Monday, July 14, 2008
See This Movie: Hellboy II
I got some news this morning that made me very happy: Hellboy II: The Golden Army came in tops at the box office this weekend. Normally I'm not all that interested in the box office side of things, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I was concerned that Hellboy II might get lost in the summer-blockbuster churn. I'm happy to say my $10 was among the $35.9 million it made over the weekend, and it's my new frontrunner for Best Movie of the Summer (not to mention my new frontrunner for Best Movie of 2008). As stoked as I am about The Dark Knight, I'd be absolutely stunned if that movie (which I still expect to be excellent-to-amazing) surpasses what Guillermo del Toro has accomplished with his sequel. I've been thinking about it since I saw it, and I can't wait to see it again.
I don't remember the last time I was so thoroughly entertained by a movie: the plot was engaging, the characters were pretty much uniformly well-rounded and compelling (any time your villain has at least a somewhat valid point in his/her motivations, that's a much greater bonus than a lot of screenwriters seem to realize), the story bopped along at a great pace, the parts that were supposed to be funny were hilarious (the scene where Hellboy and Abe Sapien get hammered and talk about the ladies in their respective lives while drunkenly crooning Barry Manilow tunes is magic), and the action was the best I've seen so far this summer, eclipsing even Wanted and The Incredible Hulk (as much as I loved my second-favourite movie this summer, Iron Man, I can't really disagree with the knock against it that the action stuff wasn't as mind-blowing as it could/should have been, but whatever, it's still a better overall movie than Wanted or Hulk). I know The Dark Knight is the movie that everyone's talking about, but trust me, Hellboy II is worth your time.
I don't remember the last time I was so thoroughly entertained by a movie: the plot was engaging, the characters were pretty much uniformly well-rounded and compelling (any time your villain has at least a somewhat valid point in his/her motivations, that's a much greater bonus than a lot of screenwriters seem to realize), the story bopped along at a great pace, the parts that were supposed to be funny were hilarious (the scene where Hellboy and Abe Sapien get hammered and talk about the ladies in their respective lives while drunkenly crooning Barry Manilow tunes is magic), and the action was the best I've seen so far this summer, eclipsing even Wanted and The Incredible Hulk (as much as I loved my second-favourite movie this summer, Iron Man, I can't really disagree with the knock against it that the action stuff wasn't as mind-blowing as it could/should have been, but whatever, it's still a better overall movie than Wanted or Hulk). I know The Dark Knight is the movie that everyone's talking about, but trust me, Hellboy II is worth your time.
Labels: Guillermo del Toro, Hellboy, Movie review
¶ 3:36 PM
