When Hellboy 2 came out in the theatres in the summer, Natalie at work said it was trash and she wished she’d never seen it (I may be paraphrasing a little) and I decided to skip it.  I can’t say it would have been better in the theatre, but large action-oriented movies usually are.

I liked most of the parts in this movie that involved the elf storyline (the prince), I agreed with his beliefs and thought he was more just than the the hero.  This put me at odds a bit during the movie, for instance Hellboy fights an elemental and is forced to choose between killing it and… well they never say what would happen if he didn’t, it’s just assumed he would go to the prince’s side.  Ultimately he kills it (no surprise) and I felt bad for the elemental.

Basically as soon as the movie moves over to Hellboy’s hideout, it starts to feel really campy, not unlike the shots of the M.I.B. agency with all the Jim Henson’s Creature Shop players.  It completely works against the feel of the rest of the movie, and breaks it into two unsynergistic parts (including a scene where the fish guy gets drunk and sings Karaoke with Hellboy and in the next scene they have a huge fight which leaves Hellboy nearly dead).

Another part of this non-action side is the multiple love interest stories, which all seem really contrived and forced.  This just doesn’t feel right at any point, and further removed me from the film.

To its credit the action sequences are very fun to watch and the one-liners are only mildly groan-worthy.  I wish there was an 80/20 split for action/romance, instead of the other way around, I think it would have been a much more enjoyable movie.

The very ending made little sense, they suddenly all quit and it’s never explained why.  Nothing happened beforehand where they said “I’m getting too old for this shit” or anything like that.

Rating: You could easily not see this movie and never miss it, unless you are a huge Hellboy fanboy, in which case you already saw it in the theatre.

• Movie Review