Hellboy 2: Stafff's take Article by Stafffighter, 06:01 PM 14th Jul “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army” is a masterful working of a story as old as time aided by stunning visuals showing us objects as old as time. The theme of the Hellboy books has always been the question of humanity. In this film the titular character (Ron Pearlman in the role he was born for) faces every question of identity that a human can face despite the fact that he’s not human. In both these mundane aspects and the not so mundane job of saving the world we are shown Hellboy as a complete entity without the story lagging in origin. Supporting him in this journey are his repressed yet fiery (no pun) other half Liz Sherman (Selma Blaire) and his counterbalance friend, telepathic fish man Abe Sapien. (Doug Jones, who also plays two other roles) Both of them have expanded roles from that they had in the first film and now act more as though they exist in the same world as Hellboy rather than simply in context to Hellboy. It’s this strength of character that keeps the audience grounded as they are shown a wonderful fantasy world. The visuals in this film are almost a character in and of themselves. Many films have shown us fantastically foreign worlds but very rarely are they shown as if someone foreign actually lives in them. That is accomplished in key with the main theme of the story in that we see fairy tale and nightmare creatures going about the lives they have when no one is dreaming about them. The creatures themselves, good, evil, or unconcerned look every way you could imagine but all of them look and act alive. Smart use of visual effects makes them aspects of the story without demanding that the story be about them. The story, being a Hellboy story, is an action packed one. Fast paced and dynamic fight scenes make this an enjoyable fantasy action movie. The style they’re pulled off in makes it a true Hellboy movie. With a story that looks and feels like it was lifted directly off of the pages of the comic books I give “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army” three and a half stars. Back to The Endless Crew