“Hellboy II: The Golden Army” drops the Nazis that were in the original and increases the number of magical creatures in Hellboy’s universe. While the movie takes a little too long finding its footing, director Guillermo del Toro’s wicked sense of imagination ultimately delivers one fun, (and dare I say, charming?) thrill ride for the summer season.

The good news is that everything you loved about the first “Hellboy” was brought back for the sequel:

Ron Perlman, with his wisecracks and fierce dramatic intensity, absolutely owns the role of “Hellboy,” the child-demon brought through a portal into this world by Nazi occultists, but who was raised by Allied forces as one of their own.

Selma Blair gives “Liz” some depth and emotional range outside of the “nobody understands me”-role her character was stuck in during the first movie.

Doug Jones not only gets to act and voice “Abe Sapien,” but he’s also given something to do.

Abe’s love story almost rivals that of Hellboy and Liz in this film, which gives “The Golden Army” another layer of depth and character development not often seen in your typical summer blockbuster.

The sequel picks up essentially where the first one left off. Hellboy, Liz and Abe work for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, an “off the books” Federal agency that deals with supernatural attacks and whatever strange developments the FBI or CIA can’t solve.

The movie even shows a grade-school age Hellboy, who, instead of wanting to kill all of mankind and enslave the human race as Hitler thought he would, grew up watching Howdy Doody and wondering if there are other weird creatures like him out there in the world.

Unfortunately, the story takes awhile to get moving. This is a rare breed of movie where the film gets better as it goes along instead of being action packed up front and long on plot in the end.

The first act seems clunky, disorganized and drawn out. The humans and the creatures of the fantasy realm ended their long war of survival with a truce. The crown that controls The Golden Army — an unstoppable mechanical force that the King of the mythical creatures created to defeat the humans — is broken into three pieces: One lies with the humans, the other two with the King’s twin son and daughter.

Centuries have gone by and the Prince has had enough of living in the sewers and below the subway stations of New York City. So he steals the humans’ piece of the crown and spends the rest of the movie attempting to get his sister’s piece so he may unleash The Golden Army.

Sure, it’s fun visiting the realm of the underworld and being reminded of visionary films such as “The Dark Crystal” and “Labyrinth,” but Hellboy is the glue that holds this film together, and he’s not given much to do during the set-up of the story.

Luckily, once Hellboy is on to the Prince’s plan and starts fighting mythical creatures in the heart of downtown New York, the film is a thrill ride.

The amount of effort and detail to make these creatures so interesting is incredible. Who knew that “Tooth Fairies” got their name because they eat calcium and therefore devour humans in a matter of moments, bones and all?

The fight between Hellboy and an Elemental creature that bleeds “life” (every drop of blood blooms grass and flowers) is on par with any final battle from giant-monster-destroying-the-city film from the past 25 years.

Only here the fight takes place with an entire second half of the movie to spare.

For all of its flaws at the beginning, “Hellboy II” makes up for them with a lot of heart. There is a laugh-out-loud scene between Abe and Hellboy in this movie that completely captures the power of what Guillermo del Toro is capable of.

Aside from the action scenes and the fascinating creatures, a simple scene of two characters enjoying themselves and carrying on a conversation that would be right at home in some budget indie film steals the show.

The film was lacking and it seemed as though this was Del Toro's attempt at a little slapstick... it was funny, but the film was missing the edge the first one had. Was it me or was Doug Jones as Abe a little off in this film? He seemed to be a completely different actor with a completely different voice, but I could be wrong.

Posted 18 weeks ago by The Bruce

Much more visually interesting than Dark Knight. Guillermo del Toro is a true visionary. I agree, the fight between Hellboy and an Elemental creature that bleeds “life” was awsome. The scene where they enter the realm of the underworld is breathtaking. I felt like I had been transported to a dream land.

Posted 16 weeks ago by Rezn8