Movie review: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

For some movies I have a lot to say. For some movies I don't. My muse is not coming this time.

If you like Hellboy 1 then you'll like this one. If you didn't, you won't.

It was directed by the same guy who did "Pan's Labyrinth" and the character design shows it.

You can enjoy this movie if you haven't seen the first. There's a quick blurb at the beginning explaining that Hellboy was found and adopted by the US Army back in WWII. Then you're pretty much up to speed. There's a flashback to Hellboy's youth where he learns about The Golden Army of mythology. Then they get into the movie. They explain why a few characters don't return while taking a stroll through complete paranormal chaos. Hellboy has been making himself too public for someone in a top secret organization. They bring in someone to keep tabs on him. Of course, they immediately don't get along.

So there's the typical storyline about saving the world from supernatural beings. There's the parallel story lines about Hellboy's love life and Abe Sapien's love life. Liz and Abe try to take similar paths to protect their loves with radically different results.

But there's these threats that seem to go nowhere.
Hellboy's press coverage makes him a big name but the next time he appears he's insulted, yelled at, and pelted with stuff after saving the city. It could have taken an X-Men type theme about outcast heroes but after Liz has a chat with him about how others shouldn't matter as long as she likes him the thread just drops.
The villain tries to tell Hellboy that he's more like the elves and goblins and whatnot than he is like the humans. Hellboy ponders this but never addresses it again.
At the end everyone quits for some reason that wasn't well setup.

There's a good deal of setup for the third movie.

I'm reluctant to buy it on DVD. I liked it but I'm not sure I'd watch it again and again. I think I'll probably delay until I see how the third movie is.

I think I've gotten a bit spoiled by all the good super hero movies. Compared to either Fantastic Four movie or Spiderman 3 this movie is brilliant.