Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

Aroview: The cigar-smoking demon must defeat the fabled golden army and his own self-doubt in this fabulous sequel to 2004’s HELLBOY.

Rolling with his prolific success, one gets the feeling that dir. Del Toro has more creative freedom this time around, and the film plays like a catharsis of boyhood fantasy with unrestrained imagination pushing the budget to its absolute limit. To temper this glorious excess, our beautiful freaks are given moments of sweet natured humanity – of particular note is a drunken, mournful sing-along between manphibian Abe and Ron Perlman’s Hellboy – there’s only one bum note in Selma Blair’s Liz, who remains whiny and one-dimensional throughout.

Nonetheless, this really is Del Toro at the top of his game, and he delivers a masterful balance of romance, wit, whimsy and grand ol gun-toting action. Will leave you wide-eyed and hungry for more.