Uber-talented director Guillermo Del Toro is back with Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Having just re-read what I wrote about HELLBOY I gotta say, I feel just about the same.
I wanted to love it, but it came up a little short.

Ron Perlman is back as the big red badass, and once again, I enjoyed his performance. Selma Blair really impressed me as Liz Sherman, too. I enjoyed her chemistry with Perlman quite the lot. Doug Jones once again wowed as Abe Sapien, the amphibious man-creature with the soul of a poet. This time he voiced Abe as well, and did a fine job, but I think David Hyde Pierce might have been a little sharper in the first movie.

Anna Walton plays the weirdly attractive to a lonely boy like me Princess Nuala, and was very good. Her brother, Prince Nuada, was played by Luke Goss, and he was great. Del Toro must like him, since he also cast Goss as the main baddie in BLADE II, where he was really cool.

Del Toro wrote the screenplay based on a story he co-wrote with Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy. Truthfully, I was kind of surprised to learn this, because I found the dialogue a little cheesy at times. But I still have a ton of respect for Del Toro, and visually, he went all out with this sequel. Very bizarro visuals abound. For this one, he seemed to try and combine the look of the first movie, with the phantasmagoric visuals of the critically acclaimed PAN’S LABYRINTH, and it didn’t always work for me. But I fully realize I can be a picky little prick sometimes, so judge for yourselves. If you enjoyed the first one, or fantasy flicks or action flicks, you will enjoy Hellboy II.