Fans of Hellboy know the story already, but for those of you that need a crash course here it is: Hellboy is a demon that was summoned by the Nazis to help take over the world, but with the help of the Allied Forces and Professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm Hellboy was rescued and taken in by the American government. The government agency that brought Hellboy is know as the B.P.R.D. (the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense), a group assembled to take care of ghosts, ghouls and everything else that goes bump in the night. With time Hellboy has grown up from a child to a young adult who is considered the "World's Greatest Paranormal Investigator." Traveling with the B.P.R.D. and his close companions (Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman), Hellboy has made it his life's goal to avoid his "destiny" of destruction and fight against the supernatural threats which intend to harm our world.
In Blood and Iron, Hellboy and B.P.R.D.'s finest are recruited by Professor Broom to help stop the resurrection of an evil female vampire, Erzsebet Ondrusko (fans of history can compare Erzsebet to Countess Erzs¿bet B¿thory). What Broom hasn't told Hellboy, Abe, and Liz is that he was the one who killed Erzsebet sixty years ago, and that all the supernatural surroundings in this New York town had happened before. But dealing with the mysterious backstory of the city is only one of the problems Hellboy has ahead of him, as besides Erzsebet we find ghosts, phantom wolves, witches, harpies, a werewolf and the Queen of Witches, the goddess Hecate, all waiting for him.
Even though the focus of the film is on the supernatural fiends plotting destruction, it is the bond between the characters which is a big draw to the story. While it is never overtly thrown in your face, it is still obvious that the B.P.R.D. is like a family to our heroes. With Broom as the father figure and Hellboy, Liz, and Abe as his children, we get interesting relationships with all of these characters. Whether it is the whole group discussing where they found the best pastries on the planet or small scenes between Liz and Abe, family can be considered one of the main themes of the story. The main focus of this theme of family lies with Hellboy and Broom. Starting the film with the signature story recap we watch as Broom takes in Hellboy, and nurtures him into a great detective. This dynamic helps give a happy ending to the film, which is needed after the dark setting and story of the film.
While Hellboy: Sword of Storms focused on the theme of Japanese mythology, Blood and Iron takes a darker approach which suits the series better. With plenty of blood, death and evil mythological monsters spread across Blood and Iron's story, it seems as if the film is more in touch with Mignola's comics. Always dark and bleak, with a sarcastic edge, the comics are filled with sinister fun which was only really capitalized on a couple times in the first film (i.e., the floating heads and the graveyard), but here in the second film we find the horror theme throughout the whole story. From Broom's flashback fighting Erzsebet to Hellboy's final fight with a goddess, Blood and Iron never lets up on the tension - as it seems that anybody could die at any point. We appreciated the fact this film used Mignola's dark style, as it really helped set a great mood and ambiance for the film.
The excellent music composed by Christopher Drake helps increase the gothic and ominous setting for the film. Drake did a great job with Sword of Storms, and Blood and Iron is no different. Much like the first film, Drake takes the sounds and instruments needed, and compiles a soundtrack which helps set the mood with synthesized orchestration. Perfectly blending strings with organs, there is a very gothic feel to the music which helps give credence to the locale in the given scenes. We also need to commend Drake for his piano work; while it isn't technically amazing, it sets the perfect creepy mood for its characters.
Also helping to make the characters jump off the screen are the voice actors. Like the last film, the actors from Del Toro's live-action film have come back to lend voices to their characters. And while we may have complained about a couple of the performances the first time around, Blood and Iron has pitch perfect performances from all its voice actors. As always, Ron Perlman is strong as Hellboy and Doug Jones hits the demeanor of Abe perfectly, but we're most impressed this time around by Selma Blair's performance as Liz. In the first film we complained that she seemed too dull and whiny, but here she seems at ease with the character, and offers the deadpan deliveries right on - even if the character didn't have a lot of range in this film. Other than the main three characters, however, there's great work done by Peri Gilpin and John Hurt, and all the voice talent that didn't get top billing.
While the story was good, and the music, mood and acting was great, the animation continues to be only technical aspect that needs improvement. While some may enjoy Hellboy's animated style, I personally do not. As a big fan of Mike Mignola and his work in the comic medium, I am disappointed by the happy cartoony look of all the characters. Mignola has proved that his style can translate to the animated medium (The Amazing Screw-On Head), so why do they need to take away from the hard horror look of the comics and create soft characters which look like they are out of a Saturday morning cartoon. Normally not enjoying the animation style of a cartoon will make you immediately dismiss the show, but with all the other aspects of the Hellboy animated films in place, it is hard to ignore the show solely on this basis.
Other than the animation style the only problems we have with Blood and Iron are the editing and direction. While most everything plays out perfectly in the film, the last half seems disjointed and is prolonged by a useless montage, which doesn't really seem to serve any other purpose than to show you where everybody is. If this montage were looking to be effective, it could have possibly used more interesting clips or been a little shorter. But that is a minor complaint compared to a gripe we have about a portion of Blood and Iron's story. One of the major themes of the movie is that Hellboy is a demon, and he was created for destruction, but he denies this "destiny." This story is only really elaborated on by a couple of flashbacks with Broom and a couple of scant lines from Hecate. And while these flashbacks and appearances by Hecate appear all across the movie, it doesn't register that this was a theme of the movie until the last scene of the film. It isn't like a big reveal like the film The Sixth Sense or anything like that, but more like the film was supposed to have you feeling suspense over Hellboy's great power... but this never happened. In fact it almost seemed useless to have Hellboy's fight against Hecate at the end, as this theme didn't seem evident and so she seemed extraneous. If only they would have teased us with Hellboy's power like the live action film, her appearance and their massive battle would have seemed to have purpose.
While the final battle may not have made a lot of sense, it's definitely a lot of fun. Hecate's a great looking character, and her power is very evident, so when Hellboy and she rumble it's very fun to watch. But their fight isn't the only battle worth watching, as Hellboy had a pretty cool prolonged fight with a werewolf. And like all good Hellboy stories, each fight follows the same format: a monster is found by the good guys (either killing or threatening somebody), Hellboy says, "Oh crap," and then the monster proceeds to beats up Hellboy until they are ultimately taken down by the big red demon. While normally we hate predictability, there is something fun and ultimately charming about Hellboy's attitude during these fights, which makes them a blast to watch. So if you are looking for action, Blood and Iron has plenty of it.
While we were able to find fault in the film, Hellboy: Blood and Iron is still a good Hellboy story which seems like an animated version of the comic. Although Blood and Iron and Sword of Storms are the only films that have been announced, we're hoping that this isn't the end of the animated Hellboy brand. As even though these films have had their fare share of shortcomings, they have ultimately been a lot of fun, and well worth watching. So whether you are a Hellboy fan or not, if you are reading this review, give Blood and Iron a chance, you'll like it.
