Saw Hellboy II: The Golden Army. It was way better than the first film. This time the plot revolves around an angry elf-lord eco-terrorist who is trying to revive the "golden army" of robot warriors to wipe out mankind. Hellboy is chafing at being kept hidden and continuing to date fire-starter Liz. The film contains far more and far more interesting imagery than the first, evoking Princess Mononoke, MirrorMask, and, at one point, the work of Zdzisław Beksiński. To say nothing of course of the echoes of other Del Toro movies. There's a pale-man-like dignitary at one point and a Trollmarket which I think also appears in the Trollhunter series (I don't know for sure - I haven't seen it.)
So there's a lot of connections, but also a lot of great imagery. This film veers away from the Mike Mignola comics and as a result there's fewer occult Nazis and more trolls and angels. The images work far better for film though. There's some elf council which takes place in the sewers where autumn leaves are perpetually falling. There's a fight scene of course, but it's very pretty to look at.
So, I enjoyed this one more. There's more of everything that was good in the original: more visuals and more grotesques, more world building and interpersonal drama and Del Toro-isms. The most interesting bits of the film revolve around hints that Hellboy will ultimately have to choose between fabulous monster-kind and benighted humanity, but alas these hints are for the sake of a cancelled third film (or rather, long delayed and finally directed by someone else.) Too bad. But the rest of the film is a spectacular ride, which is nice.
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