A "Golden" Hellboy

Rating: 9/10 (11 November 2008)

Guillermo del Toro directed "Hellboy" in 2004, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of that year. Now four years later, del Toro is behind the camera again to direct (and screen-write) its superior sequel, "Hellboy II: The Golden Army." This "Hellboy" is more true to the director's visionary style, which saw its best realization in "Pan's Labyrinth" in 2006, with its lush, bizarre, and striking visuals that brought the famed Mexican director's wild imagination to life in an effective and brilliant manner.
I'm a fan of Mike Mignola's Dark Horse Comics superhero staple, so I eagerly looked to this sequel with joyful anticipation. Demon Prince Nuada (Luke Goss, from del Toro's "Blade II") has grown resentful of a centuries-old truce that allows the mythical world to live peacefully alongside their human counterparts. He kills his father and steals the crown that will allow him to awaken the dreaded Golden Army so that he will then be able to lead the Golden Army to conquer all of the known world. To stop him, is Hellboy a.k.a. "Red" (the perfectly cast Ron Perlman), his girlfriend, the pyro-kinetic Liz Sherman (the strangely attractive Selma Blair), and amphibious mutant Abe Sapien (Doug Jones).
This movie gets rip-roaring along from the get-go, with its freakish visuals, special effects and witty humor, assuring fans of the original film (and comics) that this will not be a tepid affair. There's really no need to reintroduce the characters here, since del Toro did that in the first movie. Here, he really gets to have fun and lets loose with "Hellboy II: The Golden Army." Perlman again proves why he is the perfect actor to play Mignola's Nazi-spawned, wise-cracking, cigar-chomping red demon-superhero. He's simply the best actor for the job, even though he's only recognizable by his voice. More so, his troublesome relationship with Liz Sherman is also put to the test, since she harbors a secret that will either make or break their romantic relationship. And it's this freak/freak drama that makes up the film's emotional core.
Readers know that "Spider-Man 2" (2004) is my favorite superhero film (my #2 all-time favorite film) and Spider-Man is my favorite superhero of all time, but Hellboy is one of my best guilty pleasures. "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" certainly ranks as one of the most visually appealing superhero films ever, and one of the best superhero films to come out this year.
9/10