Artistically this is on par with Pan's Labyrinth. Too bad everything else failed because of this.

Rating: 6/10 (12 July 2008)

Going into a Guillermo del Toro movie, you should know that the visuals are going to be the highlight of the film. The first Hellboy film had great visuals, though not quite as great as this. But with that said, the first Hellboy achieved so much more than this did. It was funnier, less corny and clichéd, and the villains were much more menacing than the villain here, who's no more than a guy with a spear, and an army of unnecessary robots. The first was pretty good in every way, this one had the eye candy, but offered very little else.
After botching a secret operation, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and the crew are finally noticed, and this secret group of "freaks" is no longer a secret, and they are known to the public. Liz is also pregnant but doesn't want to tell Hellboy. Meanwhile, Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), is trying to claim his right to be king. In order to be, he needs the three pieces of this crown, one that his sister has, one that he stole from a museum, and one his father, who he killed, had. Hellboy, Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), Liz (Selma Blair), and Johann Krauss (John Alexander, James Dodd and Seth MacFarlane), a man's soul trapped in a robot who was brought in to keep Hellboy under control, must stop Nuada from retrieving all three pieces of the crown, which allows him to control the Golden Army, and eventually take over the world. Abe Sapien meanwhile has fallen in love with Nuada's sister, who has an odd connection to her brother...what physically happens to him, happens to her. They must stop him and save the world.
The first negative for me was the villain here. It's just an elf, who has the same build as a human, and could die just as easily. He was no threat ever. Even when he had his Golden Army, it never was a threat. The Golden Army was just a bunch of braindead robots who liked to smash the ground. There was never a moment where I thought someone could be in harms way. The characters have been dumbed down a level and turned into comedians. Abe has been made more human and was even dumbed down, one of the dumbest scenes being where Hellboy and Abe sing Barry Mannilow together. It wasn't cute, it wasn't funny, it was just really stupid.
The story was bad. Mr. del Toro went for an all out visual feast and because of this he compromised the story. Elements didn't make sense, and parts of the movie that felt like they should have some impact didn't. They were all there for the audience to say, "Wow! Look at that!", but I found myself saying "Huh?" more than anything else. Hellboy fights these imaginative creatures. Instead of making a movie on this, maybe Guillermo should have written a book with all these fantastical creatures he thinks up. At least it would have made more sense.
Now, onto what I did like. I've said it all throughout, this was a lovely looking film. The direction was stellar, the action scenes were well choreographed, the creatures, though pointless to the story, were very cool to look at. The CGI wasn't amazing, but luckily most of the creatures are puppets, costumed characters, and lots of make up. The musical score was also really beautiful. I had just re-watched the first Hellboy prior to watching this, and the first film's music was not that great, where this one had some fantastic music, that should've been saved for a better flick. I wasn't surprised to see Danny Elfman's name in the end credits, and the music did add to the movie, and made it a small step better than it would have been.
Anyone who says this is director Guillermo del Toro's greatest accomplishment in film making, probably hasn't seen Pan's Labyrinth. Where del Toro failed here in the writing department he succeeded in the direction, and he can write good screenplays. Too bad his sole purpose in writing this was to go wild with the visuals.
My rating: ** 1/2 out of ****. 120 mins. PG-13 for violence.
*Final complaint. Why did they make Hellboy such an ugly kid? Geez, was he stupid looking.