I'm a firm believer that we, as a culture, should just throw Ron Perlman a couple hundred thousand dollars every couple of months just for being so damn cool. The Hellboy franchise only makes me want to increase that amount that I'd be happy to pay in the form of a mill levy or a couple bucks more on the renewal fee for licensing my car. The dude is just cool. The voice, the way he carries himself and the way he gives soul to every character be they covered in hair, gallons of Plasticine or the red skin of a misplaced demon - the dude rocks.
And a lot of other components of the "Hellboy" franchise rocks. Guillermo Del Toro Rocks. Doug Jones, the guy inside the Ape Sapien make-up rocks. David Hyde Pierce, the voice of AS, rocks. Whoever Del Toro's production designer is...damn he rocks. Everything about this production screams "competent, borderline fantastic," and the previews, interviews and production stills give every indication that "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army" will be a great time with ideas that reach a little higher than the subject matter. Just like the original "Hellboy."
A couple element of "Hellboy 2" that I'm very interested in:
-The romance between Hellboy and Liz was one of my favorite romances of that year. The six pack at the mental asylum, the following of Liz on the roof by Red, "You should be running," the ending (is it dusty in here?), it's all very well done and where it goes now that they're together should be a fascinating study. Also, it brings about dorky "but how do they..." questions that I really don't want an answer to.
-The first movie was a nice little creature feature, but after the success of "Pan's Labyrinth" and the upcoming journey into Middle Earth on the horizon, I wonder if GDT is going to go ape shit with the beasts. I wonder if Hellboy 2 will be the first honest-to-God creature feature since...I don't know, the original Men in Black. They seem to have the imagination, and the geek cred to make it happen.
-If there's a weak point to the original Hellboy, it's the villain. Here, the same guy who was the very decent villain in Del Toro's "Blade 2" (who's name I'm too lazy to look up) is the villain here and he looks to be full throttle evil. A hero is only as good as his villain.
-A superhero story is always better once you remove the origin, with very few exceptions. When you can get right to it, you can cram more in and the first movie crammed a lot in. This flick should be pretty crazy when all is said and done.
-Ron Perlman, Ron Perlman, Ron Perlman. Here's my $8.50.
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