Review--Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Friday night, Whitney and I went on a date. Honest-to-goodness, dinner-and-a-movie evening together. We ate at Friday's and went to see Hellboy II: The Golden Army. We even went to a theater that didn't smell like urine this time!

I loved the film. Loved it...it was relentlessly funny, beautiful, and fun.

As the film opens, we watch a younger Hellboy watching Howdy Doodie with his father, who reads the overeager Hellboy a bedtime story about The Golden Army, a warrior race of 4900 indestructible Goblin-forged machines, commanded by the elf-king in his war against mankind. Though the Golden Army triumphs, the Pyrrhic victory fills the king with remorse: He has become the destroyer himself. To atone, he locks the Golden Army away and separates the crown that controls them into three pieces, one of which he gives to man.

Yes, yes, plenty of Lord Of the Rings references there. Done? Good.

Fast-forward to the present--Hellboy and Liz are having problems because Liz is a ball of emotion. Well, she's a ball of fire mostly, since that's her gift/curse. They're called to investigate a ghastly murder at an auction house, and the plot commences.

Taken for what it is, Hellboy's an enjoyable romp with larger-than-life demon who likes cats.

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