Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writer: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, Selma Blair, James Dodd, John Alexander, Seth MacFarlane, Luke Goss, Jeffrey Tambor, John Hurt
The mythical world starts a rebellion against humanity in order to rule the Earth, so as Hellboy and his team returns they must save the world from the rebellious creatures. Now, as the creatures who inhabit the spiritual realm gear-up for an all out attack on the human plane, the only one capable of saving the Earth is a tough-talking hellspawn rejected by both worlds.[Synopsis Anthony Pereyra @ IMDB]
Finally got advanced screenings here in the UK after being out a good month or so stateside. Hellboy (Perlman), Abe (Jones) and Liz (Blair) are back protecting mankind and causing chaos for their boss Manny. Plot starts with a backflash of Hellboy as a boy, his father figure the professor Bruttenholm (Hurt) reads him a bed time story about a Golden army (very much like the Chinese terracotta army) who have been made to lay in wait till a time comes they will fight the human race. Cut to present and Prince Nuada (Goss) tries reclaiming a broken crown thats needed to make the golden army rise again. Hellboy and his merry band of misfits are joined by gas/spirit Johann Krauss (voiced by MacFarlane) to try stop the evil prince achieve his mission. Slightly lighter than the original film but still as humrous and unique feeling. Sadly even though this was opening night it was only an half full theatre, with the imax release of Dark Knight still having people queuing, I guess its hard having two great comic book based films go head to head, and I must be honest in admitting Dark Knight is the better of the two. Don't get me wrong Hellboy II still manages to be special, sure Ledger was stunning as the Joker but whereas I don't like Bale in the role of Batman here Perlman, Jones & Blair shine and make the characters of Hellboy,Abe & Liz their own. Guillermo del Toro does no wrong either building such a wicked visual treat for the viewer, with dozens of amazing creatures and spellbinding sets (best being the wonderful Troll market) . For me the down point is the over all story, as fun as it was it never really takes you anywhere unexpected or asks anything of the viewer. The addition of Krauss was great and Goss surprised me in his evil martial arts heavy role as the bad guy. All in all a worthy sequel and hope its not the last we see of Hellboy on the bigscreen (trouble is with director Toro set to do the lotrs prequel it could be years away) well worth seeing ohh I bet you can't leave without singing along with Barry Manilows 'Can't Smile Without You'.
(8 out of 10)
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