Power, Love and Self-Sacrifice

Rating: 8/10 (20 October 2008)

At the dawn of the time, men, beasts and magic beings lived together; however, the infinite greed of men made a hole in their hearts and possession, power and knowledge were not able to fill them and they fought against the magic beings. The King Balor (Roy Dotrice) of the elf, ogres and goblins accept the offer of a powerful and invincible golden mechanical army composed of 70 times 70 soldiers; a magic crown is forged and associated to the royal blood of King Balor, he commands the army and defeats men. A truce is negotiated with the cities belonging to men and the forests to the magic beings; the indestructible golden army is locked inside the earth and the crown is split in three parts. On the present days, the exiled Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) breaks in the Blackwood's auction house in Manhattan to retrieve one piece of the crown. He uses the evil tooth fairies to destroy the auctioneer and seventy guests, and then he attacks his father to get the second part of the crown. However, his twin sister Princess Nuala (Anna Walton) escapes with the third part. Meanwhile, in the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense in Trento, New Jersey, headed by Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor), Hellboy (Ron Perlman), Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) go to Blackwood to investigate the mystery. When Hellboy is exposed to the press, the specialist in ectoplasm Johann Krauss (James Dodd) is assigned the substitute for Manning in the Bureau. The group moves to Brooklyn Bridge wearing special glasses to find the troll market and get information about the tooth fairies; however they meet Princess Nuala and discover the evil intentions of her ambitious twin brother.
"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" is a great adventure, with an excellent story of power, love and self-sacrifice; magnificent screenplay, with witty lines and situations; and awesome special effects. The likable characters show great chemistry and are responsible for wonderful dialogs. If the viewer likes fantasy and blockbuster movies, he or she will love "Hellboy II"; if the viewer is not a fan of the genre, he or she may like it since there are really very funny situations and lots of action. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Hellboy 2 - O Exército Dourado ("Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army")