Thursday, December 20, 2007

Hellboy 2 Trailer



I do not really have that strong of an opinion of the first Hellboy movie -- I remember kind of liking the world that they built (Nazi Satanists are always great fun), but also being mildly offended that the girl could control her powers in the comic but was forced into the Hollywood archetype "woman-out-of-control" thing in the film.

I do not have that strong of an opinion about the sequel but I ADORE how the trailer starts with "From the Director of Pan's Labyrinth," then for a more than a full minute looks like an almost serious film along those lines (the creature that appears at the 49 second mark is breathtaking) -- then it GOES TO THE ZOO as soon as Jeffrey Tambor appears. I mean if you are going to go to the zoo, Jeffrey Tambor is the guy you want to go with.

The effect is a little like what happens in From Dusk Till Dawn, where you are watching a realistic road movie, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, at the 54 minute mark , a whole other movie comes crashing in. I know it is not possible, but how great would it be if Hellboy did not appear in the film until after the half-way mark, as he appears in the trailer?

9 comments:

Christian O. said...

Looks great. Really want to see the design sketches for it. Assuming they were penned by Mignola.


I love Hellboy, and I love Del Toro, but I wasn't a big fan of the movie aside of the great art direction and a good portion of the ideas.

I don't know. I get why, but I don't think Hellboy should ever be romantically involved with anyone. I know Mignola regrets not being good at the romance stuff, but that's not really what I'm looking for in a Hellboy Anything.

Patrick Sanders said...

"the girl could control her powers in the comic but was forced into the Hollywood archetype "woman-out-of-control" thing in the film. "

Liz couldn't control her powers in the comics either, that is a recent development in the BPRD comics. Del Toro's movie beefed up her character considerably, as she was little more than a background character. Mignolia even says in one the trades he'd planned on killing her off because he couldn't think of anything else to do with her.

Christian O. said...

YES! Johan Kraus is in the movie. I didn't know that, but I'm very, very happy about it. He's my favorite BPRD character.

For those of you who don't read it, Johan is a former psychic medium, whose body was destroyed during a seance, but his spirit managed to linger on long enough for the BPRD to construct a tank for him, and later a containment suit. He's wonderfully optimistic most of the time and just generally a nice guy.

And it's just a great design.

Ping33 said...

yeah I love how even aspects of the set look like Mignola... freeze the frame at the 19 second mark and check out the mask and the wall... PURE Mignola.

Prof Fury said...

I had feelings similar to Christian's and Geoff's about the first movie, but I've been surprised at how many non-comics people have told me they enjoyed it when they find out I'm a comics guy (even pre-Pan's Labyrinth). I haven't quite been able to pinpoint what it is about the film that they're reacting to. Perhaps Raiders of the Lost Ark fostered an occult-Nazi itch for many people that they weren't even aware of until Hellboy scratched it.

I dug this preview, though.

Anonymous said...

That would be horrible if Hellboy didn't show up until the halfway mark. As much as I love the Mignola influences on the film design the movie would be awful without Perlman being there to make it fun. That would be worse than the twenty minutes of Robocop 2 where Robocop's not even in the film!

Arlo J. Wiley said...

Am I the only one underwhelmed by Pan's Labyrinth? I mean, it's a pretty good movie, but I found it rather heavy-handed and the fantasy sequences were mostly unimpressive distractions from the real meat of the story, the real-world political scenarios.

Since I didn't like the first Hellboy (despite loving the comics) and don't think del Toro is any genius, I doubt I'm going to like this one either.

Geoff Klock said...

Arlo: in the tool bar on the right, under best of the blog, you will find a link to my post on Pan's Labyrinth. You were not the only one.

jennifer said...

awesome!!!!!!
geoff we have to go see that together... it's tradition!!!! and i liked the first one quite a lot. :)