Friday, December 12, 2008

REVIEW: HELLBOY 2 (***)

This is going to be a different type of review. I enjoyed the first HELLBOY a few years ago so I thought I'd give the sequel a shot. I enjoyed it as well. Here are my thoughts after just finishing it.

Nice opening with teenage Hellboy. He looks a little too CGI but it's fine.

God, Ron Perlman is killer in this role. Love the attitude.

Gorgeous cinematography. Love the colors. Just beautiful.

Ewww. Gloppy monsters. This is an icky movie.

The first film felt big but you could tell it was on a limited budget. Del Toro must've gotten twice as much for this one. Everything is huge and overstuffed. Tons of creatures. Lots of slop. Beefy production design.

A lot of the imagery is like a bad acid trip.

Nice action scenes, even if none of it is going anywhere particularly surprising.

This villain is sort of a mamma's boy.

Nice twist with the sister.

That squid thing in the middle of NYC really tore shit up. Pretty cool.

Geez, Hellboy can really take a beating.

I love the attitude of this character.

Damn, it's like Del Toro ate too many mushrooms and freaked out.

There's a lot of trippy shit in this movie. Dragging a bit towards the end...we almost done?
Nice finish. Leaving it completely open to a third entry. But do I really care?
Fun movie. Nice special effects, though at times, it all got a little too Playstation-y. Not a huge fantasy geek but Del Toro is an artist. I think he and Salvador Dali would've gotten along. I really think that Del Toro had some bad hallucinogenic experiences.

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