It must be tough to follow up a masterpiece. The expectations are heightened. Everyone is expecting another bit of brilliance.
Perhaps Guillermo del Toro was smart in following up "Pan's Labyrinth" with Hellboy sequel. No one's expecting a sequel to a good but unmemorable comic book film to be a lasting work of cinematic genius, and it's not. It is pretty much like the first one, consistently watchable, visually imaginative, but otherwise not really remarkable in any way.
Here Hellboy (Ron Perlman) must fight to stop Prince Nuada, who is trying to resurrect an army of indestructible soldiers to fight humanity for mankind's encroachment on the forests, which were supposed to belong to his people under a long-ago truce. Also back from the first film are his aquatic friend Abe (Doug Jones) and his fiery - literally- girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair). Fighting along with them is Nuada's twin sister, Princess Nuala, whom Abe takes a shine to.
There's some attempts at some interesting character stuff involving how Hellboy wants to be accepted into a society that fears him because of how he looks, but neither that, nor any of the other thematic pieces sprinkled here and there are enough to lift it up to a higher level, to make it more than just well-made and good-looking summer entertainment. It ain't no more, nor any less. I don't regret seeing it, but compared to the superhero movie I'm going to be reviewing next, it comes across a bit like child's play, especially for a director of del Toro's immense talent.
B-
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment