If you saw Pan’s Labyrinth, but thought it was too depressing you’ll probably like Hellboy 2.  It’s Pan’s Labyrinth on cool pills with a healthy injection of badass-ery.  All kidding aside, it’s a pretty good movie.

Since it’s the most prominent aspect of the movie I’ll address the costumes, and make up.  The detail and believability of it all is purely astounding.  Judging from the del Toro’s other projects we knew it would be good, but I must say that this is a pretty flick.  All of the various creatures from the elves to the goblins looked very much alive.  Even the CGI was pretty good.  My personal favorite of all the costumes was the Angel of Death.  But since I’m not a make-up artist let’s move on.

As always, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) was more than entertaining, but in a dramatic reversal he didn’t go through much of a change as the movie progressed.  In the first one we saw him have to make difficult decisions, and in this one most of the decisions are allocated to the other members of the party.  The decisions that Hellboy does make don’t much effect the development of the plot.  This isn’t necessarily a fault.  It lets the character Hellboy be himself, and we see what he’s like unhindered in his own element.  Hellboy’s childishness takes a front seat when major threats are immediately at his doorstep, and this paranormal hero stuff is business-as-usual for him.  We also get to see what seems to be his ultimate philosophy: “If you hit it hard enough you’ll eventually get your way.” 

Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) step up and make they’re powers known in Hellboy 2.  No longer is Liz the pyrokinetic damsel in distress.  She’s every bit as important to the BPRD as Hellboy is in potentially hostile field research.  Abe Sapien steps up to become a person of emotional depth rather than just a cold psychic fish-man.Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) the BPRD agent that is assigned to keep the BPRD and its agents, particularly the paranormal agents, out of the public eye is still a pain-in-the-but in this movie.  But he’s more lovable.  He almost evokes sympathy versus Hellboy’s intentional disobedience.

Some aspects of the plot seem to get shortchanged.  The movie itself tries to keep a Hellboy-ish attitude as a driving force from beginning to end and as a result things get rushed.  Some of Abe Sapien’s new found emotions are a little naive and beg the question, “Why is he suddenly feeling this now?”  They offer an explanation which makes it easier to swallow, but I think in an attempt to make a character deeper it made him act out of character. 

The Verdict:  The movie feels like a romp in a peril filled fantasy world, but it’s still fun because our big red right hand will fend off the evil beasties.  It’s definitely worth seeing.

-Vince