BEFORE: David Harbour carries over from "Black Widow" - I've had these two films linked together for about a year and a half, I figured that keeping two films together tends to double the linking possibilities, it just gives me more options. However, then when one film gets delayed because of the pandemic, I then have to decide if the other one gets delayed with it. But I thought I had a way to use this one last year, as a link from "Extraction" (with David Harbour) into the whole horror chain in October, but that link sort of mysteriously disappeared - or perhaps I was wrong about it existing in the first place. Something similar happened again this year with "Godzilla vs. Kong", an actress appeared on the cast list, then she just didn't. So I have to watch these things and sometimes adjust the plan, find another way to get where I want to go.
Thankfully it all worked out, I eventually got to "Hellboy", almost a year after I initially planned to, but I can just blame COVID-19 for one more bad thing. But this is why the path to the end of the year, any year, has to be somewhat flexible. I added a new film for tomorrow, reasons to follow, but that meant I have to delete something else. It's OK, there are about 4 or 5 films slated for November & December which are the middle films in groups of 3, and that means they can be dropped and postponed if needed.
I think the goal here, with "Black Widow", "Hellboy" and two more films coming up, I planned something for July that was a bit Halloween-like (last October was for horror films AND superhero films, out of necessity) but could also been seen as a nod to San Diego Comic-Con, which is usually the third week of July. My schedule changed, and I decided it made more sense to watch only four or five films per week, and this also had the added benefit of stretching out my material, so there wouldn't be two weeks of down time in September. So here's my Comic-Con tribute, films based on comic books and such, even though it's a few weeks late. I don't go out to the San Diego con any more, and it's been a virtual event this year and last year, anyway.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Hellboy" (Movie #277), "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" (Movie #278)
THE PLOT: Hellboy, caught between the worlds of the supernatural and human, battles an ancient sorceress bent on revenge.
AFTER: Damn, it's been a LONG time since I watched the first two "Hellboy" movies, it was in 2009, the first year of this blog. I've come full circle on something, for like the thousandth time. But hey, we're all on like the third set of "Spider-Man" movies, and the what, fourth or fifth actor playing "Batman" on the big screen? This year marks only the first reboot of "Suicide Squad", and this film from 2019 is the first reboot of "Hellboy", so the lesser superhero franchises still have some catching up to do. So do I, I haven't even blocked out time to watch the Snyder cut of "Justice League", or the "Black Freighter" cut of "Watchmen". Look, I've been busy, OK?
I never really read the "Hellboy" comic, anyway - it was put out by Dark Horse, and I stopped reading Dark Horse Comics when they lost the "Star Wars" rights to Marvel. My boss used to get free comics from Dark Horse, and he didn't really understand why I didn't take them when he offered them to me. Basically, it was the same reason you might turn down an RC Cola, even if it were being handed to you for free, it's neither Coke nor Pepsi, which are the sodas you like. Or maybe the Dark Horse was like the Dr. Pepper of comics, they require a certain reader with a specific need for JUST that taste. My ex got into the Dark Horse books a bit, but she also read Sandman and Elfquest comics, I liked the former but I wasn't into the latter.
My point is, that like "Spawn", "Hellboy" is a comic that's been around for a long time, and has a whole bunch of recurring characters that I'm not familiar with. And they sure tried to jam a bunch of them into this movie, like Baba Yaga, who I know is an evil old witchy woman from Russian folk stories, and Nimue, who comes from the Arthurian legends. So I gather that Hellboy travels around the world and interacts with a bunch of supernatural characters borrowed from the folklore of several other countries, as long as they're not copyrighted. As an agent for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, here he also comes in contact with Gruagach, a big pig-like creature; Lobster Johnson, a Nazi-fighting vigilante from the World War II era, and a former associate who disappeared in Mexico while investigating vampires, and turns up wrestling under the name Camatotz, which is the name of a bat god, so umm, guess what.
Oh, yeah, and a trio of giants, too - Hellboy gets hired by a bunch of giant-hunters to help with dispatching these giants, who have been around for millennia, only most people don't seem to be aware of their existence, except for this secret society that likes to hunt them. God knows where the giants hide when most people aren't out looking for them, that seems like it might be difficult, what with them being giants and all. But the main villain here is Nimue, who got slain by King Arthur with the help of Merlin, who then split her still-living pieces into small boxes and instructed knights to go hide the boxes around the world, lest she be able to assemble herself back together.
Similar to the tactic used by "Black Widow", we also see what is essentially Hellboy's origin here, how a secret society of Nazis tried to call a demon from Hell into our plane, and were stopped by the BPRD, only after a young red demon with one giant hand, horns and a tail had climbed up from the netherworld. Instead of dispatching the demon, one member of the BPRD, Trevor Bruttenholm, adopted him and raised him (presumably) like a human boy. The film doesn't really get into his motives, but perhaps he believed he could train this demon to work against the other supernatural forces of evil already in the world.
Hellboy is aided here by Alice, a young girl who was replaced by a changeling fairy when she was just a baby, and Hellboy investigated and forced the changeling to reveal himself and return the baby. Also on the team is Ben Daimio, an Asian agent with a secret, if he gets too worked up he changes into a particular animal creature. (I'm watching the first season of "Titans" now on TNT, and so of course he just calls to mind Beast Boy for me.)
Not everything really worked here for me, like as soon as Nimue got her power back, the first thing she did was kill all of her followers. Umm, why? Did she somehow draw energy from killing them, or were they not worthy, or was this just to show how evil she was, like a guy punching himself in the face before a fight to show the other guy how tough he is? This was very unclear, but it was one of several unclear things. Then again, I fell asleep about 30 minutes in to this, which was weird because I hadn't worked hard yesterday, just at my office job, and not at the movie theater. But then again, I also fell asleep during "Black Widow", and it was during the loudest, most exciting part. I blame the comfortable reclining chairs in the movie theater where I watched it, last month.
There's a late appearance by Merlin, who I think in the stories was both Nimue's sworn enemy and his lover (I think some people understand how that isn't a contradiction) and Merlin explains that there's a familial connection between Hellboy and King Arthur, and how Hellboy's mother went to hell, which explains how he grew up there, I guess. (Does it have something to do with Arthur sleeping with his own sister?). Anyway, Hellboy has the right to wield Excalibur or something, but also has a vision about how doing that could bring on the end of the world. OK, so maybe that's not such a good idea, then.
Then there are the pre-credits and mid-credits scenes, and it seems like the other superhero movies are FINALLY learning a thing or two from Marvel, namely how to tease a sequel. Here those teasers introduce a major supporting character (who was in "Hellboy II", therefore this can't be a sequel, has to be a reboot) and then the other scene shows Hellboy communicating with the ghost of Lobster Johnson. Yeah, I didn't really get why that was important, either.
But you know what? I have a few actors that I give passes to, they can basically do whatever they want and I'm not allowed to question their choices. Michael Shannon is one of those actors, so is J.K. Simmons, who really can do no wrong, he's good in everything. Maybe Richard Jenkins is on that list, too. David Harbour and Ian McShane are both in this film, and I think they both belong in that category, too. Whatever films those guys want to be in are basically fine with me. Who else? Patrick Wilson, maybe? Mark Hamill for sure...
NOTE: Ever Anderson played the young Natasha Romanov in "Black Widow", and her father is director Paul W.S. Anderson, while her mother is Milla Jovovich, who appears in today's film, and she'll be here tomorrow as well. Small world, I guess.
I really should go back and watch the two previous "Hellboy" films, when I have a little more time - maybe late September or late November. Were they really as confusing and disjointed as I remember them being, or was I off my meds those days?
Also starring Milla Jovovich (last seen in "Shock and Awe"), Ian McShane (last seen in "Hot Rod"), Sasha Lane (last seen in "American Honey"), Daniel Dae Kim (last seen in "The Onion Movie"), Thomas Haden Church (last seen in "The Peanut Butter Falcon"), Penelope Mitchell, Sophie Okonedo (last heard in "Christopher Robin"), Mark Stanley (last seen in "Mr. Turner"), Brian Gleeson (last seen in "Phantom Thread"), Alistair Petrie (last seen in "Hampstead"), Laila Morse, Mario De la Rosa, Atanas Srebrev (last seen in "Hunter Killer"), Douglas Tait, Dawn Sherrer, Michael Heath (last seen in "Oliver Twist"), Rick Warden, Nitin Ganatra (last seen in "Color Me Kubrick"), Markos Rounthwaite, Joel Harlow, Dimiter Banenkin, Vanessa Eichholz, Kristina Klebe, Charles Shannon, Carl Hampe, Tony Van Silva, Jonathan Steele, Ava Brennan, Anthony Delaney, Ilko Iliev, Josh Finan (last seen in "The Current War: Director's Cut") and the voices of Stephen Graham (last seen in "Rocketman"), Emma Tate (last heard in "A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon"), Troy James,
RATING: 6 out of 10 dead monks
No comments:
Post a Comment