Hellboy II isn’t much of a story, yet as a vehicle for the monstrosity-minded imagination of writer-director Guillermo del Toro it offers an endless array of bizarre visual riches. Although Ron Perlman returns as the sardonic, heroic demon, the background is the foreground here, as del Toro conjures up such magically insidious creatures as tiny, flesh-eating “tooth fairies” (they’re like packs of piranhas, except that they go for your teeth first) and the shiny, mechanical army of the title, whose soldiers consist of an intricate array of interlocking gears and levers. As wickedly wondrous as these elements are, they’re free-standing showpieces rather than artfully interwoven details of an elegant narrative. For that, revisit del Toro’s Oscar-winning Pan’s Labyrinth.
