At the Movies: Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

Rating: ****

No doubt as the summer draws to a close, this year’s selection of blockbusters will be summarised neatly into three words: The Dark Knight. Proclaimed by many critics to be 'the Citizen Kane of comic book movies' and already the second highest grossing film of all time, it looks set to eclipse all that have come around it. For my money though, which I confess isn’t a significant investment, the title of best superhero of the summer goes to Guillermo del Toro’s latest work. The sequel to his modest 2004 hit, this film has more wit, more invention, more heart and a much more coherent substance. It is a film that truly understands the art-house, picture-house divide. You don’t need to make something that is both because one done well is enough. Whilst Christopher Nolan’s work interspersed action with characters openly discussing the moral dilemmas they found themselves in, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army tells its politics through its visuals, through its character development and through its larger-than-life story. Ironically, for a film about devils, 6ft fish and twisted firestarters, it is full of heart and soul. The Dark Knight took two and a half hours to work out that sometimes it’s a bit hard to be quite good when bad stuff is happening to bad people that might have been good if they hadn’t gone bad. Hellboy 2 interrogates a very simple question: what makes a man? Is it is upbringing or his nature?
For those of you unaware of the quirky, fun delight that is the original Hellboy, let me explain the key movers. Our hero is Hellboy (Ron Perlman), a devil created by the Nazis to destroy the world, but instead raised amongst humans and now fights to save it. He is accompanied by fellow freaks in the Bureau of Paranormal Research, including girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair), who occasionally spontaneously combusts and best friend Abe Sabien (Doug Jones), a giant fish. In this adventure, they fight to save the world from the threat of Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), the prince of the fantasy creatures that were banished from our world long ago, who is a little pissed off. This breezy, light fable is a welcome relief from the grimy, realistic aesthetics of recent major money outings, which to me sit rather uncomfortable when you’re essentially telling the story of men in tights and capes kicking people. The events on screen aren’t there to make people frown or think or chin stroke, there they to make you jump, laugh and reach for another mouthful of popcorn.

However, this does not mean to say that the film is without substance. Its not Transformers, it has characters to interact with and a plot to get engaged with, and whilst these qualities seem simple, they are the bread and butter of narrative cinema. Del Toro has a real understanding for his audience. His job is to entertain, not preach or intellectualise. His characters are well drawn and interesting, his situations absolutely magical and original. It’s like watching a modern day Lewis Carroll, as if the writer himself were still alive to deal with Hollywood agents and studios. It knows when to be stylish, when to be deep and when to play for the laughs. We care about the character of Hellboy, and we suffer when he suffers. When he is ostracised by the public or when he struggles with his own identity – he is ultimately the demon of the apocalypse – we struggle to. That is where the substance of the movie lies, and that is why it is so good.
I should add a confession at this point, I can’t help watching this movie with the mindset of another. I still haven’t quite got over seeing Pan’s Labyrinth a few years ago, a Spanish-language civil war fairytale by the same director. That film was an absolute masterpiece, and this I must admit is not. Like his character, this film feels like Pan’s Labyrinth with its horns filled down to fit in, and thus there is a sense of hesitancy throughout. The direction is slightly unsure of itself, the tone of the film juddering about occasionally when it really needs to be assured, meaning that some action sequences are not quite as spectacular as they could be and moments of emotional depth fall a little flat. However, and I want this clear and on the record, it is the superhero film of the summer. It is more fun, more exciting and much, much more coherent than The Dark Knight and once everybody gets over Heath Ledger’s performance and realise that they’ve spent a lot of money on something that isn’t that good, hopefully then this well get the attention and make the money it deserves. And when that time comes, for the official record, I said it here first.