Hellboy II : The golden army

Language : English / Ancient Gaelic

Year of release : 2008

Run time : 2h

Genre : Action / Fantasy

Cast : Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Luke Goss, John Hurt

Director : Guillermo Del Toro

The movie is based on the Dark Horse Comics character of the same name,created by Mike Mignola. The movie is the sequel to the 2004 Hellboy, and the 2nd movie of the franchise.

The movie was directed and written by Guillermo Del Toro from a story he wrote with Mike Mignola.

On Christmas night of 1955, little Hellboy is told a bedtime story by his adoptive father, about an ancient war between mythological creatures and humanity.As the elves were losing, a goblin blacksmith offered to build the elf king an indestructible mechanical army,which would never rest, and know no fear , hunger or mercy.

This Golden Army destroys humanity.

Feeling remorse for his actions, the elf king calls a truce with humanity, and agrees to abide in forests while humanity will have the cities.The crown which commands the army is split in 3 pieces, one staying with the king, one with his daughter..Her twin brother, disagreeing with the truce takes the path of exile.

In the present, prince Nuada starts looking for the pieces of the crown. Finding no understanding with his father and his kind, his father sentences him to death,as the prince wants his piece of the crown,so Nuada fights them all,winning, and k1lling his father,getting his piece of the crown. We find out during the fight, any wound he receives, of any kind, is felt by his sister,wounding her too.

In the meantime, Hellboy fights with Liz,about private space and not having things in order,I guess, as Hellboy is messy. They do have a lot of cats.

They go to the place prince Nuada infested with k1ller tooth fairies,and having no other way to exterminate them, Liz (who's a firestarter) explodes to destroy them. Hellboy goes out the window, and the world finds out about them.

Washington sends a new BPRD agent, Johann Krauss,due to the secrecy of the agency being out. They try to find out what's going on, and reviving for a few minutes a dead fairy, Krauss gets the information he needs.

 

Princess Nuala ran away so her brother wouldn't get her piece of the crown. Hellboy and his team find her in the underground troll market,and offer her shelter.

Abe falls for her,for he says ,they are both the same.

The movie was entertaining, it had action, comedy-stemming from the delivery of the lines, and heart,coming from Liz and Hellboy, Abe and princess Nuala, and even the prince.

Luke Goss and Anna Walton said their characters,prince Nuada and princess Nuala, had an incestuous relationship, but I didn't catch any of that in the movie.

The movie grossed more than 168 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of almost 85 million. It even received a nomination for Best Makeup at the 81st Oscars!

The visual effects were great. I loved the cartoon introduction and the transition of one scene into the other. The movie is so much Guillermo Del Toro,you can find the lore that it's in all of his movies in it, as well as the same character looks and visuals.

I liked the costumes, especially the ones of the prince, princess and their father.

The acting was good. Doug Jones portrayed 3 characters, Abe Sapien, the Angel of Death,and Chamberlain.

John Alexander and James Dodd played Johann Krauss, while Seth MacFarlane voiced him! John Alexander also played the legless goblin who created the Golden Army.

Luke Goss trained with Jackie Chan's action director and former stunt team member,and had to learn sword and spear skills, training for 7 months for the part! Not to mention,he had to learn ancient Gaelic!

I didn't like the soundtrack as it was mostly orchestral (when it wasn't,it was jazzy, thing I hate).

The movie is 30 days free on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads; 7 days free on Hollywood Suite Amazon Channel; for rent / sale on Amazon, AppleTv, Cineplex, Fandango at Home, Fetch, Rakuten Tv, Sky Store.

Rating : Worth a watch !