Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Hellboy II: The Golden Army sadly does not fare well neither for a filmmaker (Guillermo del Toro) whose forte is dark fantasy nor for a franchise that is deeply rooted in mythology and occult in the graphic medium. My rebuke is more so because the film has the writer/creator, artist aboard as screenwriter. Sin City had Frank Miller aboard and it is history. Perhaps, Sin City is a hard act to follow, that is, without deviating from the standard set by for a fictional world in the graphic medium. Well, no, look at what Nolan has achieved with the Batman universe. Nolanverse deviated from the graphic medium yet inspired every bit from it adding a great deal to it. To critique the former in light of the latter, the translation is overall tragic and bleak.

It would be wrong to say I didn’t enjoy the film at all. I was awestruck by the portrayal of magical creatures, namely Tooth Fairies the seemingly adorable tiny things with wings, until a bunch of them feed on a live human and display his skeleton in a minute; the Troll infant that says I am not a kid, I am a tumor grown out of the interrogated Troll; surrealist Cathedral Head, who provides Princess Nuada with the map, with crown like miniature cathedral and a goblin that has wooden cart for back; and the Angel of Death who ironically helps Hellboy survive. Del Toro is at his finest when dealing with surrealism and magic. When comes to connecting it with the alternative world is where his film falters. He did it with his seminal Pan's Labyrinth, alas! Not here. Mignola's Hellboy is a demon who chose to fight for planet earth instead of being its destruction. Such a protagonist and his surrounding world are brought to life in a horror series inspired by folklore in graphic genre. But this is like uninspired Harry Potter and Narnia series that haven’t been touched by the light of Lord of the Rings or Nolanverse.

RATED 5/10; MISS IT BUT NOT AT MY EXPENSE