REVIEW RELOAD: Hellboy's oversized right hook drives a funny, but very familiar sequel

Moviegoers who are bummed that the premiere showings of "The Dark Knight" this week are sold out can in the meantime enjoy an action-packed laugh riot called "Hellboy II: The Golden Army."

While the plot is unoriginal, the government-funded demon hero Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is challenged in different and amusing ways in this sequel to his first movie in 2004. And he kicks a lot more butt.

At the beginning of the movie, Professor Broom (John Hurt) tells a very young Hellboy in 1955 a bedtime story about Balor (Roy Dotrice), an elf king who once ordered the construction of an indestructible army of golden machines to wage war against power-hungry ancient humans. But the army's ruthlessness in battle caused the king to regret the decision, so he brokered a truce to divide the Earth into two realms. Humans would live in the cities and mythical creatures would inhabit the forests.

The Golden Army, which was controlled by whoever wore a three-piece crown, was locked away. Each side kept a piece of the crown to ensure peace.

King Balor's son, Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), who voluntarily went into exile because he did not agree with the terms of the truce, returns in the 21st century to take his father's throne by force and his piece of the crown to use The Golden Army to wage war against humanity. He believes humans violated the treaty by encroaching on the forests to build parking lots and shopping malls.

Nuada also steals a second piece of the crown from a charity house, where he later unleashes a swarm of carnivorous tooth fairies to cover his exit.

Driving the movie is The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense team's mission to stop Nuada from awakening The Golden Army.

When they arrive at the charity house in question, Liz (Selma Blair) uses her pyrokinetic abilities to light up and kill the room full of carnivorous tooth fairies. Hellboy deliberately stands by a window and gets blasted down to the street where TV cameras expose his existence to the world.

Red seems determined to be acknowledged and accepted by the humans that he protects from the creatures that go bump in the night. Meanwhile, Liz is angry with him for being preoccupied with the outside world and not with her needs. Unbeknownst to him, she is pregnant.

If that was not enough, Hellboy encounters humans who treat him like a monster because of his demon appearance. Their reactions cause HB to consider whether he should continue to fight to defend them against otherworldly creatures with which he could better relate.

Shaking things up as well is Johann Krauss (Seth MacFarlane), a smoky essence encompassed in a special suit. Krauss, a German agent, is sent to the BPRD to lead the team and watch over Hellboy, who does not like how his commanding officer sticks to established procedure. Red also does not like Germans for obvious reasons. One of the funniest scenes in the movie occurs as a result of the two agents literally butting heads in the bureau's locker room.

Funnier is a scene in which Hellboy and a lovesick Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) get so drunk that together they start to sing Barry Manilow's "Can't Smile Without You." Abe quickly falls for Princess Nuala (Anna Walton). 

That she shares a psychic and physical link with her twin brother Nuada poses a problem for Hellboy, who challenges the prince's claim to lead The Golden Army but cannot kick his butt without harming Abe's love interest. 

But Nuada's moves are impressive enough to carry fight sequences in which his opponent is mostly on the defensive.

Throughout the 120-minute movie, HB sees a lot of action that pushes the plot forward. He battles a behemoth troll (Brian Steele), a forest god and many soldiers from The Golden Army.

Though so much action in a movie tends to detract from deep introspection of the main character, moviegoers get to see Hellboy grow up. Whereas the first movie showed what defined him as a hero, the sequel shows what matters to him as an individual.

What detracts from the movie is that the premise is very similar to that of 2005's "Blade II," which was also directed by Guillermo del Torro.

In both movies, the protagonist gets caught in the middle of a struggle between a father and son to rule a society of supernatural creatures who live in seclusion because of a treaty with humanity. The protagonist has to save the day after the son one-ups the father and sets his sights on conquering the world. But before this happens, the son entices the hero to join him because they are both outcasts.

Though the premise is unoriginal, it at least gives Hellboy something to fight against in the second of what seems likely to become a movie trilogy.

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" introduces many different creatures that inhabit a visually unique world, so the comparison with "Blade II" is not as apparent. 

Most visually impressive is a blind, eerie creature that looks like a mix of an angel and a demon with eyes on its wings. It acts like a neutral Grim Reaper, allowing Liz to make a decision that affects Hellboy's ill-fated destiny. 

This decision, and what happens at the movie's conclusion, sets up a probable sequel. A safe bet would be to follow the Indiana Jones movie trilogy's recipe for success prior to "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" by having Hellboy and the BPRD squad again fight some Nazis. Grigori Rasputin was revived in the first movie. Why not do it again?

Popcorn rating:

(4 out of 5 pieces)