When the original Hellboy came out four years ago, I only knew Guillermo del Toro as the guy who directed Blade II and a Spanish-language horror film called The Devil’s Backbone.
However, I ended up liking the film so much, that I was excited to see del Toro’s next film Pan’s Labyrinth, which officially made me a fan of the director.
Now, with Hellboy II, the story is not as well developed as the first film, but I still had a good time.
The film really demonstrates del Toro’s love of using non-CGI creature effects. Unless it was impossible to do in that manner, all the creatures in the film were either a guy in a suit or an animatronic puppet.
The most notable of the creature performers would have to be Doug Jones, who plays no less than three chracters: Main character Abe Sapien, The Chamberlain (who actually looks like a modified version of the Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth), and The Angel of Death. Joining the creature cast is Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane, who hilariously voices the German ectoplasmic spirit Johann Kraus.
Like I previous said, the story, which involves an Elf prince (who, probably coincedently, looks a lot like one of the Blood Elves from World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade) tries to reactivate a mechanical army in order to destory humanity, is not as well developed as the first film. However, I did have a good time watching the film, and in my book, that is all that matters.
8/10