Review of Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) by Pantelis A — 24 Jun 2012

Hellboy 2 is a step up from the first one but with some flaws. Director Guillermo del Toro returns and gives us a worthy follow up to the original film. He continues to prove his talent and wild imagination with some of the new various creatures that are in this one. Most of them may only get blink or you missed it cameos while others get a little more screen time but they all look great and at least somewhat realistic. The cast minus Rupert Evans as John Myers from the first one are back and they're still solid in their roles especially Ron Perlman as Hellboy. Ron Perlman continues to be the perfect choice for the role portraying him as a demon with a conscience who does care about other people but even his character in this one seems to get less screen time than he did in the previous film. Which isn't really a bad thing but Perlman should have had a little more screen time. Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor, and Doug Jones reprise their roles from the first one turning in good performances. Luke Goss joins the cast as the villain a highly skilled elf Prince named Nuada. Goss does a decent job with the part he does play in the movie. He makes for an effective adversary and a challenge to Hellboy. Well done. John Hurt even shows up for a cameo appearance and does the best he can with the brief role in the movie. There's more action in this one which is impressive but nothing we haven't really seen before. The special effects are great and the new creatures shown in this one maybe very brief but they all work well with the imaginary world these characters inhabit in the film. Overall despite some flaws with the pacing and CGI Hellboy 2 is better than the first one. It has just the right amount of action, some suspense, humor, a little romance, and impressive performances from the cast especially Perlman who may get a little less screen time than in the original but he still makes it an entertaining comic book movie to watch.

8/10.