The Fractal Hall Journal

Hey, folks. A bit of a snarl-up with Wordpress’ autopostinator (I blame the Bank Holiday weekend), so apologies for being slightly later than usual.

I have to say, link site io9.com has turned into a handy stop for skiffy information, even if it can get a little too horny-fanboy when it comes to anyone in SF with two X chromosomes. And after mentioning recently the possibility of a power-scuffle between the producers and the director on the Wolverine film, lo and behold, the rumours begin. And the issue, of course, is what rating the film should be placed at in order to maximise the audience. I hate to go on about it again, but this is the system British publishers want to use for children’s books? Well, that’s just fucking genius, isn’t it?

Anyone, bollocks to the X-franchise, you know what’s awesome? Hellboy II. Way, way better than the first one, and while it’s still more Del Toro’s thing than Mignola’s, the story is far more self-consistant, and it doesn’t have any extraneous characters in it. The world of the film in incredibly well realised (the lair of the Angel of Death, and the Angel’s character design being the stand-out for me), and it’s the perfect balance of funny, creepy and Hellboy punching or shooting things.

And I’m torn over what exactly the best bit is. Drinking in the shower? The locker-room fight? Duffing up the Golden Army, or the forest spirit? Hellboy himself’s brilliant, Liz gets a whole lot more to do than most women in comic-book movies, Johan is absolutely pitch-perfect, although (as all the characters are) subtly different from the character in the comics. Which isn’t a bad thing, the more I think about it. The problem with changing things from the source material, movies in particular, is it’s done in a hamfisted way by people who don’t have the talent of the original creators (see, amongst many, many other things, From Hell). This isn’t a problem here because Del Toro is just as talented in his own field as Mignola is in his.

Actually, I do know what the best thing about the film was. Abe Sapien finally coming into his own. He was such an afterthought in the first film, getting beaten up then sidelined in a tank for the second half. He’s such an interesting character in the comic, and Del Toro handled his and Hellboy’s friendship really well in the more recent flick. Sure, I’d have prefered the more reserved, stoic figure from the BPRD books, Hellboy’s Bones McCoy, but I suppose the problem with working under all that makeup and prosthesis is that you need all the sweeping gestures and hand movements just to get any character across at all, even if it does come out a bit campy. At least Doug Jones finally got to use his own voice in the film, after being overdubbed by Laurence Fishburne in FF2 and David Hyde Pierce in the previous Hellboy. I found it a lot easier to watch without Frasier’s brother’s voice breaking the illusion.