Hero we go again...

Verdict: Good? Hell yeah ****

HAD your fill of summer superhero movies yet?

What? You HAVE?

You mean Iron Man, Batman, The Incredible Hulk, Speed Racer, Hancock and Wanted were enough to keep you going?

For the next 1,000 years?

And any other minor-league super-heroes who fancy their chances at the box office this year can jog right on because you couldn’t give a flying one?

Well woah there, readers.

Because even if you do feel like that—and heaven knows I do—Hellboy still has something to offer.

Even though it’s just another comic book adaptation about an unconventional yet well-intentioned hero with blah blah personal problems and blah blah deadly new enemy.

Because with Hellboy, there’s one important difference. This film is absolutely flipping crazy. As in totally whacked-out, bibble-bibble, Singing Ringing Tree crazy.

Hellboy is a wisecracking, cigar-smoking demon, summoned to earth as a baby by Nazi sorcerers during WWII, and rescued and raised by the Allies.

Nowadays he’s employed in a secret US Government bureau that covers up the presence of monsters, spooks and other assorted ding-dongs.

Hellboy works alongside a camp merman called Abe (Doug Jones) and Liz, his ‘pyrokinetic’ (randomly bursts into flames to you, guv) girlfriend (Selma Blair).

The trio are trying to exterminate a swarm of man-eating tooth fairies—still following?—when they meet an elf princess, who warns them of a plot to raise a clockwork army of 50,000 golden robots currently living in an abandoned underground city in Northern Ireland.

So the team, aided by Johann Krauss—the gas-based spirit of a German psychic who lives inside an antique diving suit (Seth McFarlane from Family Guy)—decide to overthrow the plot and thereby save the planet. Oh yeah, and Liz gets pregnant. By the demon guy. And the elf princess’s twin brother is Luke Goss from Bros. You see? Totally implausible insane. I mean, come on— Who knew Luke Goss was is still in work?

The original Hellboy movie, also directed by Guillermo del Toro and released in 2004 by Columbia, was pretty decent.

Problem was, it felt as if studio suits had meddled with the final product: the action centred on a regular FBI agent, rather than on on Hellboy and his team of freaks.

Moderate box office success followed and a sequel was planned.

Stunner

But the original production company went bust. And before Columbia could blink, Universal swept in, snapped up del Toro—who had just finished the stupendous Pan’s Labyrinth—and landed the sequel for themselves.

Sharp, sharp move. Because the film they have ended up with is not only a massive improvement on Hellboy I, but an absolute stunner in its own right—a bona fide visual feast bursting with ideas, energy and humour.

Which, most importantly of all, isn’t afraid to take risks. For example, it takes some serious nuts to make the centrepiece of your summer special-effects blockbuster is a drunken Barry Manilow singalong.

The one moment that will stay with you from this film isn’t any of the big battles or monster designs, spectacular as they are.

It’s Hellboy and Abe, commiserating over their disastrous love lives, chugging back tin after tin of cheap Mexican beer and whimpering along with Can’t Smile Without You.

It’s a beautifully observed, hilarious and genuinely tender scene. Which is now my top out-of-tune singalong by an overweight, gurning beast moment of 2008, just edging out Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia.

And this in a film packed with stand-out moments.

There’s a battle against a giant tree creature that’s so lushly detailed it almost defies description.

A feast of deranged character designs, including troll henchman Mr Wink who’s got a metal fist that shoots out the end of his arm on a chain, a guy with a flat wooden face, the top of which is tastefully carved into a mini-cathedral.

And a truly eye-popping segment set in a fantasy marketplace that’s packed with just as many incredible details—and I don’t say this lightly—as the cantina in the original Star Wars movie.

Hellboy II isn’t perfect, mind.

While the cast all obviously get their roles, and bring plenty of warmth and humour to the party, there’s a slight lack of true star quality. And, of course, it won’t make anything like the money of The Dark Knight.

But in its own way, this is every bit as successful a film.

Because with both pictures, the suits turned over complete creative control to a skilled director with big ideas who can handle that level of responsibility without cocking thing up.

And both times the end product is a film that’s streets ahead of its own prequel, and much better than anyone had any reason to expect.

Guillermo del Toro’s next project after Hellboy II is directing the two Hobbit movies— possibly, after the unarguable brilliance of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, the least desirable job in Hollywood.

But on the evidence of Hellboy II? Bilbo Baggins is in very safe hands, people.

OUT WEDNESDAY