Far less than the sum of it's parts.

Rating: 6/10 (15 August 2008)

Seems like Del Toro thought up a bunch of cool looking characters and then shoehorned them into a messy sprawling plot where I ended up caring about no one in the movie. Lots of decent moments, but the result was far less than the sum of it's parts. I loved the first one, but I think del Toro should stop directing movies and go back to being a story board or concept artist. Come on, after Blade 2 we let this guy make another movie? Note, I'm not a fan of Pan's Labyrinth either. Again, a beautiful movie that just rambles around with a lot of material that doesn't really contribute much to the story or character development.
So we end up with a parade of amazing looking characters yet we never learn their origins or motivations. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but it's in the title so I guess it's not a give away but they barely give the guy who created the golden army anything to say at all. We've got a great looking villain that's totally one dimensional. The great thing about Hellboy is that he's "born of evil" yet he overcomes his origin to be good. There's almost none of that kind of conflict in this movie at all aside from a half hearted attempt at the end of a scene mid way though the movie but it creates no real tension.
Also, del Toro, how about editing? You spent extra money to make a movie longer which didn't make it any deeper, just rambling. A shorter, tighter movie would cost less to make, have the potential to be shown more times in a day and would end up being a stronger narrative.