Hellboy 2

I thought, tonally, Hellboy 2 was all over the map as it went for laughs, then action, then drama, then comedy, wash rinse, repeat, which made it have this start-stop-start-stop pacing to it that just got a little monotonous for me. Didn't much care for the antagonist Prince Nuada or his sister Princess Nuala, nor how the Golden Army's part in the story developed. Some of the interplay between Hellboy and Abe are so silly, but produce decent laughs, while Hellyboy and Liz run hot and cold, no pun intended. But I will say that Selma Blair (Liz) was smoking hot in this film (pun intended). They do introduce Johann Krauss into the BPRD, and Hellboy is not too happy about it.

Director/writer Del Toro is always money when it comes to creature and production design and world building in his films, but for some reason, there is no real cinematic passion or tension in this film, it's a rather inert piece of filmmaking. Del Toro's Hollywood films seem to feel like he's just coasting, while his native language (Spanish) films have another layer of depth to them that makes you wonder how such a talented guy can be so money in Spanish, but just slightly above average with his English language films.

Is it better than the original Hellboy, maybe by a smidge, but the film passes by briskly as a hodge-podge of super-power action/drama/comedy bits tossed into the mix.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.