Hellboy II Movie Review.

So, Hellboy II; not bad. I mean, it wasn't like it was the worst movie I've ever seen, but it certainly wasn't the best movie I've ever seen. I guess it was just a pretty average movie.

:::::SPOILER WARNING:::::

DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU STILL PLAN TO SEE THE MOVIE

My sister's review of the movie was "eh", and she thought that it was a good excuse for Guillermo del Toro to use monster designs that he couldn't fit into Pan's Labyrinth (which I still have to see). This is true in a way, and there were also a couple of things that had already been done before, del Toro just executed them much better (like the Troll Market, which was very similar to the market that the Harry Potter movies originally did).

There were a couple of things I really liked about this movie:

1. The beginning. I kind of liked the flashback scene with Hellboy as a little kid, it was pretty fun. I also really liked the animation style of how they told the story of the Golden Army.

2. Elves. Personally, I like Elves and feel they should be put in more movies. And Dwarves too. But not halflings, they are annoying.

3. The battle scenes at the end of the movie evolving the Golden Army. Those scenes were pretty rad and it would have been a bomb if they weren't. Basically you were waiting an hour and a half so you could get to the point where Hellboy and company started kicking giant, golden robot butt.

4. I really liked the character "Wink" (the Prince's sidekick) and was a little sad when he was killed, even though you could see when and how that was going to happen from a mile away.

On that note, the story did seem to be very predictable. Obviously you knew Hellboy and the Elven Prince were going to have to throw down at some point. Obviously you knew Hellboy was going to win. Obviously you knew that Abe and the Elven Princess weren't going to be allowed to be together, because obviously the Prince had to die, ergo the Princess had to die because their lives were interconnected. So, a pretty formulaic story, and there were several concepts that I thought would be explored further and/or set up for the next movie.

All-in-all, I give this movie an "ok". I have not decided what to do when it comes out on DVD, but I think I'm going to pass, or wait a year or two and pick it up cheap.