GO WATCH HELLBOY!!

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army rocks!! Go and watch that movie. That's an order.

It was actually as good as the trailer promised, which is more than most films can boast of. You've got a rather likeable main character, humour, superb special effects, and best of all, Guillermo Del Toro as the director.

Have you ever watched El Laberinto Del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth)? That was an incredibly good movie, surpassing all of Hollywood's pathetic attempts at fantasy (excluding LOTR, of course). Del Toro's fantastic creatures in that movie were dark, scary at times, yet felt right, as if all those could be real. His creations are the stuff of imagination, yet brought to life in such a way that one believes such creatures, if they existed, would look like that. His Prisoner of Azkaban was the best in the Harry Potter movies.

Some of the creatures in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army were evidently influenced by his work in Pan's Labyrinth. The Chamberlain of Bethmoora, for one, looks like the Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth. I personally think that Hellboy's Death is also influenced by the Pale Man.

The action in the movie is really good. It is over the top, like just about every movie nowadays, but since it's done by otherworldly creatures anyway, it's forgiveable. And the action scenes aren't as drawn out as many other movies, making those scenes short and sweet.

At 2 hours long, with healthy doses of humour, action and good acting, and a fair storyline, this film is one of the best I've watched this year. And it's good value for money. Time to look for the Hellboy comics, methinks.