A hokey but likeable 'Hellboy"

By Mina Hochberg | amNewYork movie critic

1:44 PM EDT, July 10, 2008

Selma Blair and Ron Perlman star in " Hellboy II: The Golden Army." (AP Photo/Universal, Egon Endenyi)

Back in 2004, director Guillermo del Toro reconciled dark and silly, seedy and hokey with panache in "Hellboy." But "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," while a perfectly fine piece of summer entertainment, carries the silly and the hokey too far, almost into kiddie realm. It makes you a little afraid for "The Hobbit," which an overly busy Peter Jackson relinquished to Del Toro.

A comic book character invented by Mike Mignola, Hellboy is part man, part devil, a gruff lunk of a lobster-colored creature beckoned to Earth from another universe (watch the first "Hellboy" for full explanation). When the U.S. government discovered Hellboy in his infancy, they adopted him and raised him to become the F.B.I.'s covert weapon against paranormal beasties.

In "Hellboy II," an elf by the name of Prince Nuada is on a crusade to piece together an almighty crown that, once made whole, grants its owner the power to command an indestructible army that sleeps in the bowels of the earth. As the lore of "Hellboy" goes, the elves have lived peacefully with mankind for centuries, so peacefully that we've forgotten all about them, which Nuada isn't happy about. Intent on resurrecting his kind, he hunts down the crown pieces with an army of CGI creatures at his side, from calcium-hungry insects that devour humans in minutes to a green monster shaped like a 10-story plant bud.

Just as the first "Hellboy" had Catholic overtones (Hellboy subverted his evil destiny and chose a path of goodness), this movie has a lazy twinge of environmental proselytizing. As the aforementioned monster bud rips apart a street full of gas-guzzling vehicles, Nuada whispers in Hellboy's ear: Do you really want to destroy this monster, the last of its kind? No one will mourn the humans once they're gone, he insinuates to Hellboy as the movie progresses. Let the elves, the forest-dwellers, inherit the earth.

The environmental theme is hardly administered heavyhandedly, but it is administered clumsily, as are the romantic overtures that take up a significant snoozy portion of the movie. Don't worry, you won't have to see a pointy-tailed, red-skinned, double-horned man-demon make out with Selma Blair, who plays his love interest. But you do have to suffer through some lovelorn speeches and drunken crooning to Barry Manilow (which sounds more forgivable in writing than it does on screen).

The worlds that Del Toro creates in his fantastical crannies of the planet -- whether it's under the Brooklyn Bridge or beneath the rolling hills of Ireland -- are a trip to behold. And the creatures are the best part. Just when you're feeling the burden of having slogged through one too many exchanges of hokey dialogue, Del Toro rewards you with a newfangled beast that's up to some kind of nasty no-good. And so, like the first "Hellboy," you'll find yourself liking this film more than you should. Not quite as much as the first one, but still more than you should.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. Starring Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor, John Hurt