot who emits gas (literally) and acts and sounds much more like the oafish Johann in an oversized body from a recent B. P. R. D. run (if you read the comic you know what I mean) than a thoughtful psychic who lost his body. The Hellboy/Liz Sherman romance is completely ham-fisted and unbelievable. There were several moments (well, more than several, actually) where I could do nothing but roll my eyes and be thankful that I only wasted $5 on the dreck I was listening to (again, it really was very pretty to watch, with the exception of the atrocious Hellboy as a child scene that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snurri described in his post about the movie. If I could have turned the sound off I think I would have been a lot happier). The story itself meandered to and fro, wasting time with tangential scenes of romance, and resolved itself in a manner that most viewers will probably figure out at least half an hour into the film.
There are two things that I really like about the Hellboy and B. P. R. D. comics. One, the stories are interesting. They blend myth and pulp into the type of tale you'd expect to find in some cheesy 1950's paperback collection, complete with a sensational cover filled with monsters and men with guns, the type of story that you pick up because it was only ten cents at a yard sale and you figure you'll read it when you're bored and once you do read it, you're pleasantly surprised because that pulpy story is actually well written and reading it turns out to be a pretty decent way to spend your summer afternoon at the lake. Second, the relationships between the characters really aren't based on romance. The people/beings who populate the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense are all misfits and outcasts who really have no place in the world at large. They are each the only one of their kind (as far as they know, at least), who have found each other through their work in this government agency and, for the most part, they really do care about one another. Together, they have formed a de facto family. But these relationships are usually shown in their down time between missions. They don't take over the story unless they really are the story, if that makes any sense. Hellboy II really has neither of these. It's a clumsy, sloppy, yet beautifully photographed, melodramatic soap opera.
(Now maybe if they'd added giant, mutant, robotic gorillas . . .)
snurri described in his post about the movie. If I could have turned the sound off I think I would have been a lot happier). The story itself meandered to and fro, wasting time with tangential scenes of romance, and resolved itself in a manner that most viewers will probably figure out at least half an hour into the film.There are two things that I really like about the Hellboy and B. P. R. D. comics. One, the stories are interesting. They blend myth and pulp into the type of tale you'd expect to find in some cheesy 1950's paperback collection, complete with a sensational cover filled with monsters and men with guns, the type of story that you pick up because it was only ten cents at a yard sale and you figure you'll read it when you're bored and once you do read it, you're pleasantly surprised because that pulpy story is actually well written and reading it turns out to be a pretty decent way to spend your summer afternoon at the lake. Second, the relationships between the characters really aren't based on romance. The people/beings who populate the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense are all misfits and outcasts who really have no place in the world at large. They are each the only one of their kind (as far as they know, at least), who have found each other through their work in this government agency and, for the most part, they really do care about one another. Together, they have formed a de facto family. But these relationships are usually shown in their down time between missions. They don't take over the story unless they really are the story, if that makes any sense. Hellboy II really has neither of these. It's a clumsy, sloppy, yet beautifully photographed, melodramatic soap opera.
(Now maybe if they'd added giant, mutant, robotic gorillas . . .)