The mythical world starts a rebellion against humanity in order to rule the Earth, so Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and his team must save the world from the rebellious creatures.
The notorious monster hunter is sent to Transylvania to stop Count Dracula who is using Dr. Frankenstein's research and a werewolf for some sinister purpose.
Director:
Stephen Sommers
Stars:
Hugh Jackman,
Kate Beckinsale,
Richard Roxburgh
Selene, a vampire warrior, is entrenched in a conflict between vampires and werewolves, while falling in love with Michael, a human who is sought by werewolves for unknown reasons.
Director:
Len Wiseman
Stars:
Kate Beckinsale,
Scott Speedman,
Shane Brolly
At an archaeological dig in the ancient city of Hamunaptra, an American serving in the French Foreign Legion accidentally awakens a mummy who begins to wreck havoc as he searches for the reincarnation of his long-lost love.
Based on the graphic novels by Mike Mignola, Hellboy, caught between the worlds of the supernatural and human, battles an ancient sorceress bent on revenge.
Picking up directly from the previous movie, vampire warrior Selene and the half werewolf Michael hunt for clues to reveal the history of their races and the war between them.
Director:
Len Wiseman
Stars:
Kate Beckinsale,
Scott Speedman,
Bill Nighy
In this continuation to the adventure of the demon superhero, an evil elf breaks an ancient pact between humans and creatures, as he declares war against humanity. He is on a mission to release The Golden Army, a deadly group of fighting machines that can destroy the human race. As Hell on Earth is ready to erupt, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and his crew set out to defeat the evil Prince before The Golden Army can destroy humanity's existence.Written by
ctfabian
Sir Christopher Lee was, reportedly, offered the role of King Balor, but had to turn down the role. See more »
Goofs
When the movie cuts to the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense a geographic title is displayed indicting that the headquarters is in Trenton N.J. In Hellboy it was in Newark N.J. and it's the same building. See more »
Despite his best efforts, the work of the Bureau for Paranormal Research & Defence is still secret, with Hellboy unable to be more than some blurred photos leaked onto the net and Agent Manning stressed out about the difficulty in controlling his team. Behind the scenes, internal relationships between Hellboy and Liz are strained, with Liz keeping a secret that will change their lives. They quickly have to focus on much bigger problems though as Elf prince Nuada returns from his self-imposed exile to take the throne of his father and awaken the legendary Golden Army to break the long-held truce between his people and humanity. So begins a race against time for both sides, to recover the three pieces of the golden crown needed to awaken and command the indestructible army of 4900 golden machines.
The Hellboy series has yet to really excite me as part 2 left me with the same overwhelming feeling of it being "OK" that the first film had done. In reviewing the first film I had said that if it carries on then I doubt it would get much more than one more film unless it addressed these issues and mostly I felt that the film didn't look to the core of the weakness. This is in how unengaging I found it and it comes from the plotting and the characters. Here we have a solid enough plot that offers another opportunity to force Hellboy down a "you with them or with us?" line as well as "developing" the characters by way of changing relationship dynamics. These things are all done but they are not really "delivered" so much as just put on the screen like you would put books on a shelf. This pure functionality in the writing is pretty much what keeps me from really getting into it and in this regard it is just like the first film, except this time it can't be covered by the "introduction" format and it stands out a bit more than it should So what we are left with is actually quite a "normal" blockbuster in regards plot and characters. We have the world in danger, we have a grumpy hero with an arsenal of guns and one-liners, a good looking woman, sidekicks, nasty villains and so on. As a result we do get a reasonably solid film but it does help that for all the lack of imagination in his script, del Toro has brought his A-game in the design and realisation of the creatures. As a work of visual creativity, the film is wonder of weird creations that are fascinating and inventive. The problem is that perhaps the rest of the film doesn't deserve this level of creativity in this aspect because the rest of it doesn't fit.
The cast mostly find themselves working within the parts that are not as good as the design. Perlman is always a bad-ass presence and as such is welcome in the character, but he can't do much with it other than be "big" and "mean"; what few chances there are to do more are awkward because it doesn't fit with the majority of what he is doing. Blair is a better actress than this film would suggest and again she is handed a "development" subplot that isn't actually developed and as a result she doesn't convince - doesn't always look the most natural in busy FX scenes either. Goss and Walton are not the best villains but they are engaging enough to carry their parts. Jones is the usual good "man in a suit" across several characters and brings physical presence to those characters well. Tambor is left with a comedy role that is not actually that funny, while the addition of the character Krauss is a nice one.
Hellboy 2 is not a great film but it is still a solid and engaging one. To look at clips or still though, you would expect so much more because visually it is wonderfully designed in the creatures and sets that are throughout, but this imagination and creativity is lacking in other aspects such as characters, script and plotting. It never bored me or made me hate it but at the same time it never really excited or engaged me as a total film. Almost worth seeing just for the visual extravagance of it but disappointing for the rest of it being rather ordinary by comparison.
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Despite his best efforts, the work of the Bureau for Paranormal Research & Defence is still secret, with Hellboy unable to be more than some blurred photos leaked onto the net and Agent Manning stressed out about the difficulty in controlling his team. Behind the scenes, internal relationships between Hellboy and Liz are strained, with Liz keeping a secret that will change their lives. They quickly have to focus on much bigger problems though as Elf prince Nuada returns from his self-imposed exile to take the throne of his father and awaken the legendary Golden Army to break the long-held truce between his people and humanity. So begins a race against time for both sides, to recover the three pieces of the golden crown needed to awaken and command the indestructible army of 4900 golden machines.
The Hellboy series has yet to really excite me as part 2 left me with the same overwhelming feeling of it being "OK" that the first film had done. In reviewing the first film I had said that if it carries on then I doubt it would get much more than one more film unless it addressed these issues and mostly I felt that the film didn't look to the core of the weakness. This is in how unengaging I found it and it comes from the plotting and the characters. Here we have a solid enough plot that offers another opportunity to force Hellboy down a "you with them or with us?" line as well as "developing" the characters by way of changing relationship dynamics. These things are all done but they are not really "delivered" so much as just put on the screen like you would put books on a shelf. This pure functionality in the writing is pretty much what keeps me from really getting into it and in this regard it is just like the first film, except this time it can't be covered by the "introduction" format and it stands out a bit more than it should So what we are left with is actually quite a "normal" blockbuster in regards plot and characters. We have the world in danger, we have a grumpy hero with an arsenal of guns and one-liners, a good looking woman, sidekicks, nasty villains and so on. As a result we do get a reasonably solid film but it does help that for all the lack of imagination in his script, del Toro has brought his A-game in the design and realisation of the creatures. As a work of visual creativity, the film is wonder of weird creations that are fascinating and inventive. The problem is that perhaps the rest of the film doesn't deserve this level of creativity in this aspect because the rest of it doesn't fit.
The cast mostly find themselves working within the parts that are not as good as the design. Perlman is always a bad-ass presence and as such is welcome in the character, but he can't do much with it other than be "big" and "mean"; what few chances there are to do more are awkward because it doesn't fit with the majority of what he is doing. Blair is a better actress than this film would suggest and again she is handed a "development" subplot that isn't actually developed and as a result she doesn't convince - doesn't always look the most natural in busy FX scenes either. Goss and Walton are not the best villains but they are engaging enough to carry their parts. Jones is the usual good "man in a suit" across several characters and brings physical presence to those characters well. Tambor is left with a comedy role that is not actually that funny, while the addition of the character Krauss is a nice one.
Hellboy 2 is not a great film but it is still a solid and engaging one. To look at clips or still though, you would expect so much more because visually it is wonderfully designed in the creatures and sets that are throughout, but this imagination and creativity is lacking in other aspects such as characters, script and plotting. It never bored me or made me hate it but at the same time it never really excited or engaged me as a total film. Almost worth seeing just for the visual extravagance of it but disappointing for the rest of it being rather ordinary by comparison.