Entertaining if Idiosyncratic

Rating: 7/10 (28 July 2008)

PLOT IN A NUTSHELL: Long ago, there was a war between humans and elves, which led to the creation of an unstoppable force called the Golden Army, which annihilated the humans, but the elf king decided that he went too far and made a peace treaty with the humans, much to the anger of his son, Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), who saw the humans as beneath his kind. Centuries later, the Prince has decided to break the treaty and take the crown pieces necessary for controlling the Golden Army. Humanity's only hope is Hellboy (Ron Perlman), who has recently outed himself to the world, and with him the Burea of Paranormal Research & Defense, which includes his flame throwing girlfriend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and his amphibian fellow Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), who falls in love with Princess Nuala (Anna Walton), who has chosen to oppose her brother. Who will survive? If you've read the other reviews, you probably know.
Entertaining sequel to the first Hellboy from 2004. Del Toro shows a great visual flair that is hard to match, and the action sequences are highly engaging, though it's a shame his film had to come out in a season over-saturated by visual effects everywhere.
I do have some beefs with the film though. In some ways, the film seems to have reset Hellboy as the immature adolescent in a man-demon body that he was in the first film, and perhaps taken him even further back than that. I never expected them to become friends, but after saving Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) at the end of the first film and being assisted by him in slaying Kronen, followed by the cigar bonding, I expected that they would at least try to be more civil with each other in the sequel. Here though, Hellboy seems to be going out of his way to make Manning miserable while a strangely squeamish Manning is so desperate for cooperation that he's reduced to bribing Hellboy with cigars in hopes of getting him to behave. As funny as it is on the surface, Hellboy shooting at pictures of Manning & posting them around the bureau was a bit cruel. Hellboy blithely exposing himself to the world simply because he wants to be respected as a heroic celebrity regardless of what the consequences might be for his non-human friends, Abe & Liz, also goes a bit too far in the selfishness department. This of course comes back to bite him in the ass in true careful-what-you-wish-for fashion, when, after saving a baby AND slaying a forest god, the people react with fear & hatred towards our red hulking hero instead of being grateful in a moment that could have been ripped from the X-Men (the alienated hero as symbol of prejudice victim did not really appear in the original Hellboy comics BTW). Could Hellboy have really been THAT naive to think the human race would embrace him? Liz Sherman perhaps says it best after the incident - "Does everybody have to like you?" Then there's Hellboy's romance with Liz (which does not exist in the comics). Much as I like Selma Blair in the Liz role, after Spider-Man 3 it was kind of unpleasant to jump back into yet another "super couple" with relationship issues. And at times Hellboy comes off as a real prick towards her, and not a lovable prick either despite Ron Perlman's best efforts.
Another problem is in the romantic subplot between Abe Sapien & Princess Nuala. The problem? The problem is the subplot is not given enough screen time to be properly developed, so it feels rushed & unconvincing, even though the few times that they are together Abe & Nuala do generate a certain sweetness, due in large part perhaps because Anna Walton fills the character with an angelic sincerity that makes her more than just a goth chick.
In case you're wondering why John Myers isn't in this one, it's because his actor, Rupert Evans wasn't available, so he was written out.