Since everyone was potentially flocking to the theaters to see either The Dark Knight or Mama Mia, I figured it was a good enough time to finally see the new Hellboy installment, The Golden Army.

Visually, it’s one of the most imaginative flicks I’ve seen in a while. Hellboy 2 has more weirdo trolls, faeries, and magical crap than any movie to date except maybe Stardust. I think I preferred the first movie for its Lovecraftian take on Men In Black (or MIB take on cosmic horror), but this time around, I’d easily trade an elf for a shoggoth or two.

I didn’t realize that they’d replaced David Hyde Pierce, so I was a little suprised to hear Abe Sapien not sounding like Frasier Crane’s brother. Doug Jones did a great job physically portraying him but I prefer Niles. Also on the character quibble side, Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) has a really stupid haircut all of a sudden. Seth Green joined the cast to voice the semi-corporeal Johann Krauss and did a great job.

I didn’t care much for the story but it helped move things along from one sprawling action sequence to the next. Unfortunately, the cinematography occasionally suffers from Gladiator syndrome when there’s some crazy fight going on that I can’t focus on because the cameras are shaking, switching angles, and cutting to closeups so fast. I don’t think they screened this one for epileptics. There were some elves and crap that I couldn’t really relate to or care about, but who cares as long as they’re doing jumpkicks and flipping out like an albino ninja on PCP.

Overall, a good popcorn munch with some laughs, a few scares, and a crapload of intricate set design.