Hellboy II: The Golden Army review

There are a lot of things to really love about Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The film has deep and resonant character developments giving much more insights into the players than the last film. It also looks like a dream in autumnal shades of gold and sepia, with lighting that manages to both hide and reveal character reflective of the story and tone of the moment. And maybe most significantly, the characters, the costumes, the creatures look utterly believable and out of this world. They slide effortlessly into the world of Hellboy, suiting the magical underbelly of a world that exists right below our unsuspecting noses. Far more impressive than the first solid Hellboy film this movie sees legitimate growth in almost every way. But all that said there is something about the movie that just never grabbed me in the way the first film did. I respect this film a lot, I think it may actually even be a better movie than the original, but I can't say I loved it as much.

Despite the fantastic set design, and creature work something about the main plot just never quite did it for me. The story is about a (what is he an elf?) prince who is trying to reclaim the former glory of his family throne. To do this he intends to gather the pieces of a fragmented royal crown thereby breaking the covenant of peace made between his people an mankind, and use the power to awaken the Golden Army, who for all intents and purposes are giant possessed robots. This is all set against the character backdrop of Hellboy and Liz Sherman sorting through their troubled relationship, and Abe Sapian finding a true love for the first time in his life. It's a story with beasties galore, and huge fight scenes, and spectacular stunts, and creepy crawlies, and intense drama, true love, heartbreak, singing, and kitty cats... A film that really has it all.

But something still didn't grab me. As I said, I think it may have something to do with the plotting. Maybe it was the fact that I didn't feel invested in this disposed royal family of elves, maybe I didn't believe the love story with Abe. The plotting just didn't hold my attention, which is odd, considering I did enjoy many of the character moments, and overall found the personal arcs to be satisfying. Something... maybe just that intangible magic was lost on me though.

I still enjoyed this film, and think that perhaps on repeat viewings I would appreciate it even more. It's worth watching, at least on dvd. Hellboy II has a lot to offer despite my unspecific misgivings. My hope is that a third and even better film will be made based on the success of this film.
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Hellboy is all over the place

In preperation for his new movie Hellboy has been all over tv. Check out some of these videos...













Thats some good solid promotion there. I am definitely stoked to see how Hellboy II: The Golden Army turns out on July 11th.
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Hellboy posters

Wow. This is some pretty impressive artwork. Care of Comingsoon.net, check out the new one sheet poster for Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Thats pretty f--ing sick.

Also Empire Online snagged the 5 new character posters that will be showing up around movie theaters anyday now. Check them out as well. My favorite is probably that freakish bird man thing. Totally creepy. Click to enlarge any of these pics.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army opens on July 11th, 2008.
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Hellboy II poster

Care of the great guys over at CHUD check out this truly inspiring poster for Hellboy II: The Golden Army. What amazing art! This poster is going to be exclusive to the New York Comic Con crowd who are gathering this weekend. Click to enlarge. Very nice work.

The film, as we know comes out June 11th, '08. Which just happens to also be my 30th birthday. Boo ya!
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Hellboy II trailer

Here is the full theatrical trailer for Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and it looks awesome.



The movie comes out in theaters on July 11th, '08.
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Red, we have company...

The trailer for Hellboy II The Golden Army has dropped and I for one am very excited to see this film. I really enjoyed the first one and think the production design on this new one is just utterly fantastic now. Check out the trailer and decide for yourself though...



This film, sure to be a hit, is set to come out July 11th, '08.

If you'd like to see more Hellboy goodies you might come upon this production http://www.hellboymovie.com/production/. It is a very good production site with blog, exclusive photos and more. I think you should check it out.
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Some film stuff I had missed

I know I was planning on splitting up movie stuff for the most part from now on, but there are a few small tidbits that really don't need their own posts.

Firstly, and I only list this out of respect for the franchise, apparently Indiana Jones 4 is going to start filming in June, with Steven Spielberg set to direct, and 62 year old Harrison Ford ready to jump back into the fedora. George Lucas has been saying that this film is going to be made immanently for the past what like 10 years now, so I'll believe it when I see it... or at least once filming starts. At least Spielberg and Lucas have confirmed that they do have an approved script, and honestly want to get this thing made. hmmm... I'm reserving judgement for just a bit on this one.

A new trailer for the second direct to dvd Hellboy animated film, Blood and Iron has shown up on YouTube. Its definitely worth a look. The first film Sword of Storms aired on I think Cartoon Network one night a few weeks ago, but I somehow missed it... oh that's right, my crappy DVR wasn't working that night. Anyhow, the first one will be available to buy on February 6th. Or you could just go look around if you want to see it. Without even trying I found half of it here.

Oh and speaking of awesome animated superhero films, don't forget about the Invincible Iron Man dvd releasing on January 23rd. Check out the awesome trailer for that at the official website. Or the badass, very violent, adult anime Afro Samurai, voiced by Sam Jackson, which starts airing on SPIKE this Thursday (the 4th at 11pm).

So they've greeenlit a Silent Hill 2. hmm... I still have to see the first one. Heard it was good though. Other video games being made into movies of dubious quality: Hitman, Alice, Postal, Onimusha, Bloodrayne II, Far Cry, God of War, a new Street Fighter, another Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil 4, Price of Persia (which for now is the only one I think might be honestly good), and oh so many many more.

Did you guys miss some trailers recently??? oh really, so you already saw the Ocean's 13 trailer? well what about the new Simpsons trailer? I bet you've never even heard of Fast Track... or what about Hannibal Rising, Balls of Fury, and Smokin Aces... ok, well you probably know them all. Sorry, I've been a bit out of touch.

I'm going to head off now, talk more tomorrow. Lates

del Toro to make Tarzan

So Guillermo del Toro is in talks to direct a new, edgier adaptation of Tarzan. And I think that's a really good idea. I really like the character, and imagine that it could be done really well in the right writer and director's hands. The script is already being written by a guy named John Collee (Master and Commander, Happy Feet), and del Toro, who as we all know is awesome, says he's excited to bring it back to it's roots. To follow closer to the Edgar Rice Burroughs stories, pulpy but intense. And while del Toro is apparently committed to keeping it a family friendly film, we all know del Toro isn't afraid to do something a bit darker in tone too.

Of course before any of this comes together del Toro is set to direct Hellboy 2: The Goldon Army, which will be ultra-awesome in it's own right. But this Tarzan thing could be a very good.... have to see how it develops.

The first eight Tarzan books including the very first, Tarzan of the Apes, can all be read online for free over at Project Gutenberg. Hooray for public domain! I've never read em, but I like Burroughs and plan to go check em out soon.

Thanks to Comingsoon.net I've learned so very very much. Honestly they are a great site.

Dance your cares away...from Halo

The Fraggles are coming. hooray! Recently I picked up Fraggle Rock season 1 on dvd, and have been really loving it. The Fraggles we're always my favorite muppets for some reason. Anyways, as I mentioned in an earlier post there have been some rumblings about a Fraggle Rock film in the works. Well, it looks like things are actually progressing well on the Fraggle movie. They've got a writer on it now, and you'll never guess who it is.... Ahamet Zappa. Yup, according to AICN, Frank Zappa's son is writing/developing the film for the Henson company. He's only written one other film which has yet to get made but has a great title, The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless. While I have no clue about Ahmet's writing ability, I do know that the Fraggles are pretty tripped out as a concept, and if the Zappa family is anything its weird, so the combo could be a good match. I'm sure the Henson family knows what they're doing giving it to him too, hopefully this thing comes together, I know I for one would love it if there was a Fraggle resurgence.

In more troubling film news today Variety is reporting that Fox and Universal, who we're set to co-finance the film, has pulled out of the Halo film over financial disputes. While the studios are claiming that they've pulled their support because the budget looks to potentially be ballooning from $135 mil to upwards of $200 mil, the word on the street is that the move has more to do with Microsoft's $5 mil upfront payday, and their 10% cut of the gross. Basically this sucks. I really want this film to get made. Hell, I think everyone wants this film to get made. And with Peter Jackson producing I honestly think it will make bank. So why are the film studios being such idiots?! They need to get over themselves. Even if Halo did as well as King Kong it would still be worthwhile, especially when you factor in the tie in video game MS is developing. Granted I'm not sure why you need that big a budget, but as I don't know all of the particulars of the story having not played the games, I would leave it up to Jackson and co to make that call. Apparently Weta, Jackson, and director Blomkamp are all still involved, and hopefully we'll get some word on another studio stepping up to the plate soon. It would be really sad to see this project die.

In somewhat more immediate film news, the animated Hellboy movie Sword of Storms is going to be airing on Cartoon Network, on their Toonami programming block, on October 28th, so don't forget to set your Tivos; should be great.

gotta fly, later all.

Comic Con Roundup pt2

A couple more things I've gleaned from reading about comic con that I thought I should share with you. Although admittedly this post might not be that interesting as I've already shared what I consider to be the most important info. So let's just see what else is there...

Well Daniel Craig confirmed that he's down for another James Bond film. That'll make number 22 in the franchise. I hope the new one's good, but I have some serious reservations...

Bryan Singer is still committed to a 2009 Superman returns sequel, and says the villain will be an alien. My vote goes to Brainiac, and NOT Doomsday. And if the rumblings are right it looks like Brainiac is the more likely candidate.

Guillermo Del Toro is looking for a home for Hellboy 2, apparently the move from Sony to Paramount is not locked down. And although the script is done and has creator Mike Mignola's approval they're still shopping it around.

Steve Sansweet head of Lucasfilm's Fan Relations said that the Star Wars Clone Wars animated series... the new animated series, not the ultra cool one from Gendy Tartakovsky, will hit the airwaves sometime in 2008, and suggested that the long promised live action series should be good to go by 2010... So friggin long with everything Star Wars.

I have to tell you The Henson company is one of the most interesting groups I've ever really heard of. I mean they do sooo much, and a lot of it is super cool, and even more of it you'll never hear of. At their panel at comic con they had Lisa Henson alongside the likes of Gendy Tartakovsky talking about his upcoming Film, The Power of the Dark Crystal (IMDB). Yes that's right, if you haven't heard of it yet, you have now. They're doing a sequel to The Dark Crystal. Check out the teaser poster to the left. Although it follows some of the same characters its really just another story set in the same universe as the first film. They also talked about something that sounds totally hilarious: Pupper Up! Jim Henson's Puppet Improv! - For Adults Only. Because really, adult puppet humor is awesome. Oh and they mentioned in passing that they are a long way off, but still starting to develop a Fraggle Rock movie!


A picture of Topher Grace as Eddie Brock aka Venom from Spider-Man 3 hit the web too I really can stand the pic though so I'm not going to post it here. You can find it at the Official site HERE. Just click on Enter - Desktop - Wallpaper (#2 I think). I'm honestly expecting Venom to look good, but I just feel that specific picture is very ugly and shouldn't be used for promotion.

Have you guys heard about this Hot Fuzz movie yet? It's the same guys who brought us Shaun of the Dead and centers around two fairly inept policemen. I suspect it will be hilarious, as really everything with Simon Pegg should be. I'll have to check out the vidcast they've been doing on it. Try to learn more... read more on Comingsson.net HERE.

Oh here's one more tidbit for you, the X-Men 3 DVD will have a whopping 21 deleted scenes and 3 alternate endings!

Man there's really a lot more but that's all I think I'm going to get into here. Most of the other things I read online were more about people's impressions of panels, etc. There's more and more film news at the cons every year. I guess that's just how it goes. Next year I definitely plan to attend. If you're still interested go check out Ain't it Cool News, or Latino Review, or of course Superhero Hype!. I wasn't very impressed with CHUD. But hey, you can't win 'em all. And while I haven't listened yet, I expect the coverage of especially the comic book side of things to be up to the usual standards of excellence from the Comic Geek Speak podcast guys.

That's definitely all from me for now. I hope everyone else had a good weekend. Later :)

Comic Con Roundup pt1

So I have a bunch more comic con updates that came in over the weekend. There's really waaay too much to get a handle on, so here are just some of the things that caught my attention. Oh and in case anyone missed it, below my Crappy Camping Adventure post is a quick update no the new JJ Abrams Trek film, alongside the brand new teaser poster for it.

As for news there's tons, but first I wanted to just pay my respects to a great character actor named Mako who died on Saturday. He was a fine actor, over his 40 years in the industry he earned an Oscar nomination for his turn in The Sand Pebbles which I'm assuming is where he met Steve McQueen (who he actually eulogized). He was also known as the founder of America's first Asian-American theater company. And he was in a ton of tv shows and films. You might remember him best as the old wizard in Conan the Barbarian, but to me he will always be the voice of Aku, the Shape-shifting Master of Evil from perhaps the greatest cartoon series ever: Samurai Jack. On Friday he was announced as the voice to Master Splinter in the new Ninja Turtles film, and then early Saturday morning he passed due to esophageal lung cancer. Check out Mako's IMDB page HERE. He will be missed...

Moving onto a bit more upbeat news. There were a number of film announcements at Comic con. One that I haven't mentioned yet is of course Iron Man (WIKI). That's right, its finally coming to the big screen. Jon Favreau is directing, and no stars have been attached yet. Favs has officially said that the villain will be The Mandarin, and that the suit while its design is NOT locked down yet, will be more like a floating arsenal than some incarnations of the character. In fact he likened it to War Machine. The teaser poster for the film which was just revealed is obviously the picture right beside here. A few years ago Tom Cruise was really campaigning for this film, but I hope he doesn't get it. I'd much rather see someone without such a big "Celebrity" personality in the lead. Keep up on the film over at SupeheroHype!

Apparently there is also a new Iron Man cartoon in the works. Like the upcoming Fantastic Four cartoon (starts in Sept) the Iron Man toon will be a complimentary series, and not a direct tie to the film. That's cool I guess.

Speaking of cartoons, the Official website for the new Hellboy animated films is online and man it is totally badass check it HERE. On the site you'll find info on both of the upcoming direct to dvd titles: Sword of Storms, and Blood and Iron. There's an awesome trailer for the first film, as well as wallpaper etc. I am honestly getting very excited by this project.

Next Fantastic Four. Tim Story is working hard, with particular zeal on Dr Doom. Personally I don't care. Doom is great and all, but these comic book films are running into trouble by just trying to keep the same villains for every incarnation. I mean is there a reason every X-Men film had Magneto in it?! I love Ian McKellan, and magneto is a great villain, but WTF. The X-Men have tons of great badguys. Maybe there's not quite as many for the FF, but they've already announced that they're going with Galactus and the Silver Surfer. Galactus EATS PLANETS, do they really think they need another villain??? Anyhow, check out Story's Blog, and you can suggest a subtitle for the film. My vote "Fantastic Four 2: Electric Bugaloo" then tag it with "Who knew that surfers could dance?!" So then the film could be like a disco dance off for the fate of the world. hehe...

Time for me to go eat something... but I'll be back with more later on...

A collection of internet geekyness

So as you might or might not know... I am a pretty big geek at times. Also, I am really into movies, tv, and cartoons. Here are a couple really cool things I've seen recently on internet that I'd like to share...

These are both photos of Bumblebee from the new 'live action' Transformers movie...
Yes thats right, I said the new, 'live-action' Transformers movie! It's being directed by Michael Bay and is filming right now out in the Nevada desert somewhere. It's set for release 07/04/07.
Click on these images for a bigger version. I don't know why they made him a Mustang instead of of VW bug. Too bad if yiou ask me. Still I've very excited to see the film :)
Check out this supercool one-sheet:


Their War, Our World.
very cool.

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Next up a pic of the new Legion of Superheroes cartoon:


Left - Right:
Phantom Girl, Brainiac 5, Saturn Girl, Superboy, Cosmic Boy, Timberwolf, and Bouncing Boy
coming this Fall the the Kids WB.
Here's the WIKI.

Now that Justice League is over Legion will just have to fill up my TV time...
Or, at least it will until the new Fantastic Four cartoon starts this fall. Marvel is also producing a Wolverine spinn-off cartoon, but I don't think that will come out until 2007. Unfortunately no pics of those yet :(

But check this pic out for the upcoming two direct to dvd Hellboy animated movies...


Very sweet. Not sure when its starting, probably '07, but I'm definately excited to see it.

Finally, a few quick things:


The picture on the left is the teaser poster for the new CG animated
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie coming next year. And the second pic is the cover for the next animated Ultimate Avengers film, hitting dvd on 08/08/06. If it's anywhere near as cool as the first it'll be great. D.D.D. has it on pre-order for $12.38. Good deal.

Finally, some links for you:
Just hitting the web TODAY is the trailer for one of the most anticipated movies of next summer SPIDER-MAN 3.
Next is the BRAND NEW Snakes on a Plane Trailer.
And here is a trailer for the direct-to-dvd movie you've all been waiting for...
Leprechaun vs Wishmaster.
And last but not least don't forget that tomorrow night at 10pm on Spike TV is the hour long premiere of Blade the series. Hopefully it'll be as cool as the films were. But I admit I'm nervous.

Wow that was a collection of like uber-geekyness. Please forgive me. This is anew blog. I've gotten that out of my system now. I won't be overloading you all with that much stuff normally. Trust me. Better go now. Lates.