Lord of the Crouching Hellboy Hidden X-Men in Black

Rating: 6/10 (7 January 2010)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army will please fans of the first by continuing its nice visuals, colorful characters, and decent action sequences. Otherwise, the film doesn't break much new ground and hurts itself with somewhat unorganized plot lines.
In HB II, the Prince of a hidden race of elves seeks a magical crown that will enable him to command an army of mechanical soldiers with which to conquer mankind. Hellboy, with his pals Abe and Liz and newcomer Johann Krauss, must aid the elf Princess to thwart his dastardly plan.
This is a decent core plot for an action movie, but I could do without the multitude of subplots that clutter the film between shots. Thematically, this movie is all over the place. Here is a sampling of the themes that HB II touches upon: authority and discipline, love and family, personal sacrifice, prejudice and racism, environmentalism and conservationism. Yikes! That's a lot for one movie, let alone an action movie. Some of those are touched upon for literally one or two minutes and then never mentioned or resolved again. HB II almost feels like one issue of a series to be continued later-- which is perfectly understandable considering the source material, but a movie really should be edited to be free standing.
Also, many scenes in HB II very distinctly feel like other movies. At times, you will feel like you are watching a chapter from: Men in Black, X-men, Spiderman, Lord of the Rings, most of Jet Li's movies.
Speaking of Jet Li, HB II continues the slightly annoying trend of making random characters and creatures into kung-fu martial artists, like the shaolin vampires in the Blade series. Sure, del Toro's version of "elves" is entitled to his own interpretation, but it still feels slapped on and pandering, sort of like how so many movies try to captivate their western audiences with a generous helping of ninjas.
HB II's great strength is in its nicely styled visuals. If you are a fan of del Toro's works or other films with a mythical yet modern look (ie The 5th Element), then you should enjoy the settings and creatures del Toro presents in HB II.
All in all, I give Hellboy II a 6. It could have used some editing, but it's definitely worth watching.