Hellboy II: The Golden Army

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

With writer-director del Toro given free license to go where his singular vision takes him, Hellboy II plays like Guillermo's Greatest Hits with even hotter visual effects.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Poetic, funny, darkly romantic and beautifully structured -- is a very different picture from "Pan's Labyrinth." But there's no doubt that it springs from the same cathedral.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Del Toro is almost alone in his ability to re-create on screen the wide-eyed exhilaration and disturbing grotesqueness that is the legacy of reading comics on the page.

Slate Dana Stevens

Perlman's Red is hilarious, combining the gritty delivery of a film noir cop with the physiognomy of a horned behemoth. And the script, by del Toro and Mignola, alternates action smackdowns with sweet, goofy moments, like a scene in which Red and the lovelorn Abe drink beer and croon along with a Barry Manilow record.

Time Richard Corliss

If the film is just as strange and endearing as its glowing protagonist -- and it is -- that's because the director and co-writer (with Mignola) is Guillermo del Toro, 43, who has the wildest imagination and grandest ambitions of anybody in modern movies.

Variety John Anderson

Not to disparage the f/x guys, but what's onscreen in Hellboy II is all about the seismic eruptions in del Toro's head. Comparing his work to most fantasy cinema is like comparing cave drawings to the Cathedral of Cologne.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

As he has done in all his movies, from creature features such as "Mimic" to serious dramas such as "Pan's Labyrinth," del Toro creates unforgettable images, filled with color, texture, lyricism and horror.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Hugely inventive -- and smashingly beautiful.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Imagine the forges of hell crossed with the extraterrestrial saloon on Tatooine, and you have a notion of Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

It's a dry, mundane title. It's also the only thing about the film that doesn't blow your mind right out of its comfortable, I've-seen-all-this-before rut.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Ron Perlman returns as the film's loveable title character, a demon gone good who's tough on the outside but tender underneath, with a soft spot for kittens, candy, and babies.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The Golden Army dazzles like something out of "Jason and the Argonauts." To make a comic-book fantasy this derivative yet this dazzling requires more than technique. It takes a director in touch with his inner hellboy.

Village Voice Chuck Wilson

Despite the rosary beads Red wraps around his wrist, Hellboy II doesn't have much on its mind, but few will care since del Toro and his stellar "Pan's Labyrinth" team, including Oscar-winning cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, stage one virtuoso set-piece after another.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

The endlessly inventive del Toro creates visual fantasies unlike any other, and the creatures on display here are truly extraordinary. But amid all the costumes, all the action, and all the special effects, it's the humanity that makes his work so memorable. Yes, the monsters are amazing. But the moment when a heartsick Hellboy discovers Barry Manilow? Priceless.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Better than the first in some ways: the superfluous Agent Meyers is gone, Doug Jones is great as Abe, and Strauss is an amusing addition (if almost structurally identical to Kroenen).

Empire Helen O'Hara

As much Tolkien's baby as Mignola's, this has more heart and humour than most fantasy films can dream of. Hellaciously good.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's not perfect -- thank Satan! -- but Hellboy II: The Golden Army is by far the most splendidly imaginative and creatively uncorked piece of fantastic cinema since the director's "Pan's Labyrinth" netted an Oscar trifecta in 2007.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The movie overall is engaging, though it's more cavalier regarding story and relentless in its action than its predecessor.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Hellboy II is solid entertainment, but it's a shame such blemishes prevent it from achieving a higher level.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It definitely gives us our money's worth in the sheer volume of its imaginative fantasy creatures and it's that rare superhero-movie sequel that's better than the original.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Highly imaginative and consistently amusing without pretensions.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

The talented fantasy filmmaker and heir to the "Lord of the Rings" throne gets the tone right throughout Hellboy 2, and the hip retro charm alone is enough to merit recommendation.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A surprise package of fun, fright and untamed imagination.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The sheer volume of amazing things that del Toro is able to mine from his unconscious and render plausibly on the screen is remarkable. Hellboy II feels pretty sequel-y, as these things go, but there's a lot in it that has no precedent of any kind, anywhere, ever. That stuff makes it worthwhile.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Hellboy II comes across as an original. But being original is not always the same thing as being wonderful.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Del Toro stuffs the film with wit and wonderments. Yet, coming out this superhero summer, it plays like a lovingly crafted synthesis of every fantasy saga we've seen in the past decade.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Of all the comic book movies that have spun out of theaters this long and pulpy summer, Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy II: The Golden Army is the most unapologetically comic book-y.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The same super-heated visual imagination that made Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" such a darkly thrilling delight is very much in evidence in his sequel to "Hellboy." It's a shame that it's at the service of such a blandly conventional story.

Chicago Reader Joshua Katzman

A funny, offbeat superhero flick.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The whole affair is pulpy, jokey, sometimes touching and frequently nonsensical: a big mess and, mostly, a lot of fun.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Goes somewhere the first "Hellboy" never ventured: into the Realms of Tedium.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Fanboys won't mind the absence of depth or emotion; they may even welcome it for making the film more representative of its comic-book origins. The rest of us, however, cannot rejoice at the overspending and overkill likely to come in Hellboy III.

Premiere Stuart Levine

It's in the script, however, that del Toro the writer falls a wee bit short of del Toro the visionary.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Like a lot of well-staged parties, though, the affair peaks shortly after the introductions, and then devolves into intrigues, fights and mayhem.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Despite all of the hideous critters Hellboy encounters, there is a hint that things are considerably weirder elsewhere.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The best scene is when Hellboy and Abe get drunk and sing out raucously, which after "Hancock" suggests a trend toward superhero alcoholism.