Saturday, 21 June 2014

Hellboy II

Also known as:
Hellboy 2
Rating:
80%
Format:
DVD
Year:
2008
Predominant Genre:
Action
Plot:
Hellboy must save the world.
Themes:
Personal change
Self-expression
Compassion
Totalitarianism
Similar To:
Hellboy
Best Performances:
Selma BLAIR… Ron PERLMAN…

The Golden Army

Superior sequel to the same director’s Hellboy - the kind of coherent drama that Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth should have been.

A story of freaks with special powers who are lauded by Men while simultaneously being criticized for somehow being ugly because they remind the world’s mediocrities of that very mediocrity. A clever analogue to the way in which, in the West, celebrities are raised to a level above ordinary mortals just before we watch, with schadenfreudic glee, as we proceed to tear them down for the sheer hell of it.

The characterization and acting is above average for this kind of action/adventure fantasy since it focuses on relationships rather than just special powers and the SFX aren’t arbitrary cinematic displays of digital cleverness, they actually carry the humorously told story forward.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.