Hellboy II

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

• style over substance
• eye candy
• gloss over
• cheesy

• comic book
• demon
• paranormal
• hear me out

• good sign
• glowing

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

When you think about it, comic books and movies are pretty similar. Both are a combination of dialog and images. That must be why a lot of comic books, like Spider-Man and The Hulk, have been made into movies in recent years.

Everyone has heard of those comic heroes because they have been around for a long time. But have you heard of Hellboy? Like Wanted, Hellboy is a newer comic that has been made into a film. Well, two films, actually, the second one, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, came out not too long ago.

Hellboy is a demon created by the Nazis. But since they lost World War II, the Americans took care of him and raised him to work for a secret part of the government that investigates the paranormal.

Spirits and monsters can make for cool-looking movies. But Mason thinks Hellboy II may have focused too much on looks. Listen to him talk to Marni about it.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Marni

Mason

Marni:  Just went and saw the new Hellboy.

Mason:  Why didn’t you ask me first? I could have saved you some pain.

Marni:  Well, because I loved…Hear me out! I loved the first one. My friend who works for Dark Horse Comics who works with Mike Mignola said it was insane and she loved it and so…

Mason:  That’s a pretty glowing review.

Marni:  Exactly. So I go, expecting to love it, and I was entertained. The people I was with, they didn’t like it as much as the first one. But I thought it was entertaining.

Mason:  It was just style over substance where the first film was exactly the opposite and that’s why it succeeded.

Marni:  I agree.

Mason:  But Del Toro was just drunk on the success of Pan’s Labyrinth, which don’t get me wrong, phenomenal film, and I loved the visual aspect that he brought to Hellboy II with some of the cooler scenes there.

Marni:  It was eye candy. A lot of eye candy.

Mason:  Totally eye candy. But the story got lost among that. Like the character of Hellboy that’s so endearing in the first place. The relationship felt completely glossed over. I couldn’t stand watching it.

Marni:  Yeah, it was kind of…It was a little cheesier than the first one. I don’t know, it could have been better.

Mason:  I literally was checking my watch at like an hour in thinking it had been about two hours. It was that kind of film.

Marni:  Yeah, that’s not a good sign.

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Lesson MP3

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