Big Red

As any fan boy worth his salts knows, we are existing in a great time for comic book movies. This summer we have have Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Wanted and Dark Knight. I loved loved loved Iron Man but took a rain check on both Hulk and Wanted. Tonight Becca, Dri and I saw Hell Boy II: The Golden Army.

Aside from the opening scene featuring a 9 year old Hell Boy I really liked the movie. Director Guillermo Del Toro put his bigger budget to great use. It was funny as hell, the action was AWESOME (tooth fairies are fucking viscious man) and despite all of the make up you could really feel for the characters. A lesser directors would get too drunk on all the new "toys" and made a pretty but vacant film.

Like the best comic book movies (Ghost World, Superman II, American Splendor) it stays true to the comic without being so reverent as to render it lifeless. I once read (or maybe heard) an interview with Mike Mignola where he said that he created Hell Boy because he liked to draw monsters fighting other monsters. This Hell Boy film is exactly that.

I think I might like this one more than the original but I won't say for certain until I've had time to really live with the film. But yeah it was really good and I hope it gets its moment to shine at the box office before Batman's arrival next week when everyone gets laid waste.