Guillermo del Toro Retrospective: HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY

Hellboy II: The Golden Army
2008
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Seth MacFarlane, Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Jeffrey Tambor
Rated: PG-13

And after Pan's Labyrinth we're right back to Hellboy.  This sequel was commissioned shortly after the first's release and supposed to be put out in 2006, but Revolution Studios went out of business, putting the sequel on hold.  Universal studios picked up a backdeal on Revolution's films and put this one forward.  del Toro always wanted to at least craft a trilogy out of the Hellboy character and here was a second stab at it.  The film expands upon and improves the universe set in the first film.  It feels more comfortable with itself and makes for a much better film than the first go-round.

Guillermo del Toro Retrospective: HELLBOY

Hellboy 
2004
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Karel Roden, John Hurt, Jeffrey Tambor, Biddy Hodson
Rated: PG-13

So, yeah, I didn't finish this series before Pacific Rim came out last weekend.  Last week was a bit crazy for me and I had to end up putting this retrospective on hold.  Time was not something that was available for me to have to complete it.  I could have written about the last 3 entries in this series without viewing them, yes.  But to be true to my restrospective format, I like to enter each essay coming off a fresh viewing of the film I'm discussing.  I don't ever want to get away from that.  And being that the last 3 films in this series are kinda lengthy, I needed the time to A) watch them and B) write about them.  Lots of things piled up last week and I had to prioritize and I wasn't able to fit them in.  But, alas, I'm back and hopefully can finish this off this week.  I don't plan on something like this happening again, but you never know.