I’m a big fan of Mike Mignola’s anti-hero, and Guillermo del Toro has not done too much wrong recently so his second outing at the helm of the Hellboy franchise was much anticipated as much for the little details as the big picture.

Our hero Hellboy is reprised by Ron Perlman as the main man, whilst he has his cohorts around him as in the last movie, Selma Blair as Liz, Doug Jones plays Abe Sapien, and they are joined by a robotic Johann Krauss as the new team leader. The same underlying issues remain, Hellboy wants to be out and about, whilst the bureau want him and his friends under lock and key until his peculiar brand of services are needed. Since he ensures a public unveiling the new ‘man’ is put in charge and he has to work with or under him as an agent. Now to the story itself…..well as usual, the truce between good and evil is at risk, in scenes not too far removed from a Lord of the Rings with puppets, we are led through the reason for a truce as men and the supernatural beings fought a bloody war that was brought up short when King Balor used the Golden Army. He realises that the power of the crown that controls this army is so great it must not be used again, thus he breaks up the crown and gives a piece to men and the rest remain with the elves. However his son Nuada, played pretty effectively by Luke Goss, has other ideas and we cut to the modern world as he attempts to rebuild the crown and control of the army. Nuala, who is Nuada’s sister, is however against such an endeavour once she sees the lengths to which her brother will go for power, and she takes refuge with Hellboy and co….after which the film runs it’s main course.

The whole movie is quite dazzling in terms of the effects, with creatures, actions scenes and a healthy dose of crash, bang, wallop to sate the savage male in all of us. There is even a bonding scene between Hellboy and Abe that was brilliantly conceived, but Ill leave that for you to savour. True the film falters a few times, and the use of the premise with the rather hormonal Liz is baggage I personally could do without. I want Hellboy kicking ass all the way, but this is the sort of film that leaves a good taste, and certainly beats down the contemplative and overwrought anxiety of some other superhero types that have been aired this Summer.

Ron Perlman is excellent as the main man, Goss pretty good as a villain, but there are other characters reduced to lame jokes and poorly used, which I feel is a bit of a letdown. The visuals are stunning, the dialogue excellent for the most part, but the story lacks a bit of weight and I feel that is its weakness, still overall a good effort and a creature feature I’ll watch again.

7.5/10, Great character and action with some quirky humour mixed with the more direct laconic Hellboy quips, impressive visuals but a stumbles a little in the middle section, story has a less solid feel than in the first movie, but I’ll forgive them, at least they fought, won, and made the movie. Respect!