"Hellboy II" Expands, but Doesn't Exceed, Original

Whatever "Hellboy II: The Golden Army"'s problems are, ambition is not one of them. Guillermo del Toro gleefully shoves thirty pounds of material into a five-pound bag, and, to be honest, much of it is good.

To call this film a feast for the eyes is to underestimate both feasts and eyes, because pound for pound you just can't find more creative creature or set designs in one place. del Toro and comic book creator Mike Mignola's passion for monsters is legendary, and one wants to stop the film and just look at whatever crazy thing they've dreamed up. (The savvy credits-reader will note a certain Spanish film director's name in the position of "creature vocals", in case there was any doubt on the levels of passion here.)

And some of the designs are truly unforgettable; the Prince and Princess from another world, with their white, softly lined skin and haunted yellow eyes, say so much about the strangeness of the supernatural we humans miss out on just by being there. Or even something as simple as the daring new haircut for Selma Blair as firestarter Elizabeth Sherman, showing that she has accepted that she was not made to blend in.

And it's not a case of all surface and no emotion, either. This is a rare comic book movie, one where we feel the loss and the pain that the villains suffer when our hero triumphs, one where we wonder if there aren't a few things that the 'bad guy' might have to offer us, to offer the world.

What the new film lacks that the first film had in spades was humor; because we don't need to introduce the characters, we have less character time with them, and the result is a lot less of the "Ghostbusters"-style comedy that set the first film apart from the average funnybook flick. One of the best moments in the film is also the funniest, when Hellboy and friend Abe Sapien express their feelings in an... out-of-character sort of way. And new character Johann is a breath of fresh air when he, again, introduces humor to the proceedings.

There is also an irritating lack of certain cinematic continuities with the first film. Where the first film's themes came from Marco Beltrami, bringing the somewhat unsettling sound of hell rising, this sequel is scored by Danny Elfman, who, to his credit, turns in his best score in a while, but also a more traditional outing. There are a couple of other odd variations as well: "The Golden Army" introduces new scenes with locations and times in the corner of the screen, putting your correspondent in mind of "The X-Files" in an oddly appropriate but still distracting way. But what does it add beyond that? And the less said about the hideous new choice of Impact for the end credits, the better.

The original "Hellboy", much like the first "X-Men" film, was a project that succeeded on the strength of its characters because it did not have the opportunity to do much else; waters were being tested. "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" in many ways advances and surpasses much of its predecessor's work, but leaves some attributes by the wayside. What carries it through as an enjoyable experience may differ for each individual viewer, but ultimately comes back to the passion and love of a filmmaker so suited to his comic book's source material that it may well be the best marriage since Tim Burton with "Batman".

Guillermo del Toro's big international hit "Pan's Labyrinth" worked because he always remembered the human side of his monster story, and gave them equal weight. Keeping that in mind will make "Hellboy III" a knockout.