Hellboy 2

[unforth]

After seeing the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and listening to what you guys wrote about it, I expected more from Hellboy 2, but the movie didn't really hold together for me. I neither liked it nor disliked it, but I kept thinking how it could have been better. The dialog was weak, though of course the special effects were awesome. The real sign that there's a problem, though, was that it left me wanting to see a different movie.

Seriously, after watching the elf jump around and be awesome? Now I really, really, really want to go see Drizzt Do'Urden in a Forgotten Realms movie.

In short? Movies shouldn't leave you wanting to see different movies. Movies shouldn't be so predictable that I see the ending coming from so early. Movies shouldn't have problems with the dialog that make me wonder what the heck the writer was thinking. And Movies shouldn't leave me sad that they weren't what I was hoping for.

I'm curious what others thought, though - if anyone wants to chat, we can fill the comments with spoilers. ;)

Comments

[bakanekotoo.livejournal.com]

I liked the movie, granted, not as much as the first, but I still managed to like it. I liked the jokes better in the first movie than the second, some of the jokes in the movie were really lame, and the scene where they were singing that Barry Manilow song, which was funny for like the first few seconds, felt like it was dragging on. And the elf prince was kinda annoying. All his jumping around and stuff felt a little over the top :-P The movie was REALLY pretty though :-)

[nekomata.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, thank you. dyrecorn and I thought we were the only people who didn't think the movie was "OMG teh best." The predictability, weak dialogue and downright, over the top corniness really got me. Honestly, I liked Hancock a lot more and it has terrible reviews.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

My major gripe against it is that all their attempts to hit emotional notes fell flat for me. The visuals were gorgeous, and I liked the ideas, but there were so many out-of-tune moments that it wasn't moving like I wanted it to be.

. . . but yeah, I'd go see a Drizzt movie. And watch it on mute, if the script turned out to suck.

[drake-rocket.livejournal.com]

*Shrug* I acknowledge some of the flaws you suggest the movie had, but I really enjoyed it. To the point where it was one of my favorite superhero movies yet. There are a few reasons, some are less reasonable than others. Top of the list is that I *liked* all of the characters. I really typically hate bishi whiny save the natural world super villains, but I liked the prince. I liked everyone really (sans the FBI agent).

What I think Hellboy 2 did that I have not yet seen any other super hero movie do, however, is a *team*. Every other attempt at this has failed miserably, in my opinion. One or two characters ended up the focus and all of the others either failed or seemed completely secondary. Hellboy, however, made me feel like everyone on the team was cool, everyone had a personality and everyone had a cool (if predictable) bit of story and role to play. This and the point above really sold the movie for me.

It also had a lot of different types of combats, which I very much appreciated. It showcased a lot of different superheroic powers in a lot of situations dealing with a lot of problems. In other multi-hero team movies I've often felt strained when the heroes didn't use their powers half the time because every time Storm fires a lightning bolt it costs 1 million dollars to CGI. What's more it did something I've not seen done in a very long time: It portrayed an interesting ninja vs tank fight. What I think was more impressive than Nuada swinging around a neat spear is how they managed to make him fight Hellboy without him being blatantly superior, as is usually the case when small quick cute peeps fight big slow ugly peeps. I actually felt like I could watch the fight and see the strengths of both Hellboy and Nuada play out in an even fashion. It allowed both to be badass and have a really cool fight without it feeling like some stupid fiat made the hero win.

I guess for me I don't go to a movie and try to predict what's gonna happen. So yeah, it was obvious what was gonna happen with the prince. If I had given it any thought I prolly would have figured it out. But I don't really go to a movie to see a plot I haven't seen before. I go to watch it and hopefully find it awesome as a live action version of what happens in the comics. I guess what I meant to say is, if you think about it, the outcome of almost every superhero movie is predictable: good guys win. Ya it might habe been obvious...but it was *fun*.