Hellboy 2: The Golden Army – What should have been the ‘middle chapter’

Those nasty Nazis only tried to resurrect a demon to help them win WWII!  Lucky we – the Allies – put a stop to that, but figured the demon in question was only a nipper, so we might as well keep him and get him to help us out instead!  So goes the basic plot of ‘Hellboy’ – a superhero movie that came along sort of before this major superhero trend became so popular.

Despite not everyone clamouring to see it (let’s face it… the promotional posters of a red demon sporting an oversize claw and pistol hardly made it as ‘family-friendly’ as ‘Spiderman!’), but it certain did well enough to deserve a sequel.

The titular ‘Hellboy’ is played by (self-confessed) ‘grumpy old man’ Ron Perlman whose natural (grumpy) charisma shines through and brings this reluctant anti-hero to life.  Familiar faces from the first outing also return to help out our demonic saviour including Selma Blair, Doug Jones and John Hurt and, although they all play their roles well, it’s Perlman whose big red face steals every scene. 

So, Hellboy goes about his ‘normal’ business of saving us humans from those things that go bump in the night and there’s as much action and hideous monsters as you may expect.  However, before you write it off completely as just another action movie, it’s worth mentioning that visionary director Guillermo del Toro is at the helm and his natural flair for visuals shines through and brings the world to life.

Of course there are plenty of computer-generated special effects, but there’s also more ‘practical’ effects on show here (most likely del Toro’s influence, based on his previous body of work) and it’s nice to see that models, masks and sets can still be used to great and very effective use when building a fantastical world like this.

Creator of ‘Family Guy’ Seth Macfarlane pops up for some moments of levity (or rather his voice does) as a friendly German spook whose misty form can inhabit various metal bodies, but if the film has a weakness then it’s something that the Marvel films would later suffer from – the villain.  We have Luke Goss thrown in there as the new baddie – an elf with a grudge against humanity.  Yes, he looks suitably evil and is pretty deadly, but he feels a little ‘generic’ when compared to everything else around him that’s so much above average.

‘Hellboy 2’ is certainly worth a watch, whether you’re into superhero films or not.  It’s just a shame that del Toro and Perlman never got the third instalment they were so desperately pushing for.  I hear there’s a ‘reboot’ on the horizon.  I’m sure it will be okay, but it’s going to have to be VERY okay to beat either of the existing ‘Hellboy’ movies.

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one