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After the amazing birthday afternoon/evening I spent with my friends on Saturday I wasn’t really expecting much more … but David surprised me with an 80-minute massage at Kinara yesterday afternoon which was the PERFECT way to round out the weekend. He and I spent the afternoon at the spa and then grabbed an early dinner at Rock Sugar before heading out to see Hellboy II: The Golden Army last night:

Okay, right off the bat let me stress that I loved the movie, I think that Guillermo del Toro is an amazingly talented movie director and I would recommend this movie to any fans or potential fans of Hellboy. All that said, I wasn’t entirely thrilled with the way the story itself was portrayed. Let’s get the negatives out of the way first … I didn’t at all care for the “flashback” scene at the start of the film that showed Hellboy as a little kid. It felt really hokey and cheesy. I get that it was the way to feature his father the professor but I didn’t care for it … I did like the storybook retelling of the origins of the golden army tho. From that point on, I wasn’t really on board with the way the tale was told … unlike the first Hellboy movie, this one seemed less serious (I realize it’s a comic book movie but I loved the tone of the first movie). This one felt really … forced … and too obviously trying to be cute. Other than that, tho, I loved the rest of the film. The creatures were so cool … del Toro is such a visionary director. His creatures seem to have that George Lucas feel to them … with enough movies under his belt, his brand of creatures will be very recognizable as his own. I really liked the tooth fairies and the baby tumor — that actually made me guffaw out loud in the theater. The special effects were stunning … that Nature God that attacked NY as just beautiful. del Toro has a vivid imagination … it’s a wonder being able to see his creations come to life on the big screen.

Again, I wasn’t all that happy with the telling but the movie was very good. David didn’t see the first movie and isn’t at all familiar with Hellboy and he enjoyed it for the most part. Fans shouldn’t miss it … but new folks who might be interested should see the first movie before this one. It’s not that you need to see the first one to understand the second one … it’s just that the first one will really make you a fan, maybe moreso than just seeing this new movie might.

I still get to enjoy David’s company for one more night tonight … not sure if we’re going out at all … this will be my last week here in LA before I head off to NY and then we head off to London and Paris for my birthday trip :) Woot!

As part of the 2008 Film Independant’s Los Angeles Film Festival, Hellboy II: The Golden Army (which was directed by movie genius Guillermo del Toro) had its Hollywood premiere at the Mann Village Westwood theater in Westwood, CA yesterday afternoon. Here are a few pics of the principal stars along with their amazing director on the red carpet at yesterday’s premiere:

I think it’s very safe to say that Guillermo del Toro is prolly one of, if not the, most talented and inventive movie directors on the scene right now (tho, Russian director Timur Bekmambetov who made the phenomenal movies Night Watch, Day Watch and the new Angelina Jolie movie Wanted [which opened in theaters this weekend] has to be high on that list as well) and has proven himself so fully to me that I will absolutely make time to see every movie he directs. I was very impressed with his direction in Hellboy but it was his Spanish-language film Pan’s Labyrinth that really sold me. To me, he is the Neil Gaiman (author of Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods and more) of movie-making … and by that I mean, an insanely talented artist who has yet to break into the mainstream (I’m not even saying that it is necessary that either of them break into the mainstream, I’m just saying that they are so good at what they do that I truly feel that once people catch wind of their talent they may blow up big time). I’m not a huge Hellboy fan but I just love seeing del Toro‘s imagination come alive on the big screen (and from what I’ve seen in the promos for Hellboy II, some of the influence of Pan’s Labyrinth looks like it made its way into the film). According to IMDB, he has also signed on to direct The Hobbit, which just thrills me to no end. Hellboy II doesn’t open in theaters until July 11 (the eve of my birthday) but I’m telling you … make plans to check it out. I’m sure it’ll be visually phenomenal … I’m totally willing to bank on that.

[Photo credit: Splash News, Bauer-Griffin]