Starring Ron Perlman, Selma Blair. Written and directed by Guillermo Del Toro. (14A) 119 min. Opens July 11.
A colorful creature-palooza of nearly unparalleled diversity, Hellboy II: The Golden Army is like the cantina scene in Star Wars extended to two hours. Alas, this attention to detail exhibited by resident imagineer Guillermo Del Toro does not necessarily extend to every aspect of his sequel to his 2004 adaptation of Mike Mignola’s cult comic about a cigar-chomping, kitty-loving spawn of Satan who helps protect humanfolk from weird beasties. While the ravishing production design will further endear Del Toro to the hordes at Comic-Con, the rest of the movie feels mildly impoverished, lacking the more memorable character moments of the emerging franchise’s first run-through and a narrative line that’s sturdy enough to hang all of the director’s curious fancies.
And curious they surely be — Hellboy II: The Golden Army is stuffed silly with creations like the Tooth Fairies (slightly cute but mostly nasty creepy-crawlies with sharp teeth and rapacious appetites), Wink (big grey meanie with a metal-fist extension) and the self-explanatory Cathedral Head. Occasionally, this parade pauses to catch viewers up on the status of a campaign by a vengeful elf prince (Luke Goss) to fire up the Golden Army, a legendarily fierce army of automatons to wage war with humans. And while Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and pyrokinetic special lady Liz (Selma Blair) continue to work through relationship problems, fishy pal Abe (Doug Jones) falls in love for the first time.
An ensuing Barry Manilow singalong is both one of the highlights and one of the least fussy moments in a movie whose air of geeky preciousness can be stultifying. Though the movie’s blend of fantasy, action, comedy and film noir definitely makes it the summer season’s most idiosyncratic wonder, Del Toro might be better off reining in that vivid imagination of his lest he wants the details to overwhelm the whole.