Hellboy II: The Golden Army. 2008. US. Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, based on characters created by Mike Mignola. With Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor. In English. 35mm. 120 min.
Bolstered by the ecstatic reception of Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy II: The Golden Army doubles down on the sly comedy of Del Toro’s Hellboy while allowing for a genre lover’s feast of production design. Hellboy (Ron Perlman), Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), and Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) find themselves at the threshold of an ancient war between a fallen dynasty of fairies who, in league with a goblin blacksmith, aim to destroy humanity with an army of indestructible mechanical warriors. Pulpier and heavier on special effects than its predecessor, The Golden Army is another happy confluence of Del Toro’s pet obsessions (ghostly aristocracies, Victorian incestuousness, steampunk machinery, and monsters big and small) in a summer blockbuster package. But there’s another Del Toro signature at play: Hellboy and his Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense comrades, each of them endangered species in their own way, are all too aware that they have more in common with their demonic enemies than with their human employers, slyly complicating what could have been a straightforward tale of good versus evil.