Hellboy II: Grade C+

I anxiously awaited the release of Hellboy II.  I loved the first one, loved Ron Perlman, loved that this demon-man loves chocolate bars and has a soft spot for cats.  The bad guys were eeeeeeevil and meeeeeean and the monsters were just as intimidating.

Hellboy II? Not so much.  The monsters/creatures in this movie were interesting and definitely reeked of Pan's Labyrinthiness (which I thoroughly enjoyed).  However the script was banal!  Incredibly.  Didn't do justice to what Guillermo del Toro brought to the plate in the way of direction and I'm guessing he blew his creativity wad on effects and had no mojo leftover for the actual dialogue.  The most enjoyable part of the script was the acerbic comments made by a shopkeepers "baby": "I'm not a baby, I'm a tumor!".

The bad guys were, well, not as menacing.  Prince Nuada (the white emo guy you see in the trailers) was bad, but not bad enough.  And his sidekick monster  looked like a cast reject from Men In Black II.  And the tooth faeries? Destructive, yes, but they were cute!  You can't have an evil little monster be adorable as hell!  Has this ever worked before in film history? Please share.

The Gent mentioned this and he was spot on, we were both glad to see Doug Jones voicing the character for Abe Sapien.  However, every time he opened his mouth we kept expecting David Hyde Pierce's disembodied dialogue.  Jones did a great job, but DHP brought a little something extra to the character.  They set the bar high in their decision to cast DHP in the first Hellboy which set up Doug Jones to fall just short of the mark. 

But I still enjoyed it.  And it probably won't stop me from buying it when it comes out on DVD.

(x-posted)