Reviews of this movie said it was incoherent and made no sense, of course. But, as always, it was 100% internally consistent and made plenty of sense to anyone with half a goddamn fantasy-capable brain. Mainstream reviewers: JUST RETIRE ALREADY.

So anyway, not only did it make sense, but it was visually gorgeous, imaginative and lush and detailed and interesting throughout. The same reviewers who praised del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth for its imaginativeness and visual design panned this one for being comic book mish-mash shit, but they’re insane, because this has all the virtues of Pan’s Labyrinth magnified tenfold, and none of its flaws.

But then, I suspect I’m the sort of person who’d like to see a rich fantasy sub-creation put to work as a literal thing rather than as a metaphor for anomie and civil war or whatever. But assuming that you’re like me in that regard, which is likely, this is a great movie. I think it performs the rare comic book movie feat of actually being better than the first one, which is nif.

I want to see more of these movies, and I’m also more heavily motivated to read the two fancy collector editions of Hellboy I have on the bookshelf. NOTE: Due to the high detail level and superb visual design of the movie, I am deeming this Blu-ray only. Don’t bother watching it on DVD, as you’re not watching the same movie.