REVIEW: Hellboy II: The Golden Army – PG-13

The story

Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is an other worldly creature who, as a toddler in 1944, broke through into our world. Adopted by Professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm (John Hurt), Hellboy's grown up, working at the F.B.I's Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, and trying to work things out with his girl friend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair). She's a paranormal who ignites with ferocious fire when her temper flares - which is frequent. Abe Sapiens (Doug Jones) completes the paranormal trio. He's a super-intelligent fish-man. All three return from the first installment of "Hellboy" (2004).

This time they're fighting Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), who's leading elves, goblins and other magical creatures (Nuada calls them "sons of the earth") in a battle he hopes will defeat humans and bring on the apocalypse. In his way is twin sister Princess Nuala (Anna Walton) who holds the final piece of the mystic crown that will give its possessor power over the unbeatable robotic Golden Army. Can Hellboy and his friends foil Nuada's fiendish plot? You betcha.

Actors

Ron Perlman returns, funnier, as Hellboy, another superhero with attitude. Unlike Will Smith's "Harper," Perlman is not a misanthrope. He likes people and wants people to like him. He loves having his picture taken and being on TV. Still, his short temper gets him in trouble. "Hellboy's acting out. Things are a little tense with Liz," says Abe. Selma Blair as Liz Sherman hates it when people stare at her. She longs to be normal. Like Perlman and Blair, Doug Jones returns for the Hellboy sequel. He's Abe Sapiens, intellectual fish-man who reads Tennyson and likes Vivaldi, Mozart and - Barry Manilow. He's a romantic. "I've never met anyone like you," he says to Princess Nuala.

Others in the cast include Seth MacFarlane as the voice of new character Johann Krauss, head of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense ("B.P.R.D." on the bath towels). He's ectoplasm in a robotic suit and funny. Luke Goss and Anna Walton are twins Nuada and Nuala - one bad and one good. Jeffrey Tambor returns as Tom Manning, comically insecure BPRD bureaucrat.

Other comments

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" is more fun than the original, full of astonishing creatures, exciting action sequences, assured performances, and characters we care about. No one is better at creature movies than director/writer Guillermo del Toro whose "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006) is one of my favorites. He doesn't disappoint here. Ravenous tooth fairies at an upscale art auction, a giant vegetable monster in mid-town Manhattan, the Angel of Death with eyes on its wings, and a slavering reptilian monster named Wink. "Hellboy II" is two hours, but you'll want more. PG-13 for sci-fi violence and language.

Final words

A creature feature

That's lots of fun?

See "Hellboy II" -

It'll be the one.