First Post and Hellboy II Review

Welcome to my new blog. I used to blog at http://sean80.spaces.live.com/ but I've decided to give this place a try now. If you want to read some of my old thoughts, please feel free to head on over there.

For my first posting here I thought I'd give a little intro about myself and then do a quick movie review of Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

I'm a 27 year old male born in 1980. I live in Mississauga, Ontario, which is just outside of Toronto (which is where I work). I am a single guy who loves to play video games (sean80 is also my Live gamertag), watch movies and tv, watch sports (hockey, football, UFC and baseball mainly), read, surf the net, etc., etc. I am somewhat of a geek given my love of horror and sci-fi and the fact that I will go out of my way to watch a movie in digital instead of regular projection. I watch a lot of movies and you'll find I'll post my thoughts on them quite frequently.

What you'll find if you choose to visit here is my random thoughts on things from games to movies to life to whatever comes into my mind.

Now on with my review of Hellboy II. I've been a big fan of Guillermo Del Toro since I saw Blade II. The first Hellboy is a favourite of mine and I loved Pan's Labyrinth as well. I think he's a very talented filmmaker. With Hellboy II, he has done it again.

This movie completely lives up to the original and is one of the best sequels I have ever seen. It is not as dark as the first one. Where the first one is more sci-fi/horror, this one leans more to the fantasy genre. The special f/x are better than the first one (although given the budget those were good too) and the new characters were incredible. I also loved the story itself and think some of the creatures he has created in this movie are the best I've seen in a while.

Ron Perlman is fantastic once again as Hellboy and it is still some of the best casting ever and ranks right up there with Sin City in terms of people being cast so well to bring a comic to life. It was also nice to see Doug Jones be given the full focus in his roles and not having someone else do a voice over on his character. He is a very talented dude and can embody so many different characters. He played three in this movie alone.

Danny Elfman did the score for this movie, who I am a big fan of. I think this is his best work in years and might be some of my favourite work from him since Edward Scissorhands.

If there were any doubters about Del Toro doing the Hobbit movies (probably not too many around here) this will convince you that he is more than up to the task. Hopefully he'll do another Hellboy after that.

I give this movie a very strong 4/5.