Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (12a)

The most original superhero in Hollywood is back: bigger, better and redder than ever.

Guillermo del Toro's on a roll at the moment. The Mexican director of Pan's Labyrinth has garnered awards by the bucketful, critical praise, more bums on seats than any internationally released Spanish-language film has a right to and is the only man that geeks trust enough to take over the Lord of the Rings franchise.

That's how he got Hellboy 2: The Golden Army made. And thank heavens he did.

When the original Hellboy (based on a cult comic book) came out in 2004 it wasn't exactly a raging success. It was a fun and eccentric little story about a demon summoned by the Nazis during WW2 who grows up to be an undercover agent who hunts monsters for the U.S government.

And there it would have ended but with his new-found clout del Toro had the money to do what he wanted. And he wanted to do Hellboy 2.

This time around the action is bigger, the effects better and the story telling more assured as the grumpy, beer-swilling demon hits relationship problems with psychic fire-flinging girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair) and a war declared on humanity by elf prince Nuada (Luke Goss of Bros fame).

Stand out sequences include a scary attack by vicious tooth fairies (maybe a bit too scary for the kids who are bound to go and see this 12a), an earth elemental (giant plant) smashing up Brooklyn and a weird Troll Market full of strange otherworldy creatures under New York City.

But the audience chuckled just as much as they gasped through this surprisingly funny film, especially when Hellboy and love sick best friend (and mutant fish man) Abe get drunk and sing along to Barry Manilow's Can't Smile Without You.

Hellboy (played perfectly by character actor Ron Perlman) is funny, sympathetic, and unusual. And the conflict he feels dispatching 'monsters' like himself for the benefit of ungrateful humans who fear him lends an extra layer of depth to his brassy exterior.

Goss is good value too as Prince Nuada, a 'villain' driven to a magical kind of terrorism by the way humanity has treated his kind. Rather than being a black-hearted rotter he actually has a point.

You might say the film meanders a bit as del Toro seems to love his characters a tad more than the audience does but when the characters are so rich and so much fun to be with I was happy for him to meander as much as he wanted.

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