My Review: Hellboy II The Golden Army (7/10)

¨The humans... the humans have forgotten the gods, destroyed the earth, and for what? Parking lots? Shopping malls? Greed had burned a hole in their hearts that will never be filled! They will never have enough!¨

(7/10)Guillermo del Toro is one of the best foreign directors at the moment and with hits such as this one he can even be considered along with the best Hollywood directors. His followup to the first Hellboy is even better than the original. Del Toro creates a world very similar to the one he created in Pan`s Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) with several mythical creatures living amongst humans and hiding underground. The world that del Toro creates is just fascinating and it captivates your attention from the beginning. He just has an incredible imagination and is able to make these creatures look real. The plot is very immaginative and it absolutely works in a movie that has a main character like Hellboy. This film seemed more similar to what Peter Jackson did in the Lord of the Ring trilogy than with what del Toro had done in the first Hellboy. It really doesn`t make a difference whether not you haven`t seen the first part because the movie works on its own. After watching Hellboy II, I`m really looking forward with what del Toro will be doing with The Hobit next year because of his capacity of creating such wonderful imagery and visuals, and he is a great storyteller as well.

Once again Ron Perlman plays the role of Hellboy to perfection like he did the first time around. He is a very likeable character with strong feelings for Liz (who is also brilliantly played by Selma Blair) and cats as well. Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) also returns for the sequel and the three continue to work as a team for the bureau of paranormal research. Their involvement with the government is unknown by the public and Hellboy dreams of one day being able to receive the recognition he deserves for saving the world time after time. His boss is always covering up his tracks and trying to keep the team private, but after a sort of intentional incident Hellboy is seen by the public and he becomes a public figure along with his team. We all know the media isn`t nice, and they weren`t with Hellboy either. This is where one of the new characters comes to play. Johan Krauss (James Dodd and voiced by Seth MacFarlane) comes to fill in for the boss and do what he couldn`t which was to control Hellboy. Krauss is probably the best addition to the team and most of the laughs come from his character. It was a risky move but it worked for the best. Luke Goss plays the villain: Prince Nuada. His character breaks the truce between humans and mythical creatures because he believes humans aren`t living up to their bargain as they continue to destroy nature and these creatures are running out of room to live in (the green message all over again). His twin sister, Princess Nuada is played byAnna Walton and she decides to look for help in order to stop her brother from calling the Golden Army which will obey the ruler of the crown which has been divided into three parts as a truce between creatures and mankind. The Prince is searching for the three parts in order to rise the army, but his sister is trying to stop him and she looks for help from the bureau.

Hellboy II works because of the great immagery that del Toro uses and because of the action mixed with comedy coming from his lead characters such as Hellboy and Johan Krauss. The movie is very fast paced and the two hours go by quickly. I found this movie much more entertaining than the first one and it was much better than what I had expected. Del Toro also manages to throw some romance into the mix as well as we have Hellboy and Abe singing drunk one night ¨I can`t smile without you.¨ The love Hellboy has for Liz is what fuels him and we saw it in the first movie. But now Abe has also fallen for the princess and he does some crazy things in the name of love as well. There are very few directors who can pull all these things together and del Toro does it very well because he is a great storyteller with a lot of imagination and craft for his work. The movie is very entertaining and really worth a watch, especially if you are into these sort of fantasy movies.