Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army is a 2008 American superhero film based on the fictional character Hellboy created by Mike Mignola.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro. With Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, John Alexander. The mythical world starts a rebellion against humanity in order to rule the Earth, so Hellboy and his team must save the world from the rebellious creatures.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Directed by Guillermo del Toro. With Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, John Alexander. The mythical world starts a rebellion against humanity in order to rule the Earth, so Hellboy and his team must save the world from the rebellious creatures.

Ron Perlman returns to the role of the big red BPRD agent in this sequel to 2004's Hellboy, directed once again by Guillermo del Toro and scripted as before in collaboration with original Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. For centuries, an ancient truce has kept the naïve citizens of the human race safe from the horrors of the invisible realm -- but that's all about to change, and fast. A ruthless leader has emerged in the invisible realm, a tyrant just as comfortable walking the surface realm as he is living in the land of fantasy. When this power-mad ruler defies his bloodline to assemble an unstoppable army of fantastical creatures that he will use to wage a supernatural war on humanity, it begins to appear that humankind's days are numbered. But Hellboy (Perlman) isn't about to stand idly by as the planet is purged by a demonic despot, and with a little help from his team at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, he may just be able to send our otherworldly overlords packing. Of course, Hellboy's pyrokinetic girlfriend, Liz (Selma Blair), is always willing to conjure up an inferno or two when things get desperate, aquatic Abe (Doug Jones) is prepared to dive headlong into any battle, and protoplasmic mystic Johann (voice of Thomas Kretschmann) proves an invaluable companion in times of inter-dimensional conflict. Now, as the creatures who inhabit the spiritual realm gear up for an all-out attack on the human plane, the only one capable of saving the Earth is a tough-talking hellspawn rejected by both worlds. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Imagine the forges of hell crossed with the extraterrestrial saloon on Tatooine, and you have a notion of Guillermo del Toro's "Hellboy II: The Golden Army." In every way the equal of his original "Hellboy" (2004), although perhaps a little noisier, it's another celebration of his love for bizarre fantasy and diabolical machines. The sequel bypasses the details of Hellboy's origin story, but adds a legend read to him as a child by his adoptive father (John Hurt), in which we learn of an ancient warfare between humans, and, well, everybody else: trolls, monsters, goblins, the Tooth Fairy, everybody.

Imaginative, campy comic book fun; lots of scares.

Combining a single, sweeping camera move with a jarring number of near-concussions as cogs and wheels self-assemble within inches of the viewer, the title sequence for Hellboy II is, essentially, a carnival ride through a mechanized version of hell, with a brief detour into a graphic, da-Vincian purgatory. Created by Double Negative for Guillermo del Toro's arguably superior franchise sequel, the machine eventually forges the components of the Hellboy II logo – and, analogously, of Hellboy himself.