Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A little weaker but more versatile than the first one. Certainly entertaining.7/10

Movie Review: "Hellboy II" (2008)Moving distribution contracts from Sony Pictures affiliate "Revolution Studios" to Universal Pictures in production season 2007/2008, when action-cinema veteran producer Lawrence Gordon, known for "Predator" (1987) starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and "Waterworld" (1995) starring Kevin Costner, provides visionary director Guillermo del Toro with the upscaled budgtary necessities to fulfill his second "Dark Horse Comic" adapation of infamous as inferior "Hellboy" character, portrayed by ultra-exercised as mischief as action-beats striking actor Ron Perlman, visually enhanced by heavy as convincing make-up effects initiated by the artistic Academy-Award-nominated duo Mike Elizalde and Thomas Floutz and love-interest as pyrokinetic character of Liz Sherman, performed under emotional restraint but well-designed on-screen appearing actress Selma Blair, when nevertheless the ease-and-cool striking brother-sister-duo Prince Nuada & Princess Nuala in order of the high arts and immensely grace-for-a-universal-cause portrayals by match-making performers Luke Goss & Anna Walton in splendid costumes designed by Sammy Sheldon, who elevates Guillermo Del Toro's sequel of an already perfectly-underrated "Hellboy", releasing in Spring 2004 to unjustified minor attendance at the box office."Hellboy II" delivers in every step of the way from high-rise inventive art directions by reprising promoted production designer Stephen Scott, who translates Guillermo del Toro's pencil-to-paper drawings into on-sound-stage solid-set-realities, where the director's long-time collaborator cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, when this different al, too apart from any "Marvel Universe" inflicted characterization of Mass-Fantasy-Action becomes the most underrated motion picture entertainment ride with great hands-on special effects works, slapstick interludes with ruling disturbingly-designed character of "Johann Krauss" exceeding the original "Hellboy" also-adaptively-written as directed by Del Toro, when the plot points of an ancient society, willing to raise the title-given "Golden Army" of seventy, letting "Hellboy" and his supportive team at Bureau of Paranormal and Defenses of the Dark Arts fighting fiercely action battles with extra-large revolver, a massive shot-gun, gently called "The Baby" and fist-up-to martial-arts-ingredients-pushing spear-fight confrontation between "Hellboy vs. Nuada", which seems to amaze throughout by holding the suspense and tension-arc due to screenplay written by director Guillermo Del Toro, keeping his directorila signatures alive for future filmmaking projects.© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

I am not a fan of Hellboy nor have I even seen the original movie. Don't be fooled by his name as he is in fact the hero. With everything being based on Marvel or DC nowadays (okay, mostly Marvel) it's great to look at a superhero made by another company, Dark Horse. At first, I thought he was made by Image comics. I guess I have trouble telling those two apart. I admit that some of this film is hokey, but it's beautiful to look at, it doesn't really matter. It can be hard getting into a brand new franchise. The best part of this movie is how absolutely gorgeous it looks.The visuals and special effects are incredible. There are always new and abstract characters being introduced with all these unique designs. The fight scenes are all epic and wonderfully creative. There's just always some new wonderfully designed creature just appearing right around the corner in this movie. It of course helps that the main character is very enjoyable. I actually do get the relationships these characters have, even if there's not that much screen time devoted to it. It was made by the director of "Pan's Labyrinth" and it's really easy to tell with the design. This film lacks that movie's emotion, but is still a lot of fun. ***1/2

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. 2004's Hellboy was mostly a dull, plodding movie. Every once and a while there were flashes of potential from the creative team: a crackling one-liner, an iconic image, a piece of hard-hitting action, a great character moment. But on the whole, the whole thing felt watered-down, forced, and a waste of talent. Rumor has it that studio suits interfered, as they're wont to do, with the creative vision of the director. But that director was Guillermo Del Toro, whose next film, the visionary Pan's Labrynth, won three Academy Awards, received a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, and got a whopping 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This time, the studio suits politely stood out of his way.Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is at once an altogether superior sequel as well as a highly entertaining standalone adventure movie. The characters are terrific, the action sequences genuinely thrilling, the comedy hits the mark (it rarely did in the first film), and the visual design is at times among the most original and unique of anything I've ever seen. Go see this movie to enjoy the craft of a great director on the rise. You don't have to have seen the first film to enjoy this one.For me, this is on par with Iron Man as the summer's best action entertainment so far (The Dark Knight, of course, soon cometh). While no character in this shines as brightly as Robert Downey Jr's ultra-cool Tony Stark, the ensemble here is better, the action is just as good, and the creativity and visual imagery are terrific. When I saw the first Hellboy I didn't care if the series continued; having seen it's brawny, spunky, and imaginative sequel, I cannot wait for another installment. **** (out of five) Rated PG-13 for creepy images, action violence.