Hellboy II : The Golden Army

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to be asked by a friend to accompany him watching the screening for Hellboy II: The Golden Army. If I was to watch this on my own, I must have given it second thought first since the first one, while not bad, didn't actually make want to crave for more. It's something lacking that I couldn't point out, I don't know.

Now, being directed by the famous Guillermo Del Toro, I'd say that the sequel actually managed to surpass my expectations. First of all, the short haired Selma Blair is HAWT! And other cast also performs well, with a nice addition of Johann Krauss (voiced by John Alexander), another weird but fun character as a new liaison for the FBI.

It is told that long ago, a war erupted between man and the invisible realm of the fantastic. The long time war was won by the mythical creatures, thanks to their ultimate weapon, the golden army, the seventy times seventy mechanical indestructible soldiers. But the king of the invisible creatures was wise enough not to slaughter mankind, and therefore offered truce between the two. The royal crown, controller of the golden army, was separated into three, one of them was given to man. Humans will stay in the cities while the invisibles will keep themselves to the forest. The golden army was hidden in a secret place. Thus begin hundreds of years of peace.

But heir to the invisibles kingdom, Prince Nuada (played convincingly vicious but cool by Luke Goss), thought that mankind has broken the truce by destroying the forests and the earth so he, killing the rightful king that is his own father seek to unite the golden crown and resurrect the golden army once again to punish the humans and take over the world.

Compared to the first movie, I'd say that this time the makers has successfully infuse more style and action, making it a much more fun movie to watch. And Guillermo's touch also evident in the designs of many of the fantastic creatures in this movie. It was amazing, bordering to surrealistic. The effects are nice too. Liz Sherman's power of fire manifested beautifully deadly. And that makes Selma Blair looks hotter than ever. The final battle between Hellboy and the Golden Army was well animated and exciting. It was actually creepy to see how indestructible they are.

The story is a bit on the light side. Not that it's bad because that's common in comic book movies, and I think not every comic book movie should be as head-splittingly intense as The Dark Knight. It was fun and let us enjoy all the magnificent things happened on screen easily. The humor was there and right on spot. Adding a bit of refreshing light in the dark tone of this movie.

Del Toro has already proven that he was the man when it comes to fantasy movie. I recommend this movie to whoever looking for a fun action movie, although you might not want to bring your little one along as this movie can get a bit violent at times.


Oh, and have I told you that Selma Blair is FREAKING HAWT???!!