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

[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*.

[unforth.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to me that it was the Team aspect that you liked, since thats one of the main things I liked about Hellboy 1 - one of the thigs I found frustrating in this one, in fact, was the feeling that they blurred the lines a bit in the team roles - for example, I was really frustrated with the way that Abe was able to withstand the damage that Wink did, because as established in the first movie that's not Abe's "role" in the team, and I don't think he should have been able to do that.

The combat was really awesome - I can't disagree with that. :)

What was sad to me about the being able to predict what happened was that I also don't go to movies to do this - in fact, I'm very bad at it normally, and don't generally spend any time thinking about it. What was sad to me about Hellboy was that it was SO obvious that I couldn't pretend I didn't see it coming. I really, really wanted to find it awesome, but problems like that kept getting in the way. For me, the problem with the scripting kept me from buying in to the central premises of the movie, which meant that it was (for me) a very pretty movie, a series of really cool action sequences threaded together with flimsy dialog, which meant that the action sequences weren't as "significant" as I would have hoped. I just wasn't able to suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy it as much as I would have liked to. :(

[drake-rocket.livejournal.com]

Ah I've heard the Abe V Wink argument before and, as a fan of the comic, I can't really agree with it. Regardless of what he looked like in the first movie, Abe is not supposed to be a wuss. Sure he's not supposed to be Hellboy level of badass, but he is supposed to be an expert hand-to-hand combatant and has the ability to recover very quickly from injuries (for example he got stabbed through and through with a spear and not only lived but recovered very quickly). I view the Wink fight as a correction to the errors in the previous film.

[unforth.livejournal.com]

Except he didn't look like a badass in it - he gets his butt totally kicked - if it had been all dodgy and stuff, I think I would have bought it more.