Hellboy II: The Golden Army

I barely remember the first Hellboy. I know I saw it, but I remember no details other than some pretty spectacular visuals courtesy director Guillermo del Toro. I suspect that in four years, I'll have similar feelings about its sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army. The frankly silly plot will fade away (Golden Army? Elves? Twins?), and I'll be left with just the sights, but those are more than good enough for me.

The good-hearted demon Hellboy (Ron Perlman, fantastic as always) is still toiling away at a government agency for paranormal research. Joined by girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair) and friend Abe Sapien (del Toro favorite Doug Jones), Hellboy saves the world from creatures that, like he and his friends, aren't really supposed to exist. The plot of the film centers on a power-mad elf who wants to destroy the world of man by awakening an invincible army of golden machines, and it's up to the feuding Hellboy and Liz, as well as a newly smitten Abe, to save the day.

But that bare-bones summary (and the plot it represents) are really secondary to the imaginative creations of del Toro. The creatures he imagined for previous films, including those for Pan's Labyrinth, only seemed to be preparation for the menagerie here. Some creatures are funny, but many are what might populate the nightmares of some of the stranger artistic geniuses, and del Toro couldn't have created them if he weren't among those high ranks.