Much more than a mere comic book film.

Rating: 8/10 (16 August 2008)

Guillermo del Toro once again proves that he is truly a visionary director, not just because of all the monsters in this movie but by how he went beyond the beyond and proved that sequels can be better than the original. Hellboy 2 is a great mix of everything you want in a movie. Starting from comedy to romance to action and beyond. And how Del Toro was able to mix these things together was just extraordinary.
Hellboy 2, compared to other comic book superhero movies, is exceptional. Let's start off with the cast. Almost everyone from the original is back in this one. Ron Pearlman, as always, does a great job of playing a sarcastic monster from hell whose appearance is the only thing that's monster-like. We see Pearlman's character being a caring and thoughtful almost human-like creature. Liz Sherman(Blair) also is a lovely character though sometimes feisty. And even though we don't get to see his face Doug Jones does a good job of playing Abe Sapien. New to the cast (and also face not seen) is Johann Krauss whose voice over was provided by Seth Macfarlane, the two time Emmy winner and creator of Family Guy and American Dad.
As far as the plot is concerned,it's about Prince Nauda and his return from the so-called lost world and start a rebellion against humankind with the aid of his abominable golden army. We see this storyline being illuminated by an excellent screenplay written by, you guessed it, Guillermo del Toro. He brings a great screenplay combines it with a great cast and a bunch of monsters, and what do we get? One of the greatest comic book based movies of all time.
As said on the very first paragraph, Don't expect Hellboy 2 to be just an action/fantasy movie. It is much more than that. Throughout the film, there were on and off funny moments(not pee-in-your-pants funny) but still really funny for an action film. It also had its share of romantic moments. In the intention of not spoiling the film, there won't be any more expansion on the romance part. And last but not least, the obvious. The film is action packed and fast paced. The fight scenes are spectacular and very entertaining.Lots of visually stunning monsters, lots of fights including sword fights and some off-screen deaths.
In conclusion, Hellboy 2 is a great improvement from the first one and it is indeed an exceptional comic book film. Itis highly impressive and again visually stunning. Go see it. It's worth the price of your ticket.