This blog entry is part of my “movie year countdown”. To read more about that check out my first Spout filmblog entry.
El Espinazo del diablo (The Devil's Backbone)
When I first saw television ads for Hellboy, I remember thinking it looked like the absolute worst of the latest trend of rehashed movies based on comic books. I hadn't even heard of this one, and it sounded about as generic and stupid a possible. Don't ask me why I ended up watching it. I worked at a video store at the time and was able to take home new releases for free before the release date. I don't know why I took that movie home and stuck it in my DVD player. But I did and it was fantastic. Probably the fact that I hadn't heard of it before was for the best. It was cool and fun and clever and funny. Better than Spider-man, X-Men, Superman Returns, or even everyone's beloved Batman Begins in my opinion.
I watched some special features and learned more about Guillermo del Toro. I felt in many ways drawn to him. I realized that I had also seen another one of his movies Blade II, but remembered very little about it. I couldn't even differentiate it in my mind from the original Blade. But I wanted to see more of his movies. And after hearing from many different people recommendations for The Devil's Backbone, and all of the recent buzz about Pan's Labyrinth, I was pretty excited about this.
I'd heard it was going to be pretty scary, but this wasn't true. Mostly just creepy. After the movie was over, I was not as blown away as I had hoped. It was a solid film. Well executed to be sure. Good integrity and production value. But not too much really gripping or original. I decided to listen to the filmmaker's commentary nonetheless.
Apparently del Toro recorded two commentaries for this film. He makes note that the commentary I was hearing was a new one for a new edition of the DVD. But I will tell you that listening to the commentary, for me, was a lot more interesting experience than watching the movie as it was the first time. I discovered much of what del Toro's inspirations were. What he was trying to do. His philosophy of filmmaking and his approach. I greatly respect and appreciate everything he said.
He knew a lot about the history of the genres he was conjuring. The gothic romance mostly. The commentary was an interesting history lesson. He talked often about how this was a genre that had many things that always repeated. Very melodramatic and certain expected conventions. Although he was trying to do something new with it as well, I suppose this may be why it didn't feel too fresh to me.
Well, I'm still interested in Pan's Labyrinth somewhat, but even more so for Hellboy 2!
final score: 7/10