Rain of petals ...

Rating: 3/10 (1 March 2012)

...where have I seen that one before? Oh, right: It's a cut scene from the game Warcraft 3 For those who don't know the game: The king's son - now with white, long hair and pales skin - marches through a rain of petals to the throne and stabs his father.
Strike you as familiar? (Youtube: "Warcraft 3 Arthas Revenge")
That obvious ripoff aside. The movie was a huge disappointment. Besides the main characters (of which only Ron Perlman seemed to do a god job of acting) it was muppets on steroids. Where the first movie put the budget into only two or three (well animated) monsters this one just gave you guys dressed up in fancy costumes and CGI creatures that were, well, not very striking to look at. Neither the tooth fairies, not Wink, nor the golden army held the dread that Samael or the Ogdru Jahad had (why abandon that storyline? Those elder gods would have been solid story-telling gold!)
Then there's the fact that the first movie established that ordinary people didn't know about the presence of these fantasy creatures. But in this one there are so many all over the place that it makes the entire premise unbelievable.
Suspense was non-existent. From the point on where the link between the twins was established the ending couldn't have been more obvious.
As for Hellboy himself - he seems kind of superfluous for the second half of the movie. He's not even the hero here, nor does he face any real moral dilemma. In the first movie we empathized with him (nature vs. nurture) but here he's just a thug with a stereotypical troubled relationship.
Still give it 3 stars for at least showing the production value - if only for completely useless scenes.