Hellboy is, for anyone who isn't familiar, a very different class of comic book hero. The overall mentality is really nothing like any other comic figure, and so the visuals and the fundamentals we get on-screen aren't going to fly with some people. Hellboy II: The Golden Army is a virtual vomitorium of wiggly, tentacled, borderline absurd creatures and beasties that would give any Star Wars saloon scene a run for its money. And while it does give us a very different (some might even say refreshing) take on the world of so-called graphic novels, I've never been a believer in spectacle for the sake of spectacle. Granted, to some extent, all American movies are steeped in spectacle, but movies like Hellboy and Hellboy II are a bit much, in my opinion. There's a difference between not taking yourself too seriously and crossing the line into camp. Abundance is no substitute for substance, even in a comic book film.

That's not to say the film doesn't have some good ideas. Hellboy's origins, as detailed in the previous movie, are wildly original, and even Hellboy II starts out with a bit of backstory, a rarity for a sequel these days. I was able to appreciate the value of a truce between the two worlds, even if it did come across as a bit derivative. Some of the individual creatures -- a 70-foot raging vine-plant thingy that could, in one fell swoop, solve the world's greenhouse gas problem -- were interesting additions despite the fact that the creature population would rival any episode of "Angel." And the presence of Dr. Johann Krauss, a German scientist made entirely of vapor and housed in a biomechanical blow-up suit of some kind, is probably the most original thing I've seen at the movies this year. And even he was practically drowning in camp.

It was great to see Selma Blair again; her combustible Liz Sherman wasn't given nearly enough to do (and was seriously underused in the last film as well), but her relationship with the 'boy added a nice human dimension to a cast of characters that could use it. Luke Goss has only played a human in one film I've seen him in (this wasn't it), but he's extremely reliable and in fact, Hellboy II is probably beneath his extraordinary talent. I find myself somewhat enamored with Princess Nuala (Anna Walton), whose character potentials weren't fully explored either. Doug Jones, as well, does such a fine job with Abe Sapien that it's easy to forget he isn't human, with everything he's put through in the film.

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