Movie Review: Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) co-written and directed by Guillermo del Toro

Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense is called out to investigate an attack on an auction house. The auction included a piece of an ancient golden crown. Thanks to the fantastic pre-credit sequence, viewers know that the piece is part of an elvish crown that, when put back together, commands an undefeatable mechanical army, the titular Golden Army. The elf prince Nuada (Luke Goss) wants to use the army to make war on the humans. The elves and humans made an ancient pact to live separately, with humans in the cities and elves in the forests. But the elves have been forced further and further into hiding as man perpetually expands his domain. Nuada's twin sister Nuala (Anna Walton) wants no part of this war and eventually winds up in the hands of the B.P.R.D. She and Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) have special feelings for each other as they are both isolated outcasts. Meanwhile, Hellboy's relationship with Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) is going through difficult times. With a potentially tough fight coming up, Hellboy needs to get things straight in his life.

A lot of different elements are going on at the same time. There's the minor concern over man's mistreatment of the environment. There's the importance of personal relationships over the work of the B.P.R.D. There's Hellboy's desire to be liked which causes him trouble. There's a lot of interesting dualism (the twins, the two romantic relationships, the real world vs. the fantasy world, etc.). Del Toro adds plenty of visual details into his movies. All these elements are contained in an amazingly imagined and crafted world. None of the elements overpower the others and with so much stuff happening, the film is never slow or uninteresting. The ending is a little disappointing, mostly because it clearly is looking forward to a Hellboy III which never happened. The battle with the elves is resolved but a lot of other issues remain unresolved. The movie definitely leans more on del Toro's creativity than on Hellboy creator Mike Mignola's vision for the character. That's not a bad thing, a little variety makes things interesting. Overall, it's a very satisfying movie.

Recommended.