I saw an article a couple of weeks ago talking about how the traditional "summer movie season" keeps creeping earlier into the year. Traditionally, summer movie season—that time of year when style triumphs over substance and incidental things like coherent plots and meaningful subject matter give way to explosions, effects and bad comedy—starts Memorial Day weekend. But in the past few years these big, bad action films have escaped their cage and started showing up before the summer season's truly here.
So after not making it to a single movie in months (I'm not kidding, either—the last movie I saw in a theatre was Along Came Polly!) we finally got out to the movies a couple of weeks ago. And what was our great choice for getting back to the movies?
Freaking Hellboy.
Understand, I wasn't terribly interested in the movie to begin with. I've never read the comic and there just wasn't anything there that hooked me. I like Ron Perlman and think it's great that he's finally getting a chance at a big-time, franchise potential lead role (and I was willing to see the movie just because I like him). But there really wasn't anything there that made me think, "oh, I've got to see THIS one!"
Then I saw several positive reviews and heard friends say they'd enjoyed it and I let myself get suckered into going… and dragged Dani along in the process.
Understand, this isn't actually a BAD film—it's no Charlie's Angels Full Throttle, for example. But it's just so annoyingly… pedestrian. Words like formulaic and obvious come to mind as well. (I'm not even going to complain about the CGI effects in this one… maybe it's still too early for that particular whine.) But it's like they had their little "superhero blockbuster checklist" and they just made sure that everything they needed was dropped into the script. (Who knows, since I've never read the comic, maybe this is what the comic's like—if so, I won't have to worry about reading that either.)
But what really bugged me about the movie (and this MAY be something you can blame on the comic) is the simple fact that, if you're looking for dramatic tension, a hero that is INVULNERABLE is simply not going to do it! I don't mean Superman invulnerable here… after all, if you throw a littly kryptonite his way, Superman's a pushover! No, as far as I can tell, Hellboy just shrugs off everything they throw at him.
And if, as it appears by the end of the movie (and yes, this is as close as you're getting to a spoiler warning on this one!) the REAL conflict is a battle for Hellboy's soul (or, at least, his allegiance) then maybe SOME indication of this epic battle before we get to it might have helped. (You know, maybe a little foreshadowing?) See, now he's got a weakness—a flaw that can be exploited—and suddenly you've got some dramatic tension! Because, as it stands now, all you've really got is some whiny teenager stuck in the body of a 40-year-old that's out slapping around CGI monstrosities because that's what he does.
So, here it is Mid-April and we've already got the first of the lackluster, over-the-top comic-book movies… looks like they're right. Summer's here early.
(And, for those of you that have been living here in So. Cal. the past few days, our weather seems to be telling us summer's here, too. Only thing good about our 100+ degree temps the past couple of days has been riding around in the convertible with the top down after sunset. Now THAT'S pretty cool!)
So after not making it to a single movie in months (I'm not kidding, either—the last movie I saw in a theatre was Along Came Polly!) we finally got out to the movies a couple of weeks ago. And what was our great choice for getting back to the movies?
Freaking Hellboy.
Understand, I wasn't terribly interested in the movie to begin with. I've never read the comic and there just wasn't anything there that hooked me. I like Ron Perlman and think it's great that he's finally getting a chance at a big-time, franchise potential lead role (and I was willing to see the movie just because I like him). But there really wasn't anything there that made me think, "oh, I've got to see THIS one!"
Then I saw several positive reviews and heard friends say they'd enjoyed it and I let myself get suckered into going… and dragged Dani along in the process.
Understand, this isn't actually a BAD film—it's no Charlie's Angels Full Throttle, for example. But it's just so annoyingly… pedestrian. Words like formulaic and obvious come to mind as well. (I'm not even going to complain about the CGI effects in this one… maybe it's still too early for that particular whine.) But it's like they had their little "superhero blockbuster checklist" and they just made sure that everything they needed was dropped into the script. (Who knows, since I've never read the comic, maybe this is what the comic's like—if so, I won't have to worry about reading that either.)
But what really bugged me about the movie (and this MAY be something you can blame on the comic) is the simple fact that, if you're looking for dramatic tension, a hero that is INVULNERABLE is simply not going to do it! I don't mean Superman invulnerable here… after all, if you throw a littly kryptonite his way, Superman's a pushover! No, as far as I can tell, Hellboy just shrugs off everything they throw at him.
And if, as it appears by the end of the movie (and yes, this is as close as you're getting to a spoiler warning on this one!) the REAL conflict is a battle for Hellboy's soul (or, at least, his allegiance) then maybe SOME indication of this epic battle before we get to it might have helped. (You know, maybe a little foreshadowing?) See, now he's got a weakness—a flaw that can be exploited—and suddenly you've got some dramatic tension! Because, as it stands now, all you've really got is some whiny teenager stuck in the body of a 40-year-old that's out slapping around CGI monstrosities because that's what he does.
So, here it is Mid-April and we've already got the first of the lackluster, over-the-top comic-book movies… looks like they're right. Summer's here early.
(And, for those of you that have been living here in So. Cal. the past few days, our weather seems to be telling us summer's here, too. Only thing good about our 100+ degree temps the past couple of days has been riding around in the convertible with the top down after sunset. Now THAT'S pretty cool!)
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