Hellboy II: The Golden Army

yea i thought this was rly good, and i'd forgotten the first one and have 0x interest in comicss etc.

Thought it was pretty great but felt weirdly am-dram in places - awkward pauses, badly written or delivered lines; all the scenes with the disabled goblin blacksmith character in particular seemed kinda weak.

this movie has the best special effects i've seen in a while. visually it's really crazy, almost overwhelming

o_O at negative reactions in this thread, this wasn't perfect but it was fun and engaging

selma blair looked way good in this.

my only complaint is that i prefer the lovecraft-style elder gods fantasy shit over the tolkein-ish elves. i fucking loved the angel of death or whatever it was at the end. the sound design was incredible.

DVD arrived yesterday. Somehow we managed to miss this in the cinema. Will watch tomorrow night. Looking forward to it.

I enjoyed this but I wasn't bothering too much with things like 'plot'. The elves were rubbish though.

I loved the first half, disliked the second. Pretty much straight downhill after the plant elemental. Not a rapid descent, but a gentle rolling slope to meh.

i disliked the first one intensely- i'd be lying if i said i could remember why, tbh.

now i'm torn because of all the great word of mouth.

The weather was so bad on my holidays, I ended up seeing this at Tralee multiplex, just to get out of the rain. In retrospect, I think I would getting soaked might have been preferable.

wow. getting soaked in tralee better than this.

anyway- this above -

the fatherhood/"give him something to live for" stuff was pretty corny, but what can you do

has just made my mind up. avoid.

Just bought gf that Chained Coffin graphic novel for xmas (she's into graphic novels, tho I haven't got into it myself). She's not read any Hellboy but thinks both films are awesome. Please tell me I bought the right one!

People hating on Hellboy makes Cosmo & Bob sad.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3139/3037181313_f9d09cd94b.jpg

selma blair looked way good in this.

yes!

oh jeez ppl, cornball shit in a film based on a graphic novel character is practically in the dna of the whole genre. hellboy 2's awesome stuff trumps the lame stuff.

Exactly; it's a film about a giant red occult-crime-fighting demon dude who likes cats and chili; if you're expecting Brief Encounter or Citizen Kane, piss off.

lazy cliches turn me off any genre.

Says darraghmac.

lazy cliches turn me off any genre

ok this sentence is great guys

I have another version let me know if it is as relevatory as the first ok?

"I disapprove of genre pieces - the incessant scrambling, even by the most gifted auteurs, for any crutch available so that they may pursue their descent into mundane schlock - it renders such works unenjoyable to me, on any level, certainly not in the context of my precious spare time at home with my personal dvd player and television set"

yep, you nailed it. but mine had brevity.

actually, what i was saying was that just because the movie was about a 'giant red occult-crime-fighting demon dude who likes cats and chili' doesn't excuse it from plot clunkers.

Who gives a shit about plot what about all the giant monster fight scenes?

yeah i saw the first one and that was kinda what bothered me about it.

Lazy cliches turn me off any poster.

gah how the fuck did I screw up "revelatory" at such an hour

yeah, you said that SM- is that your new lazy cliche?

Oh yes.

this movie looked amazing but something about it was kind of shitty... i mostly really enjoyed the cornball cliches of #1 but the writing in this one seemed really perfunctory and lame, none of the scenes seemed to work, the character stuff was just wrong somehow.

still, wicked monsters!

also i always thought abe sapien was supposed to be gayer than C3PO, what was with the straight love interest? who are they kidding?

It could have got away with being half an hour longer. The opening third felt really rushed.

my problem wasn't that it was too short.

I barely remembered the first movie (other than the hilariously uyseless skeleton guy Hellboy carried on his back for a few minutes) and I've never read the comics so maybe that helped my enjoyment of this more?

I did find myself wondering how much tecate ponied up for dudes to drink all these beers you can hardly even find in the states (regular tecate maybe, tecate light? how do you even get drunk on that?)

you actually have to have as many as hellboy

I can't remember a thing about the first one and haven't seen the sequel. Did Rupert Evans' character die in the first one? If not, how come he's not in the sequel?

"it's a film about a giant red occult-crime-fighting demon dude who likes cats and chili; if you're expecting Brief Encounter or Citizen Kane, piss off."

OTM. As a GOTH PARENT, I have to say they've nailed my tiny demographic: entire family loves the movies, and the animated features as well. Only Dr.Who hits the same spot.

I liked this maybe a little more than the first, even though the tone of the first was def. darker and closer to comics Hellboy for me. Looks like Del Toro got a few extra $$ for the production budget this time 'round and it shows. Beautiful FX work.

Just stayed up late watching it, and now I'm grinning like a loon! So much wit and imagination. Fuck the Dark Knight, this was the best comic book movie of 2008.

yeah, thinking about watching this again soon

Are the animated features worth bothering with?

yeah, I would rather see this again than the Dark Knight!

i just saw Hellboy II -- i'm not TOTALLY negative about it, but i'm with everyone upthread who didn't like it as much as the first Hellboy. it wasn't anywhere near as original or thrilling as the first Hellboy -- too much Hellboy whining like a pussy about his problems with Sherman and not enough of him just fucking shit up! that part of the movie reminded me of nothing so much as Satan's relationship problems with Saddam Hussein and Chris from South Park. the Troll Market scenes pretty much ripped off the Star Wars cabana scene (not to mention Abe Sapien's fishy take on C3PO), and the Golden Army was just some warmed-over Terminator shit. plus, who's bright idea was it to cast Luke Goss as a villain? dude was about as threatening as the hair-metal Nelson Brothers (whom he resembled a little TOO much) or Dani Filth (without the matching rubber nipple suits from "her shadow in the fog" video).

i DID like the drinking scene though!

mostly enjoyed this

worst thing: USE OF BANK GOTHIC TYPEFACE

so lazy