Jon22: The Website of Jonathan Dobres

Man, this summer’s crop of movies completely owns me. I’ve probably spent more time in theaters in the past month than in the previous year. I’m sure you don’t really need more reviews of these blockbusters, but I need something to write about, and I’ve had kind of a superhero thing going on lately, so here we go.

I saw both Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Hancock this week. Here’s the one-sentence review that magically applies to both of them: Man, I can’t wait for The Dark Night. Elaboration: I am so excited. Very upset by the prospect of not seeing the movie this weekend due to admittedly more important life events.

And, if you crave slightly more detail:

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

The Hellboy movies are in many ways typical summer popcorn affairs, but Guillermo Del Toro’s vision pushes the franchise just a little bit farther than you might expect. Mixed in with the big explosions and undead Nazis is a story about making your own path in life, birthrights be damned.¹ It’s not exactly the Illiad, but it’s not exactly Disaster Movie, either.

I really respect Guillermo Del Toro’s vision, and I mean that literally. He goes out of his way to use practical effects—actors in latex suits, elaborate puppets, and real sets—wherever possible, resorting to CGI only when absolutely necessary. This gives the world an earthy, solid feeling, something that pure CGI still can’t quite capture. Actors can really, actually look at the thing they’re supposed to be talking to, and it makes a noticeable difference in the performances. Hellboy’s “Death”, the strange, captivating creature pictured above, wouldn’t necessarily have looked better coming out of a computer, and on some Uncanny Valley level you know that the thing was physically in the room. It makes the scene that much scarier. Guillermo Del Toro is the kind of director who isn’t afraid to put a 58 year-old character actor in the lead role of a major summer movie. His attention to detail and artistic commitment push Hellboy just enough to be something better, something that stands out as worth seeing.

Hancock

In many ways the complete opposite of Hellboy. It’s got the Big Movie Star in the lead and flashy special effects, but it actively avoids trying too hard for anything. It’s not a bad movie, per se, just a surprisingly mundane one. You sit through it, basically approve of the experience, and then leave. The movie starts interestingly enough (I mean, come on, Hancock is basically a derelict Superman), but he starts turning over new leaves pretty quickly and things just sputter out from there. They can dress Will Smith in ratty clothes and a week’s worth of stubble and somehow he still feels like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. He’s too inherently clean-cut to pull off the film’s most interesting angle. Jason Bateman is awfully good in it, though. Give him a starring role already.

1. A completely unintentional pun that somehow survived three revisions of that paragraph, I swear. ∧