James Barclay

[Drizzt]

Saw this tonight... on first viewing I'd go 6-7/10 though I reckon it could well be better upon a second viewing. I'm a big fan of Del Toro (if anyone hasn't seen Pan's Labyrinth, do so) so I've had high expectations for this, especially when I heard it was an original story not from the comics and was more 'fantasy' than 'sci-fi'.

This film could have been awesome had it been longer and more screen-time had been given to the 'villain', Nuada, to explore his character a tad more... as it is he kicks ass with what is a rather cool spear - this guy is Legolas' misanthropic twin.

Some of the movie is brilliant, in particular the Elemental - this entire sequence is brilliant and hammers home a few thinking points without detracting from the on-screen action.

But... I dunno... I was a bit underwhelmed by it all and I felt like I wanted to explore more of this 'Otherworld' Del Toro allows us to glimpse - I wanted more of a glimpse, but maybe a Hellboy film isn't the medium to do it... anyway, it's well worth a look if only for the Elemental scene alone... and the drunken singing. Oh yes, the singing...

Pros: it greys the lines between the heros and the villains, you can't help but enjoy watching the good guys while feeling for the bad guy; the visceral nature of the fantastical characters...

Cons: not enough of the Otherworld... someone like Alan Moore could turn this into a damned awesome graphic novel
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Pagan Music

[Parmenion]

did you spot who played nuada? it was none other than ex boy band member luke goss from the band Bros...he's turned into a pretty good actor...which is good because the band used to make my teeth hurt!

[Drizzt]

Aye, though Del Toro seems to give him most of his work. He trained for months before filming to stay in shape and train with the spear/sword... he did similar in Blade II... just ignore the similarities between the two characters and you'll be fine
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Pagan Music