Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) Revisited – Horror Movie Review

The episode of Revisited covering Hellboy II: The Golden Army was Written by Emilie Black, Edited by Ric Solomon, Narrated by Niki Minter, Produced by Tyler Nichols and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Following the beloved Hellboy adaptation that was released in 2004 by Guillermo Del Toro, fans wanted more. As reviewed on a previous video, that one is excellent, so it was not surprising when the sequel was announced. Thus, in 2008, Hellboy II: The Golden Army (watch it HERE) was released, and it ruled!

Let’s start with the rating here and it’s a complicated one for me. It’s actually hard to rate it because my reviewer brain, the part of me that is highly cinematically educated wants to give it an eight out of ten, which isn’t bad, but my heart wants to say it can’t be rated on a normal scale. This film is a favorite, like all-time favorite, like put it on at any time and I’ll be happy. It’s one of those, give me now and shut up. I own all of Del Toro’s movies on DVD or Blu except for his Netflix Pinocchio because they don’t release their films on disc. That is a conversation, or rather a rant, for another day and another place. While owning everything Del Toro available, I still end up reaching for Hellboy II, and Pacific Rim, the most still to this day. Having to rewatch the film to write this was no issue. This is what I normally watch randomly on a Saturday morning when I don’t have a pile of screeners waiting for me. It’s one of those films that is easy to watch and doesn’t get boring. Granted, I have a lot of films like that, and I do watch other films just as much. Stuff like Brotherhood of the Wolf, the second live action Asterix film, almost anything starring Donnie Yen, and some truly messy horror films, but Hellboy II has a special place in my heart and has been on regular rotation at my place. Oh, and it’s a Christmas movie, I will not hear arguments about how it’s not, so it gets put into the Christmas rotation every year as well. And yes, it’s Christmas movie as it opens on Christmas with kid Hellboy, an explanation of how Santa finds a way, and some holiday music. It’s a Christmas movie and I love it for it. It’s also not one of those cheesy Christmas movies, so it’s easy to rewatch. It’s also a romance, an action film, a monster movie, a fantasy film, and so much more. It’s one of those movies that appeals to my ADHD and film brain in all the right ways. Now, there are couple of things that I find are unnecessary in it, but it still works, so whatever.

Following this declaration of love, let’s look into things deeper because to some it makes sense and to others, not at all. First, the story. As the characters are now established, the film can skip most of that when it comes to our BPRD regulars. We have Abe Sapien, Hellboy, Liz Sherman, Professor Broom in flashbacks, and Tom Manning at the end of his rope here. These characters have the same cast as in the first film because why change what isn’t broken, so Doug Jones, Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, John Hurt, and Jeffrey Tambor are all back. One difference with the first film that must be noted, Abe Sapien was voiced by an uncredited actor David Hyde Pierce in the first film and Doug Jones gets to voice him in the second and, no offence of DHP, but it makes more sense. Considering that David Hyde Pierce didn’t want to be credited as he considered the performance to be more Doug Jones’ than his, he would also make sense to think he most likely was ok with the change to having Jones voice himself.

Added to the BPRD team here is one new face, well, not quite a face. Johann Krauss joins our heroes here and is a bunch of fog contained in a suit. So that means it’s an odd one to cast… But the physical side of the performance went to John Alexander a man who has made a career as being the unseen man, the creature performer often unrecognizable. He was Mighty Joe Young in the film of the same name, he was the Cowardly Lion and a Wheeler in Return to Oz, a baby gorilla in Baby’s Day Out, Mikey in Men in Black, you get the idea. It must be noted that dancer James Dodd also is credited for the part of Johann Krauss, so some of the physical performance was his. So, John Alexander was perfect for the physical part of this and possibly could have voiced the character as well, but Del Toro wanted someone who was very particular about voice acting, someone who could say that one line, you know the one about focus, exactly that way without laughing, so Seth MacFarlane got the part. As someone who got bored of Family Guy and his other work, the fact he is the right choice to me here is almost a miracle.

Now, on the other side of the story, we get twin princess and prince, both ethereal and powerful, both intriguing with matching names. Princess Nuala is sweet and understated even with her white blonde hair and yellow-orange eyes. She’s so innocent it seems, she’s the kind of person perfect for Abe to fall for and boy does he. The part here went to Anna Walton who is a horror regular at this point. Genre fans have seen her in Vampire Diary, Mutant Chronicles, The Seasoning House, Soulmate, and Cherry Tree. Non-horror fans have seen her in a bunch of stuff too, but you know we focus on horror here. Her twin brother Prince Nuada, a man hellbent on gaining power over the human race who is introduced with a weapons training session to the audience, shares her peculiar looks in a male version. Actor Luke Goss is who Del Toro selected for this part and one can assume his selection may have to do with how well the actor did as villain Nomak in Blade II. Here, he gets more of a screen presence and his character is one of those villains that it is almost understandable why they went on the dark side. The character is one that works well within the film and brings a new angle to the battles the BPRD gets to fight. For those needing an introduction, Goss was a musician before becoming an actor and did his transition into acting by way of the West End in London. If his performance as Nomak is not enough to sell you here before seeing Hellboy II, his work as the Creature in the 2004 Frankenstein mini-series should be checked out. Outside of a few true genre pieces, he is mostly known for mid-range action films. Rounding out the cast and coming back from the first film is monster actor Brian Steele who gets multiple parts as Wink, Cronie, and Spice Shop Troll among others. His online credits for this film list these three and the mysterious dot dot dot after them. Digging deeper, the mystery is a bit clearer, and the other characters he has played here are Cathedralhead and Fragglewump. Once again, Del Toro brought in monster actors, people not afraid to wear full makeup or even rubber suits and it helps create a universe where the characters, human, humanoid, or otherwise are all present at the same time in scenes, keeping the need for CGI to a minimum.

These folks were all carefully chosen by Del Toro and the casting team, bringing together a cast that works so well together, even when they are against each other. This is how you cast a film, you go for people who can do the work needed for the part and people you know will give you exactly what your vision calls for. Of course, the majority of the main cast is returning from the first film, but come on, with those folks available and how their performances were in the first film, there was no reason to switch them for someone else. The cast here is basically perfect, from Hellboy to the Canary Lady. It’s a tough job to get a cast this good in one place and have them work this well in heavy effect makeup and crazy costumes and settings. Here, it’s done beautifully well.

That being said, the film here has tons of special effects and the fact that a good lot of them is done with practical effects helps the film age more gracefully. Going through all the credits for the special effects would take forever, but to give a good idea of how seriously Del Toro takes creating monsters and bringing them to the screen, he hired Chet Zar as key artist and Spectral Motion for most of the practical creation. Of course, a bundle of other makeup effects artists and others were involved here, and their work needs to be recognized because it is simply amazing. This team put together for this film is simply on top of their game and made the film’s $85 million USD worth the expense. This is a film that has every last dime on the screen and the practical effects are testament to that.

Now, there were some visual effects, or CGI here, and well, as biased as I might be, they have aged rather well. The best example here might be the bean that goes jumping around to find water to then turn into a giant tree being that puts the city under threat that Hellboy and the gang must face and unfortunately eliminate. This character is still stunning to look at, just beautifully designed and rendered. The CGI team is also huge here and they did great with the technology available at the time. This is one of those good examples of CGI that has aged gracefully. At least for now and that is something that will require revisiting in a few years as computer graphics are growing and evolving by leaps and bounds lately.

All of this to get us to the work of Guillermo Del Toro himself. The man is one of those directors who always has a vision, one who wants to make the best movie he can, one who has that childlike glee when it comes to monsters and practical effects, making him the perfect director for this. He clearly loved working on the first one and from interviews since, it seems he was really bummed about not being able to do a third Hellboy film. As a fan of his work and someone who wanted to love the reboot and didn’t, maybe it’s time for a requel, you know a sequel reboot, where the film goes back to Del Toro and allows him to use most of his original team for the cast and crew to try and create magic again. Of course, once again, Mike Mignola’s work would be given life on screen in the way that it should be. Mignola has said in interviews that his involvement with the Del Toro films, well, existed, while for the reboot, it was talked about, but he was minimally involved. Get Del Toro and Mignola together again for one last hurrah, something fans have been wanting since the release of Hellboy II. Let them create a story as strong as the one here or the one in the first film. Let them collaborate properly again.

As for me, I love the story of The Golden Army. The film and script give the twins something more than just being monsters or evil. They have a way of life that is in danger of disappearing, they have different ways of going about dealing with that and it leads to destruction. The film has a great balance on that front. The BPRD is evolving, and characters are aging, helping make them more human. Abe gets a love interest; he gets to feel without having to feel through someone else. Liz is pregnant and it messes with her, something that both works and doesn’t as it feels like a ploy at times to help bring Hellboy back at the end. Hellboy needs to evolve and grow up, become an adultier adult, become a being that could be a dad. In that sense, the pregnancy is a great way to push that aspect, but given that his father has died, the pregnancy seems like just an extra thing to push the character to the inevitable growing up and maturing. Having more Abe involvement makes the film better I think and having the characters have more than introductions here, having them have human sides, emotions, more than in the first where, yes, they have emotions, but it’s not as deep and it doesn’t feel like the stakes are as high for some reason and maybe that reason is love. Yeah, cheesy, I know, but everyone needs a bit of romance sometimes, may it be one that will for sure end well or one that is doomed. The film gives use both here, creating a dichotomy between Hellboy and Abe’s lives beyond being a creature of fire and a creature of water respectively. The story here has a few issues, but it’s good and easy to rewatch over and over.

Before I forget, one major change to the Hellboy team for this sequel is who did the score. On the first film, Marco Beltrami did a fantastic job. Here, the score is by the one and only Danny Elfman. Let’s be honest, that’s every horror and goth film fan’s dream. His music here is epic, exactly what can be expected of the man who has given us dark side nerdlings so much through the years.

Let me end on this: Is Hellboy II: The Golden Army perfect? No, of course not. That pregnancy subplot felt like a cheap ploy to me, making it a twin pregnancy even more so, but it doesn’t keep the film from being great. Overall, the story is fun, it expends the universe with the world the twins come from, it adds new characters, has a great resolution to the main plot, the performances are solid, the special effects, especially the practical ones, are on point, the music is epic, the writing and directing by Del Toro show exactly why some of us love him as much as we do. The man who is as sweet as he is talented does it again here and rewatching it should give anyone who has a penchant for fun monster movie a need for another film in this trilogy with the same team. Of yeah, and there’s the animation at the start, if that doesn’t pull you in, then I don’t know what to say. The film is worth buying for that small section of stop-motion animation alone. The rest of the film is just icing on the cake. But really, really good icing.

Two previous episodes of Revisited can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!

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