I saw Hellboy II: Golden Army and it surpasses the original. As a presumably-well versed student of modern fantastical-type artwork I found it almost distracting. The design work was very tasty indeed, and no means homogenous, which is both a strength and a weakness. Throughout the entire movie I was calling out to myself “that’s pure Mignola…that’s a Wayne Barlowe design…that’s from a Beksinski painting” – it’s like the film was a moving gallery of Morpheus International artists. If you don’t know any of the names I’m throwing out, you can concentrate on the story. If you’re like me I’m guessing you’ll absorb more the second time around. I won’t say anything else about the film because you haven’t seen it yet.
No, I will say one more thing – all of the trailers before the film are way too long. I didn’t feel urged to see any of the movies (including Death Race) because by the time the 5 minute long trailers were over, I felt I’d already seen the relevant context.
Loved the visuals, thought the story was a bit weak (Barry Manilow? WTF?). I’m really interested to see Del Toro’s take on Tolkien.