- Title: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
- IMDB: link
Ron Perlman might have began his career in 1975, but certainly has been one hell of a project man since the mid-1980’s from then to date he has worked on over 150 projects from voice over, TV, monsters and priests, Mr. Pearlman is still hitting it strong with his stone fisted sarcastic creature of the underworld, Hellboy. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, one of the few men on this planet I would consider dating as long as he stays in one of his monstrous costumes; he wears big muscles in red and horns with a tail well. Selma Blair has found her calling, between all the phony little characters she has played over her career I would say the strong and oh not so quiet type fire girl who’s in love with the big red hunk of burning love is certainly the part for her. The new characters Prince Nuada played by Luke Goss and Princess Nuala played by Anna Waltong add a fresh change to the story, it’s interesting to see a Tokenistic twist put on the everlasting battle of good verses evil in a modern world.
The Golden Army isn’t just about good verses evil, but a complete humanist approach to Hellboy’s character. It brings about his want or rather what he feels is his need to be accepted by humans. Finally realizing with his one true love’s help, that all he needs is her by his side and no matter what he will always have to save mankind from all that is wrong or evil. Finding his own family amongst the oddities that fight by his side, Hellboy goes forward to face his own purpose to his creation, to live is to bring down the ultimate destruction of the planet, but to die is to let that defeat occur now. Choosing for him, Liz decides for her own good to keep Hellboy in tip top fighting shape and moves on with facing her decisions on down the line.
A truce between mankind and the mystics of the world generations ago is broken when a rebellious prince, Prince Nuada, takes it upon himself to take control and bring back the indestructible Golden Army. With the help of Prince Nuada’s sister, Princess Nuala, and protoplasmic mystic Johann Krauss (John Alexander) who is brought on as the new boss in town, Hellboy and his gang confront the many evil creatures of the underworld, creatures like the cute little tooth fairies and big bullish trolls. Ultimately the team faces off with one of their largest battles yet and find that working as a team and trusting one another is the only way to survive the monstrous attack on human existence.
With the help of very talented make-up and costume crews, plus the magical workings of CGI and camera work and on top of that add a dash of absolute creative genius from the director and writer Guillermo del Toro , Hellboy is a story not to be missed and is worth escaping into the magical realm of monsters and super heroes over and over again. What better way to spend our summer hiding from soaring gas prices and bonds of our failing economy than hitting the movies and falling in love with one super hero after another? If only such heroes existed in more than the magic of the big screen to save us from our everyday trials and tribulations.