Fuck, that was heavy.

Was not expecting that twist. The counter-twist didn't defuse the effect on me. :(

(Although i think i missed one or two crucial lines that would have made the counter-twist clearer. Missed a few other lines as well, thanks to a combination of Scottish accents, my APD and my crappy buzzy telly. Think i might have to re-watch it with the subtitles on...)

2 other things that come to mind:

1) That conversation between the mother and son about "putting her away" was horrible... alright, possibly intentionally so, but i wish someone in the film (even if the point was that neither of them were aware of it) had mentioned assisted independent living as an option.

2) That art/photo exhibition was totally out of order... as a "surprise" - without her consent? No. Not acceptable at all. Wish that had been explicitly critiqued in the film too, rather than it just being Emotional Teary Moment.

Oh, third thing - we don't actually find out where Roberta ends up living in the end. I suppose the presumption is that Roberta, Kenny and Ruby form a household, but it isn't clarified.

Was a very well made film in that no one in it, not even Roberta herself, was total hero or villain. Assisted suicide doctor guy reminded me of Peter Singer as described in Harriet McBryde Johnson's account of her meeting and debate with him.

Probably not a good idea to have started watching it at 2am, on reflection...

is SERIOUS WTF.

And that's about all i have to say about it right now. I was intending to write a serious review of it, but it was... well, not quite what i was expecting. Gonzo gore-splatter crazy shit like a live-action episode of South Park done by a very, very drunk Spanish arthouse director who had read far, far too much 2000AD. And that, frankly, makes it sound relatively understated...

Apparently there's also a German crust-punk band of the same name. Hmmm.

Saw Hellboy 2 today, with a couple of friends. Would have liked to have had a bit more drinking/conversation time afterwards as well, but i'll just have to post about it on the internet instead... ;)

I found it a bit disappointing TBH. It felt... patchy, like bits of it were trying to be comedy, bits of it were trying to be LOTR-style epic, bits of it were trying to be Blade-style horror/action, and bits of it were trying to be Big Emotional Drama.

The CGI was cool, but we didn't get to see the whole Golden Army in epic apocalyptic action, which i had been hoping for...

A whole lot of this film seemed very much to be Del Toro saying "look! I can do elves-and-goblins fantasy in the style of Peter Jackson's LOTR!" - almost as if the whole thing was a teaser trailer for his upcoming take on The Hobbit. In contrast to the whole vaguely-Lovecraftian pulp horror/occult/cosmic demonic creepy things vibe of the first Hellboy movie, the more traditional/fairy-tale/fantasy creatures of this one felt kind of jarring, like they didn't really fit in the same fictional universe.

The BPRD scenes with various silly-looking monsters being "processed" in the background of the corridors were far too much like "Men in Black" (something several people said independently).

And TBH Hellboy came across as a bit of an asshole, at least to non-humans - punching the old troll woman across the screen, battering the guy holding what he thought was a baby... when both those characters were basically "neutrals"...

Also... Abe with stripes? I'm sure he didn't have stripes in the first one. And his whole getting drunk and singing love songs scene seemed really out of character. In fact, Abe falling in love with a woman felt out of character - i almost suspected that plot element was put in to say "look! he's not gay, honest!". Tho, TBH, i would have preferred him not to have any mammalian sexuality.

And legless goblin blacksmith guy... he could build an army of 4900 indestructible clockwork warriors, and yet he couldn't build himself some assistive technology for getting up a few stairs with?

The whole film felt very rushed, like it was meant to be longer (which i also thought was true of the first Hellboy film).

The plant elemental was genuinely cool (and very Swamp Thing-esque, which is always a good thing*), although the whole emotional-strings-music "it's so beautiful" death scene was kind of overblown and silly, especially with the movie having felt fairly comedy-ish up to that point. Very new-Doctor Who, actually, now that i think about it (and with the what-looked-like-snow falling, also very like the sort of emotionally manipulative scene Hollywood would typically put in a Christmas blockbuster, rather than a summer one).

*i can haz Alan Moore/Guillermo del Toro collaboration, plz?

The angel-or-whatever that healed Hellboy was also very creepy and very cool, and very Del Toro (very reminiscent of Pan's Labyrinth). I hope the next movie will return to his whole apocalyptic destiny thing, and more occult/conspiracy/demonology vibes.

Luke Goss's character was pretty cool, although in some ways a bit of a retread of his character from Blade 2 (which of course was also Del Toro). I'm sure there is another reasonably famous character who is an albino-looking, long-haired elf dude with martial arts skills and (possibly) an extending blade thingy somewhere tho - a Michael Moorcock book, maybe?

...so, this review is as patchy as the film... ;)

It was disappointing, especially for Del Toro, but then, my expectations of him probably are a lot higher than of any other major director, simply because of how utterly awesome Pan's Labyrinth was (probably one of my all time favourite films). I guess i was kind of thinking that, because of how great a reception Pan's got, he would have felt freer to put more of the vibes of his "indie"/Spanish-language films into his Hollywood stuff, whereas... he did a bit, at least visually, but still wants to keep his Hollywood stuff Hollywoody (or was constrained by the studio somewhat)...

Still, disappointingness of Hellboy 2 doesn't make Pan's Labyrinth any less awesome, of course. In fact, i think i'm going to go watch that again...