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Critics Consensus: Guillermo del Toro crafts a stellar comic book sequel, boasting visuals that are as imaginative as the characters are endearing.
Critic Consensus: Guillermo del Toro crafts a stellar comic book sequel, boasting visuals that are as imaginative as the characters are endearing.
All Critics (245) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (210) | Rotten (35) | DVD (5)
The parade of creatures Del Toro and his team have come up with as this scenario unfolds, starting with a tour of the legendary Troll Market that one-ups the Mos Eisley cantina scene in Star Wars, will make you want to tip your hat in wonder.
Let's hope Universal stays the course and gives us that opportunity. People as creative as del Toro and his gang need all the support we can give them.
Despite its comic-book trappings, Hellboy II, even more so than its predecessor, Hellboy, resembles nothing so much as an art film phantasmagoria.
Del Toro's previous film, the complex, visually arresting Pan's Labyrinth, demonstrated his growth as a filmmaker, and though the themes here aren't as profound, the striking set design and use of nonhuman characters carry over.
This film is happy to coast on its good humor and brilliant action pieces. Fair enough, since del Toro has taken the poetry of some of his best work and butched it up, creating some of the most amazing-looking creatures and battles of his career.
In the end I found myself pulling for the bad guy -- because at least he was interesting.
... one of those cinematic rarities where the sequel perfectly and appropriately complements the first. [Full review in Spanish]
You've got enough ideas for an entire geek-friendly trilogy in this one crazy movie.
In a season of endless comic book superheroes, Hellboy II is a unique visual feast.
This, like the first Hellboy, is del Toro on holiday in Hollywood, having as much fun as he can without totally compromising his considerable powers of invention.
Hellboy II is fabulously imaginative, visually sumptuous and dramatically complex; what's more, it's very funny and engaging.
A sleek action picture by Guillermo del Toro, who's making a corner for himself in the horror-fantasy world in his native Mexico, in Hollywood and in Spain.
Guillermo del Toro did it again. His imagery and visual language are unique in fantasy cinema. He easily exceeds expectations for his second Hellboy film and creates one hell of a fun fantasy picture. A movie that has everything an action comic adventure needs: so many funny, pretty and ugly creatures that you could fill 5 films with them; likable heroes and cool villains; humor, even silliness, yet a certain depth and care for the characters you start to love and want to follow around for all of their adventures; great, spectacular action scenes and outstanding special effects. Sure, the plot doesn't always make sense, but all the neat ideas, one-liners and breathless pace more than make up for it. In short: Bloody fantastic.
Super Reviewer
The infernal superhero and his team reunite to stop an elfin prince from reawakening a dormant robotic army to wage war on mankind. One thing that you can take for granted when it comes to films by Del Toro is that it IS going to look absolutely fantastic, and so it does. The wonderful art design shares the look of some of his earlier gothic fairytales such as Pan's Labyrinth, as well as the combination of fantasy and eco-message that is the trademark of Myazaki (the most visually extraordinary example being the stunning death of the forest elemental.) The troll's market is also worth a mention, which is akin to a Tim Burton reinvention of Mos Eisley, but as I said, we always knew that the imagery was never going to be in question. The story has a combination of fantastic creatures, epic battles and Men In Black style visual gags that comes across as The Return Of The King with a sense of humour. The jokes aren't top drawer, but it's always amusing and the frenetic action sequences are exciting and fun. Perlman is as reliable as always and Luke Goss once more is a charismatic and multi-layered bad guy, the only real weaknesses being the corn infested love interests; in fact I couldn't help thinking that the darker edges of Del Toro's vision were probably tempered in an attempt to appeal to the Harry Potter market. As a whole though, it's a lot of fun and as always seems to be the way with superhero movies is rather better than the first one.
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Guillermo del Toro's sequel to his 2004 comic-book-success is humorous, exciting and majestic as it explores a whole different realm of the Dark-Horse-adaptation. Ron Perlman once again gives a smart and distinct performance with laughable dialogue and action all around. 4.5/5
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