My Review of "Hellboy II: The Golden Army"

Hellboy II: The Golden Army came out back in 2008. It was 4 years after the original movie. I reviewed the last movie with some positive feedback. It got me wondering why I don't really remember the sequel. I'm sure I watched it but why wouldn't I remember it. After seeing this movie I kind of remember why I forgot about it.

The movie start off in the past. We have professor Bloom and a very young Hellboy. Bloom is telling Hellboy a tale about an ancient civilization that had invented the Golden Army. This is some unkillable army that is controlled by whomever wears a special crown. The king at that time didn't like the destructive power of the Golden Army so he dismantled the crown.

The crown had been separated for centuries until their present time. The son of the king who had dismantled the crown wants to gain the power of the Golden Army. He claims that his motivation is that humans have wasted away their lives and ruined the earth. His weird argument is that now the humans deserve to be disintegrated because of this. I don't even know where he gets these ideas from since his dad is so benevolent.

The son's name is Nuada and he happens to have a twin sister Nuala. They have a really weird relationship with one another. It seems like they're telepathically linked to one another and they feel the same affects as each other. If one of them gets hurt the other feels the same effects. I understand that they're trying to do some sort of yin and yang relationship with one another. Their interactions with one another is quite awkward as it feels almost incestrous. They seem to be touching and feeling each other very disturbingly.

Anyways Nuada wants the crown no matter what and it's up to Hellboy and his ragtag gang to stop him. This time they get the addition of a new character named Krauss. He's this gas like character that doesn't really add too much to the movie.

There are some good things with this movie. I have to say the art direction just like the previous movie are jaw droppingly beautiful. There is meticulous detail in all of the little things in this movie down to the CGI that they used to help this movie out. The CGI isn't even distracting even though this movie is quite an old movie. All the effects are surprisingly well done and integrated quite nicely in this one.

The action sequences are also a huge plus. This was back in the day when you can actually see the movement of each of the characters. The color palettes that they used also help distinguish who is who during the fight. It's very easy to keep up and understand what's going on.

My drawbacks are the little quirks throughout the movie. It centers around romantic relationships. This is the motivation for some of the characters to make some really dumb decisions. There is a part closer to the end of the movie that didn't really have to happen at all. Love is supposed to be the catalyst that enables this dumb thing to happen and I had to roll my eyes.

There's also some weird inconsistencies throughout the movie. For example Hellboy is supposed to be this indestructible guy and you can see him taking on some wild stuff yet he gets cut by a simple rock thrown at him by a human being. It doesn't make sense. There's even a moment where Abe literally says he has no tear ducts and closer to the end of the movie the guy cries. I'm like you just said he doesn't have tear ducts what is this?

I know those small things shouldn't matter but your audience isn't dumb they can tell that some of this stuff doesn't make sense. It kind of really threw me away from the movie. Well that and the really basic storyline that was just an excuse to display their wonderful artistic designs.

Another small note is some of the wooden acting involved with this movie. There are some fun character work but there is a character Liz that was pretty wooden throughout the movie. She was like that in the previous movie but she played a bigger role in this movie. It was just way more apparent here.

Overall, this movie is a visual tour de force but it isn't much in the film category. If you're going to watch this, then watch and enjoy it for the visual splendor that it has an abundance of but you're going to groan with the story. That's why I unfortunately have to give this movie a 5.5 out of 10. It is an easily forgettable movie but was probably wildly fun when it first came out since the art direction wasn't this wildly creative back in the day.