Great fantasy and imagery, numb story and dumb humor

Rating: 6/10 (13 October 2008)

It deserves to be seen first and foremost for del Toro's unleashed imagination - the Golden Army rulz indeed, by contrast with the terracotta cohorts from the unwatchable "Mummy 3". Some of the characters are pretty inspired - mainly Krauss, with his "ectoplasmic schwanshtucker", the trio composed by the versatile Doug Jones, and the elven twins - still, I can't not wonder: what will Guillermo do, when the world will grow bored with his thread-thin chinless, nose-less and palm-eyed (or, as here, wing-eyed) humanoids? Will he invent something original, or will go on like this to no end?
The weak points lay in the formulaic script (a narrative structure mathematically well-behaved, but with no ineffable at all) to the point of numbness, and the cheap humor, stiff to the point of dumbness. Plus, of course, the same old warmed-up soup of the fantastic heroes living among us as if it was the most natural thing on Earth - it works well in he Marvel series, since there it's been part of the pulp conception since its inception, in "Hancock" it was also tolerable, due to the witty humor, but it's already too much to show AGAIN AND AGAIN all kind of cyclops, godzillas and Ganymede vestals being interviewed live at C.N.N.
And, of course, the Hellboy himself. Ron Perlman has as much acting acumen as a wardrobe - fortunately, the filled-down stumps of his horns, too big for such a never used facial appendage, distract the attention from his irritating frown; at least, most of the time!