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Hell razer

A rising director makes a glossy B picture worth catching
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By Steffen Silvis
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
September 3rd, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
More underworld characters. Ron Perlman as Hellboy and Doug Jones as Abe Sapien in del Toro's sequel.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army


Directed by Guillermo del Toro
With Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Luke Goss, Anna Walton and John Hurt
Anyone who’s had the opportunity to track Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s career can appreciate how much he’s achieved in a very short time. My own estimation of his work is incomplete, as I have not seen his first three films — Cronos, Blade II and Mimic. But his Gothic ghost story set during the Spanish Civil War, 2001’s The Devil’s Backbone, made a deep impression on me, and I mentally pair it with another brilliant slice of macabre cinema from the same year, Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others.
Three years later, del Toro brought Mike Mignola’s popular Dark Horse Comics hero Hellboy to the screen, proving to be as deft with ironic superheroics as with stygian horror. Yet del Toro had to wait another three years before he fully made his mark as a serious auteur with Pan’s Labyrinth, a sumptuous horror-fantasy again set during Spain’s long political upheaval of the early 20th century. With its underworld of fauns and fairies offering an alternative to the above-ground madness and murderousness following in Franco’s wake (though both realms held peril), Pan’s Labyrinth succeeded in being that rare item, an intelligent fantasy film — something few beside Lord of the Rings’ director Peter Jackson have achieved recently.
The comparison to Jackson is obviously something even Jackson appreciates, as he’s hired del Toro to undertake filming Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which Jackson is producing. The film, to be released in two parts, first in 2011 then 2012, has necessitated del Toro shelving numerous other projects he’d planned. So his sequel to Hellboy will be the last thing available from the Mexican director for another three years.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army is a highly entertaining romp, though it’s primarily interesting from a stylistic point of view. As capable as the first film was, the sequel is really the benefactor of Pan’s Labyrinth. The tone of the sequel is also different, as, even without knowing about del Toro’s future assignment, this Hellboy seems heavily indebted to Jackson’s Rings cycle, giving audiences a real feel for what the director’s version of The Hobbit might be like.
It isn’t necessary to have seen the first Hellboy to follow its sequel. In fact, del Toro adds a humorous opening recap of the young demon’s boyhood, with John Hurt returning as Professor Bruttenholm, Hellboy’s foster father. But from this cheery opening of a Quonset hut Christmas circa 1955 we’re led forward to the present, into a fantastical netherworld beneath the streets of Brooklyn, where an elfin prince, Nuada (Luke Goss) is on the verge of declaring war against humankind for its violation of an ancient pact.
Hellboy (Ron Perlman) has spent most of his adult life working for the top-secret Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, an organization that even the CIA is only vaguely aware of. Along with his fellow mutants — the amphibious empath Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and pyrokinetic bombshell Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) — Hellboy is on hand to help thwart any magical or monstrous attacks on the United States. But these superfreaks will soon be called upon to battle against fellow nonhumans, which will lead to some shifting loyalties.
They are first made aware of Prince Nuada’s war when they arrive at an auction house to battle swarms of tooth fairies, so named because they feed off of calcium, and teeth are the first things they devour on their soon-to-be-consumed victims. One captured tooth fairy reveals Nuada’s plan, and the paranormal defense team is soon diving into the bowels of Brooklyn to hunt down clues to Nuada’s whereabouts in the Troll Market (which out-Lucases George Lucas’ café scene in the original Star Wars).
Nuada’s twin sister, Princess Nuala (Anna Walton), is against her brother’s plans, and sides with Hellboy’s band, eventually falling in love with Abe Sapien. It’s the princess who reveals her brother’s scheme to gather the parts of a fractured crown, which will activate a mechanical army of golden warriors that could annihilate humanity.
It’s a rousing adventure yarn, and is filled with some very wry humor. Perlman’s Hellboy is again a master of flippancy, but the entire film is laced with some great comedy. Yet the film also explores the philosophical conundrum of freaks being forced to fight against their fellow freaks (something also found in The Dark Knight). As vengeful as Nuada is, he is not mad. His reasons for wanting to see the last of man are sound (any misanthrope will sympathize). When he conjures a towering forest god who proceeds to destroy a good section of Lower Brooklyn, Nuada warns Hellboy that if he kills the god it will be the last of a race, which actually causes Hellboy to pause before acting.
The last part of Hellboy II is a stunning descent into the elf world, where the heroes will meet one of del Toro’s greatest creations, the Angel of Death, a character that also would seem impossible without Pan’s Labyrinth.
Brilliantly shot by del Toro’s favorite cinematographer, Guillermo Navarro, Hellboy II is the glossiest of B pictures from an A director on his way to the top.

Steffen Silvis can be reached at ssilvis@praguepost.com


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