Hellboy II: The Golden Army

In order to make this film, Guillermo del Toro turned down Halo (2009), I Am Legend (2007), One Missed Call (2008), and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). And it certainly shows in the cinematography, the wonderful world he has created and the attention to detail. Detail such as the damaged mask of Kroenen from the first film can be seen in a glass case at the BPRD headquarters.

Raging gun battles, bullet time, cameos from famous "retired" actors. These are just some of the things you won't find in Hellboy 2.

OK, your basic plot:
Man, having in ancient times broken a pact with the elves and other magical creatures is nearly wiped out by a mechanical indestructible golden army controlled by a crown worn by the elf king. When he saw how devastating the army was, the king ordered the army to be hidden and broke the crown into three pieces. One he gave to the humans as a gesture of good faith, the others he kept for himself. Now, one half of Bros, sorry Prince Nuada wants to awaken the army and wage war on human-kind. Guess who has to stop him?

There are a couple of oddities. For a start Doug Jones who played and voice Abe Sapien in the first movie but was subsequently overdubbed by David Hyde Pierce has been allowed to voice Abe this time, except that now he has to do so while impersonating David Hyde Pierce. And there is that huge plothole to worry about. The script has to tip-toe around its edges the whole time.

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PLOTHOLE: Princess Nuala (Nuada's twin sister) has the third part of the crown. They are linked together, hurt one and you injure them both. When King Balor orders Buada's death for stealing the human's part of the crown, he is also ordering the death of Nuala as well since she will die along with Nuada. She says she is at peace with this decision. Yet only at the end of the film when Nuada is about to kill Hellboy does Nuala realise that if she kills herself, then she defeats Nuada. Presumably because if she realised this earlier, you'd have a much shorter film.

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Having said that the film is very enjoyable. Seth MacFarlane was a particular joy as the voice of Johann Krauss. The fights are very well staged, the sets are impressive and the story is quite good. It's let down a little by the characterisation in places, but it's more than made up for by being fun to watch.

I think overall the film suffers from the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull syndrome; removing the Nazis as the bad guys may not have been the best idea.

Score: B-
For the plothole. It's a stunning and beautiful film.

OQ: Industible, my ass.

Trivia:

From the Bureau of Spelling and Punctuation: When Johann speaks German it is generally nonsense, and sometimes the grammar is incorrect.

From the "Ha! Bet'cha regret that now, don't ya?" file: Revolution Studios was originally set to produce this sequel but had to pull out once Sony decided they no longer wanted to fund Revolution Studios. Sony put the rights up for sale since they felt Hellboy wasn't a profitable franchise for them. Universal felt differently and bought the rights to make the sequel immediately.

And from the "Sweet Lord, you need to get out and get a life" file: Hellboy is shown watching "Howdy Doody" (1954) on Christmas Eve 1955. Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday that year, and "Howdy Doody" aired Monday-Friday.