Incorporating ancient mythologies into a film is nothing new. The Star Wars and Lord of the Rings series’ owe much debt to ancient Egyptian and Greek mythologies. Those films took established stories and adapted them into different scenarios. Guillermo Del Toro has taken a different and bold approach; taking base archetypes to create a new mythology devoid of borrowed stories.
Del Toro was very successful with his approach in Pan’s Labyrinth. By creating a new myth, thus consequently a new mythos, Del Toro brings up the importance and purpose of mythology within today’s culture. His Homeric method of juxtaposing the supernatural and reality seeks to explain the unexplained, but also to explore the reality of the supernatural i.e. Santa Claus, God. Del Toro attempts to further this interesting conversation in Hellboy 2, but instead all he offers is shattered pieces within an uninspired plot.
Yes, the art in Hellboy 2 is very cool and unique. The problem is, it is too unique for its own good. The art style in Pan’s Labyrinth is extremely similar to what is seen in Hellboy 2. This essentially devoids the Catholic-influenced art style of its individuality. Imagine if the art assets in Star Wars were used in Starship Troopers; how unoriginal would that be?
Del Toro creates a story to serve the art; consequently Hellboy 2 becomes a classic case of style over substance. The story is derivative good versus evil flare with a really uninteresting villain (he was never intimidating, for me at least). The awkward pacing and inconsistent tone of the film never creates a sense of urgency and danger either. The simple pattern goes between two extremes; high action or slapstick comedy. There is absolutely no nuance between the two extremes, which, simply, makes the film an awkward experience. One more thing, the drinking scene….wtf is this Superbad?
(Spoilers) In the last 20 minutes Del Toro commits one major sin. A dumb and ‘omg are you fuggin serious’ moment at the end completely denies the reason of the movies existence. The princess had the choice of killing herself at the very beginning of the film, but at the end after all this shit she finally does and her motivation and reasoning for waiting so long is never explained. This immediately gave me the feeling that Del Toro didn’t know how to end his film so he kept this wild card for the end. This really angered me because my patience and investment into the movie never produced a satisfying payoff. The ending ended on a whimper. (Spoilers end)
So, yeah, I still do believe that Del Toro is a talented director but at the same time I feel he’s a bit of a one trick pony. Here’s hoping that Hobbit will prove me wrong.
(Opens everywhere July 11th, 2008)
-Philip Robibero
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