"Hellboy II - The Golden Army" - spoiler movie review

I think this may have been the first time I've seen a sequel without having seen the original. In most cases, if I didn't already see the original film, I'd usually end up renting it and watching it ahead of time, but in this case, I didn't get a chance to. The husband had seen "Hellboy" and liked it and was excited about the sequel. The trailer for "Hellboy II - The Golden Army" looked good, so I read the summary on themoviespoiler.com to get myself acquainted with the story in the first film in preparation.

Overall, I'd say I liked the movie, though I didn't love it. I wasn't as engaged with the characters as I would have liked to be.

I liked the animation at the beginning that told the backstory of the battle between the humans and the creatures and how a truce came to be. During the course of the movie, I found myself much more interested in the creatures than in the humans - Jeffrey Tambor did a decent job, but I just wasn't interested in his character. I appreciated all of the spiffy creatures and the cantina-like atmosphere, but I kinda wanted more substance rather than just show. The creature with all the eyes figured fairly prominently in the trailer, but it was only in a very small part of the movie.

The scene of the aftermath of the killing spree in the auction house was pretty gross, especially when they realize they're stepping on the left-overs of the eaten people. Ewwwww.

I was seriously not happy with the disguised troll who eats cats. At least the demons on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" only used kittens as ante. I did laugh when they were at the troll village and Hellboy encountered the creature with the "baby" - "I'm not a baby, I'm a tumor".

I wasn't thrilled with the prosthetic of Hellboy as a child - it looked very static and almost like a mask. I liked the look of the Golden Army, though for some reason, they reminded me a lot of Super Battle Droids.

And as Hellboy was fighting Prince Nuada (a great action sequence) with Abe's caution not to hurt him because whatever happened to Prince Nuada would also happen to Princess Nuala, it occurred to me that the easiest way to kill him was pretty much to kill Princess Nuala, so it was actually kind of cool that she ended up stabbing herself in the heart to stop Prince Nuada from further attacking Hellboy after Hellboy refused to kill him.

I think Ron Perlman did a decent job, but I never really felt connected to Hellboy. Maybe that was accomplished in the first movie so there wasn't a need to do that again in the sequel. Selma Blair was ok as Liz, but the standout for me was the character of Abe Sapien. His budding relationship with Princess Nuala made him much more memorable and fleshed-out as a character. The actress who played Princess Nuala and the actor who played Prince Nuada were both very good.

So while I don't regret having seen the movie and didn't think it was a waste of time or money, it's not something I'd be inclined to really recommend. The movie did have one lingering effect, so I'd really like Barry Manilow to stop singing to me. At least it can only last for a few more days at most, because after Friday night, I'm going to have lots of other songs ingrained in my head, songs I actually won't mind running through my head constantly.