Hellboy II: The Golden Army [Blu-ray]

Before going to see HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY, my wife and I sat down a re-watched the original HELLBOY with our 15 year old daughter, because she had not seen it. I truly enjoyed seeing the original film again after a few years, and was once again quite interested in the trials and triumphs of "Red", "Blue," "Liz" and all the others.So the next night, we went to see HELLBOY II, and frankly, I was nearly blown away. It's a far superior movie. Everything the first film got right, this one gets right again. And what amazes me is that I'm not really a "superhero movie" fan or a "comic book" fan...yet I think these particular characters, as realized by Guillermo del Toro and his team, are marvelous meldings of "mundane" human emotions with outsized powers. Hellboy is incredibly strong, supernaturally durable and also the spawn of the devil. Yet he drinks too much, is too clingy with this girlfriend and has an all-too-human short fuse. Abe Sapien is shy and softspoken...but he also has psychic powers and can breathe underwater. Liz is an attractive but troubled young lady who can set some pretty nasty fires just by thinking about it.You might say that X-MEN plows the same soil...yet those films, to me, are all glossy surface level efforts. Perhaps it's because there are SO MANY X-Men that few of them are more than assemblages of some character traits. In HELLBOY, we almost forget we're looking at "monsters."That effect is aided by the fact the Del Toro has concocted some of the most monstrous looking creatures ever seen in a mainstream film. I don't even know what to call his creations...they sometimes look like something from H.P. Lovecraft, sometimes like something from the Cantina in STAR WARS and yes, sometimes like creatures from PAN'S LABRYNTH. But all his creatures are striking to look at and brilliantly executed.HELLBOY II follows the efforts of Hellboy and his gang to restore the truce that has long existed between humans and "creatures" such as trolls, gremlins, elves and many other far less identifiable "fantastic" beings. The evil Prince Nouda is essentially breaking the truce with man, and intends on ridding the earth of them forever by bringing back to life an army of 4900 giant robots than simply cannot be destroyed and setting them to rampage through our cities.So often, stories like this just aren't terribly interesting, but I have to say that this one kept me going throughout. Much simply had to do with the imagination with which all the beings are presented. In an early, very striking scene, the Prince confronts his elderly, elf-like father. When the old man dies...his body turns into a stone statue. I know we've seen this kind of effect before...but the feeling this transformation evokes is a lovely mixture of awe at the beauty and dread at the finality of the change.But thankfully, the world has Hellboy to protect it. He charges into the fray, barely understanding what's going on, but hellbent to kick some butt!! His crush first, ask questions later attitude gets him into trouble, of course...but also wins the affections of the audience. He's like a little kid with some big powers. His is somewhat domesticated by his fiery girlfriend (their relationship has progressed in surprising ways over the years)...but he still can't help letting his big arm fly! The crew is joined by a new "leader" in the form of Johann Krauss, an entity made entirely of gas! Krauss animates an old-fashioned diving suit in order to give himself some shape...but his powers (and his Teutonic arrogance) give the movie a nice jolt. He's a completely new creature. Not physically strong like Hellboy or empathic like Sapien. He's smart and he knows some pretty cool ways to use his gaseous state! He and Hellboy have what amounts to a locker-room showdown that had me and the entire audience in stitches.I see that I am just going on and on in my review. There's so much more I'd like to share...but I hope you at least get the gist that this is a highly entertaining and worthwhile film. Del Toro is a visionary director. But I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the film is truly made wonderful by the fully-realized and heartfelt performance of Ron Perlman as Hellboy. He'll never get an Oscar for a part like this (not that he should)...but he gets a Summer Movie Season of 2008 MVP award for his very charismatic turn. Selma Blair has never looked better. Doug Jones (Abe) is wonderful in his physicality and the always enjoyable John Hurt even makes an early, welcome appearance. Only Jeffrey Tambor (normally so good) comes off poorly as their befuddled boss. His part is actually written to make him too much of a buffoon, so he's actually only irritating most of the time.In the best sense, I felt swept away by this film. I am quite eager for Part III!!

Great movie with amazing special effects. Love films with creatures or monsters. Good action and very rewatchable.

I am not going to discuss the movie itself, as there are plenty of reviews that focus on that, so please read those if thats what you are looking for.I will be concentrating strictly on picture and sound quality for those that have not yet purchased this.The picture quality is top notch all the characters are shown in clear vibrant well saturated hues. This movie has a main color pallet of blues, golds and rich earthy tones that are so well done you really do feel imersed in the wold the director created.This BD creates this with stunning depth and realismhell boys deep red skin texture is mostly constant throughout the film and looks amazing on BD, from deep black levels to its well saturated but never overdone colors, this is the type of film that showcases the true capability of BD extremely well.One thing to note that I feel helps further immerse you into this world is the fact this film is not shown letter boxed, so it will fill your full 16x9 screen from top to bottom, actually I prefer this wide screen format over the other, while this is my personal preference others might also agree. I just feel that when a film is shown in this format it just makes it feel more like your set is a real movie screen then if you see it framed with black bars top and bottom.As for the sound of the film the word awesome is the only way to describe it. The dialog is recorded with fantastic accuracy. Voices throughout the film never sound thin or tiny as I have heard on many a film, and are always mixed at levels that are legible and clear no mater what the scene throws at you, from gunfire torumbling LF F/X you can always hear what is being said.When the film calls for LF FX this BD delivers. The bottom end is powerful but not boomy, what you get is a solid low end punch mixed flawlessly with enough rumble to create a realistic HT experience you will not soon forget.I think this is a film that any true collector and or Home Theater enthusiast should definitely own.

Good movie. I added it to my Hellboy movie collection