Hellboy II: The Golden Army

[melworks]

Okay, I really want to write a good review for this movie, but my conscience won't let me. It's not that Hellboy II: The Golden Army is a bad movie, it's just not the type of movie I was expecting. Granted, I'm prejudiced because I'm a big fan of the Hellboy comics and the first movie was really good. It stayed true to the tone of Mike Mignola's comic work. The sequel, alas, doesn't do that. Noted director Guillermo del Toro helped write the story and screenplay of The Golden Army and his influence is quite clear. The movie characters take a little too much from del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and not enough from the Hellboy mythos. It was nice that they went with the interpretation of fairies as dangerous and unpredictable, but there was no real sense of menace from the villains: Prince Nuada and Wyck. The biggest flaw in the movie, though, is the shoehorning in of romantic subplots for Hellboy and Abe Sapien. Not together, people. That's slash, not even yours truly can easily imagine. No, they've decided to continue the romantic relationship between Hellboy and Liz Sherman, while Abe has a fairy princess thrown at him. The introduction of Johann Krause is badly done and, personally, the movie character is quite inferior to the comic version.
I'm sad to say that the movie is pretty predictable. Once all the characters are introduced, you pretty much know how it's going to resolve itself. And that may be it's biggest failing.
I really want to give this movie a good mark. I really do. But my conscience won't let me. So, on the Melworks Scale of Movie Love, I have to give Hellboy II: The Golden Army, 5 out of 10 stars. It's a pretty average movie, and I'd say catch a matinee so you don't have to pay full price admission. Not unless your really, really desperate.