I am a HUGE Hellboy fan. Mike Mignola's comic for me is one of those unique pieces of fiction that has a tone all of it's own. Is it horror? Is it fantasy? Is it comedy? Yes, yes, and yes, and I love him for it (also for the way he draws, or used to draw it). I also dig Guillermo Del Toro's work quite a bit, especially his smaller budget stuff.
I thought the first movie was fun. It wasn't the comic I loved, but it was a nice nod to it. I was stoked the whole Nazi thing was at the beginning, and that Ron Perlman seemed so able to capture the spirit of Hellboy. I didn't mind the romance that was non-existent in the comic, or the studio-mandated Agent Myers. I was just happy to see something resembling a Hellboy movie on the screen. That said, it obviously didn't meet my high hopes for what it could've been. It looked shinier, more like the X-Men movies, than what Hellboy looked like in my mind (more blurred around the edges, and a bit murky).
When I heard Del Toro was making a new movie, I was shocked and excited. He was coming off Pan's Labyrinth, and he had a studio really backing him and trusting him this time, not telling him to add characters they thought the audience would be able to relate to. I was pretty sure this new Hellboy movie was going to be completely different than the first.
The truth is, it's not. I like it's quite a bit better than the first one to an extent. It's certainly more dazzling, and you can tell Del Toro's blinders were removed (witness Troll Market). There's tons of eye candy, and no, I'm not talking about Selma Blair. The costumes, sets, make-up, monsters, etc. are all AMAZING. At times, I was pretty sure I was seeing London Below from Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, somehow transposed in a Hellboy movie (oooo, fanfic!) and it made me almost wish Del Toro was directing Neverwhere next (but I'll take the Hobbit 1 & 2, and then preferarbly Hellboy III).
The humor and character chemistry is easily better in this movie. Hellboy and Abe Sapien have a hilarious drinking, sing-along scene. And there's a great scene between BPRD's newest agent Johann Krauss (who is quite literally a gas bag) and Hellboy facing each other down. (Please, God, if they make Hellboy III, give us Lobster Johnson, preferably as played by Bruce Campbell).
Also, the bad guy in this movie is a rogue elf prince, who is actually played pretty well, and is somewhat more sympathetic than the villain's from the last movie. However, there aren't any evil Nazi magicians, which is kind of a downer.
Despite the pretty fun characters and characterization, the plot is less than spectacular.
But for all the good stuff, it feels very much like the first one did. I'm not sure if it's the afforementioned shiny-hue that permeates the movie, but it just wasn't as much of a reinvention of the filed down horns as reviews and other people's opinions had left me to believe, declaring this was a movie where comic books had it's coming of age. Like I said, for me, it wasn't.
There was something missing for me, however, something similar that was missing for me in the first film that I can't quite place my finger on. Still, it is beautifully directed and loads of fun and is worth checking out.