Movie · 2008 · Fantasy, Action · 2h · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 5.2/10 (501.9K ratings)
Believe it or not... He's the good guy.
Overview
Hellboy, his pyrokinetic girlfriend, Liz, and aquatic empath, Abe Sapien, face their biggest battle when an underworld elven prince plans to reclaim Earth for his magical kindred. Tired of living in the shadow of humans, Prince Nuada tries to awaken an ancient force of killing machines, the all-powerful Golden Army, to clear the way for fantasy creatures to roam free. Only Hellboy can stop the dark prince and prevent humanity's annihilation.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.2/10
IMDb: 7.0/10
Letterboxd: 3.44/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
Metacritic: 78
TMDB: 6.8/10
Director
Guillermo del Toro
Production
Universal Pictures, Dark Horse Entertainment, Relativity Media, Lawrence Gordon Productions
Cast
Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, John Alexander, Seth MacFarlane, Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Jeffrey Tambor, John Hurt, James Dodd, Brian Steele, Andrew Hefler, Iván Kamarás, Mike Kelly, Jeremy Zimmermann, Santiago Segura, Roy Dotrice, Aidan Cook, Jeanne Mockford, Montse Ribé
Curator Review
Verdict
A visually exuberant dark-fantasy sequel with richer creature design, stronger world-building, and more personality than the first film. It’s less about tight plotting than about mood, monsters, and melancholy charm, but for viewers who want imaginative spectacle with a weird romantic heart, it delivers.
Best for
Guillermo del Toro fans
creature-feature and practical-effects enthusiasts
viewers who like gothic fantasy with humor
people who enjoy tragic villains and fairy-tale world-building
fans of stylized action with strong production design
Skip if
you want a tightly plotted, high-stakes action movie
you dislike campy humor mixed with grotesque imagery
you need grounded realism or minimal CGI
you prefer straightforward heroism over bittersweet fantasy
Overview
Hellboy II: The Golden Army is the rare sequel that feels freer, stranger, and more alive than its predecessor. Guillermo del Toro leans hard into his love of folklore, ornate production design, and sympathetic monsters, building a world that feels like a cracked-open storybook full of grief, romance, and menace.
Worth noting
The plot is serviceable rather than gripping, but the film’s pleasures are overwhelmingly visual and tonal: inventive creature work, lush practical makeup, and a playful sense of scale. It’s also funnier and more emotionally open than you might expect, with Hellboy’s outsider status and Abe Sapien’s tenderness giving the movie an unexpectedly soft center.
Bottom line
If you respond to fantasy as atmosphere, texture, and imagination, this is a strong watch. If you need narrative momentum above all else, it may feel shaggy, but for many viewers that looseness is part of the charm.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Matt Singer (4.5★) · 1313 likes
Now this is more like it.
The Golden Army improves on the first Hellboy in basically every way. The boring characters from the first movie have all been jettisoned (they even joke about the fact that Hellboy got the milquetoast perspective character transferred to Antarctica) and the villains are vastly more interesting this time around. (Also, given that their main motivation is “Humanity sucks,” they’re basically the tragic heroes.) The effects are sharper, the creature design is way more del… more
karen h. (5★) · 1034 likes
this movie is singlehandedly responsible for my instant-cry reaction to “can’t smile without you”
˗ˏˋ suspirliam ˊˎ˗ (3.5★) · 703 likes
they just don’t do creature design like this anymore!!!!!! gdt’s mind truly is the most wonderful place
David Sims (4.5★) · 465 likes
makes pan's labyrinth look like reheated trash soup
more like pan's lamebyrinth
Ralph (3.5★) · 465 likes
Hellboy Retrospective: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Hellboy II is a worthy successor to the original, with stunning special effects and a funny sense of humor. Both the old cast, as well as the new characters were very enjoyable.
The film features a plethora of inventive character designs. There are so many different creatures in this film that it makes the first film look like a low budget movie in comparison. This film is a testament to Guillermo Del Toro’s… more