Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Guillermo Del Toro is stuck in one spectacular looking rut. Having multiplied his usual rogue's gallery of creatures and weirdos tenfold, Del Toro has churned out a sequel every bit as entertaining and ultimately disappointing as its original.
With a plot lifted straight from J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, Hellboy II: The Golden Army feels more like an audition for The Hobbit (which Del Toro is now in pre-production on) than a fulfillment of a previous picture that came up short in almost every thematic way possible.
Now trying to live a life of domesticity with his literally flaming hot girlfriend, Liz, Hellboy is feeling under appreciated by the general public, which has no idea that he and his friends at the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation are out there every night fighting the forces of evil on their behalf. He's an enigmatic character, though I doubt he was set up that way by original graphic novel author Mike Mignola. If the first film was lacking in theological subtext, this one is positively barren.
The circumstances surrounding Hellboy's life on earth are ripe for religious and spiritual exploration--he's the demon son of Satan raised on Earth by a devout Catholic to fight for good. Yet the myriad themes that spring out of such a scenario are merely glossed over in both films, even more so in the sequel.
If Hellboy was raised by a brilliant scholar, why is he such a big dope? Shouldn't he be more like Indiana Jones--someone who is intelligent but doesn't always think things through before acting? And since he isn't much of a thinker, it nullifies any attempt, however half-hearted, to explore the dichotomy of a demon protecting humanity from the things that go bump in the night.
Furthermore, since Del Toro has already made a film which covers these themes of spirituality and free will with much grace and humility (the brilliant Pan's Labyrinth), what is the point of Hellboy, other than an exhibition of fantasy filmmaking?
Credit where credit is due: Hellboy II is indeed fantastical, especially the troll market sequence, which seems to include every imaginary creature Del Toro couldn't find a place for in Pan‘s Labyrinth or the first Hellboy. It's a raucous, brisk action ride with all manner of eccentricity and a cast of actors who seem right at home in the material; but it's also a step back for a filmmaker who seemingly had moved on from vacant material like this.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army simply isn't as interesting as it ought to be.