sci-fi

hellboy revisited

after hearing that Hellboy 2 will be in production soon, i had to dig this old favorite out again for another go.
this is one of those "background" movies for me.  I can put it on and do other stuff and just be mildly distracted by the film because I know it so well.

i really need to go back and read the comics someday.  i miss the dark-heroic characters of the comic.

Re: hellboy revisited

I remember seeing trailers for this when it seemed like we were in the midst of comic book movie mania.  It seemed like the stupidest thing to me, although I really knew nothing about it.

I don't even know how I ended up seeing it, but I was so delighted.  I need to check out more of Del Toro's work as well.  I read in the trivia section about him on IMDB that he "uses a lot of religious relics and artifacts. Always mentions Catholicism."  For some reason I liked that aspect in Hellboy.  Does anyone know much about his other films?

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It was kind of like the stupidest movie ever.  But I loved it.  I don't know why.. It kind of tried to hard to be a real film and failed miserably (romantic-comedy-mystery-action-comic movies just don't go over too well), and that's why its one of my favorites.

On the religious element, I thought it really added a dimension to the film that definitly interested me.  As a Catholic, myself its interesting how films challenge and/or reinforce aspects of religious doctrine.  I know that Del Toro is a Catholic, although he may not be practicing, but generally Catholics raised in Catholic countries are more devoutly religious than some Catholics in the US, because the religion is so embedded in the way of life.

Hellboy 2 is going to be titled "The Golden Army" and one of the writers discussed the film, saying:
“It's not Nazis, machines and mad scientists but the old gods and characters who have been kind of shoved out of our world. I kind of equate it to the whole American Indian situation. The Indians were shoved onto reservations. You had your old, wise Indians who said, "You know, this is the way it is. We can't fight anymore. We just have to accept our fate." You then have your Geronimo character saying, "Or we could just kill the White Man." That's kind of the situation we have in the film. We have our elf characters resigning to the way things are and then there's one saying, "Or we could take the world back." The main difference is - what if the Indians had a nuclear warhead? The elves have their equivalent of the weapon that is too terrible to use. What if this guy decided to use it?"

Seems like it could be interesting.. I'll definitely go see it.  I'm interested in finding out more about the storyline.

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This is a few weeks old, have you had a chance to go watch any of his other films yet? If not, you really, really should. One of my favorite directors working today. All of his films have something going for them, even his big hollywood movies done strictly for cash. Mimic had its flaws, but was also a damn fun giant-mutated-bug movie.

Blade II(which he's repeatedly said he only did so he'd be able to do Hellboy, his dream project) was a pretty shallow action film, but a damn good action film. In fact I prefer it to part one. Blade tried too hard to be arty, and failed. Blade II only tried to be a silly action movie, and succeeded terrifically.

Cronos is probably my favorite, outside of Pan's Labyrinth. It's a very interesting take on the vampire myth. And of course Devil's Backbone is a very effective ghost story set in an orphanage during the Spanish civil war(he likes this time period, Pan's Labyrinth and his next film after Hellboy will be set then).

Hellboy II Pictures on Yahoo Movies

Re:Hellboy II Pictures on Yahoo Movies

I just saw the trailer for the new Hellboy recently and really thought it looked almost as dumb as when I saw the trailer for the first one.  But then I ended up loving the first one, so I'm going to not try to judge this trailer.

Re: hellboy revisited

Risselada:

I remember seeing trailers for this when it seemed like we were in the midst of comic book movie mania.  It seemed like the stupidest thing to me, although I really knew nothing about it.

I don't even know how I ended up seeing it, but I was so delighted.  I need to check out more of Del Toro's work as well.  I read in the trivia section about him on IMDB that he "uses a lot of religious relics and artifacts. Always mentions Catholicism."  For some reason I liked that aspect in Hellboy.  Does anyone know much about his other films?

Yeah del Toro is a new favorite director of mine. You should check out Pan's Labyrinth. It was an excellent film. I had similar sentiments towards Hellboy until I watched it. I like the humor that del Toro uses in his films, and Ron Perlman does a great job playing Hellboy.

Hellboy 2 was also a fun film. I thought it was definitely worth watching if you enjoyed the first one, but it might have been better than it's predecessor, which is always a surprise.

Re:hellboy revisited

Hellboy 2 was part of my 20th birthday extravaganza. I can't think of a better way to enter my second decade of life.

For a while I was kind of lukewarm on Hellboy. It was a pretty good movie, but I always felt like there was kind of something missing. Then I saw the Director's Cut. It does for Hellboy what the extended edition DVD of The Two Towers did for its theatrical release counterpart. It just seems richer, somehow.

Interesting side-note: an acquaintance of my parents is an inker and writer for Dark Horse Comics, and calls Hellboy his favorite comic-book adaptation to date. He knows Mike Mignola. He said he (Mignola) was insanely excited about the movie when it came out, and passed out cigars like a proud father.