Hellboy premiered in 2004 and opened with fairly good box office numbers, ultimately making back its budget. It received mixed reviews, but slightly more on the positive side. I personally liked the movie, but felt it dragged on at times. A couple years later writer/director Guillermo del Toro went on to work on the critically acclaimed Pan's Labyrinth, a film that I proudly consider one of my favorites.

In it, the director finally got to show Hollywood just how talented he is, offering a great story and fantastic imagery in the very dark fantasy. One can only assume that due to the success of Pan's that the studios gave the man more freedom to deliver his vision in the way he saw it. Thus, we have Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, a film that's not only visually stunning, but also highly entertaining!

In this film we see the return of all the familiar faces, except for Agent John Myers (due to scheduling conflicts), who helped with some of the comedy relief in the first film. Instead, he's replaced by someone from Washington named "Johann Krauss," (voice played by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane) who turns out to be some sort of spiritual mist that can inhabit dead bodies or objects. This obviously proves useful later on in the film.

The story this time 'round is based on a legend that dealt with invading armies centuries ago, where a non-human race defeats the leading human race with an army of golden mechanical soldiers. The king felt sorry for the human's defeat and decided to split the crown which controls the golden army into three separate pieces. It's now present day and the young prince decides that it's time to defeat the humans once again and attempts to gather the pieces of the crown together, but he didn't count on a big red dude with a huge fist to stand in his way...

The movie has it all -- action, fantasy elements, bits of drama, lots of comedy, and even a little romance thrown in. Heavily into fantasy, del Toro managed to deliver yet another surreal world of unique creatures, especially when the group enter the underground market, which I found very reminiscent of Star Wars. I also thought the comedy was actually quite funny in this film, unlike the first which seemed forced at times.

I especially loved a lot of the more toned down scenes involving the characters just relaxing back at the HQ, more specifically when Hellboy and Abe were talking about women troubles and taking back a few beers. It's rare that a sequel is better than its predecessor, but in this case it's true in all aspects. In my opinion Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is one of the best comic-to-film adaptations, next to Batman Begins and Iron Man.

This surreal and visually-stunning film has it all -- comedy, fantasy, action, drama, and even romance. Not only does the movie prove to be better than the first, but in my opinion it's also one of the best comic-to-film adaptations to-date. If you liked the first you're going to love the second. Highly recommended.