★★½ Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

[Gino: 2.0, Twoshoes: 2.5]

Gino says: 'We had unexpected babysitting Saturday and went to see Hellboy II, since we had enjoyed the first film. But first I checked with the critics: 87% on the tomato meter, and recommendations from several high-profile critics I checked. Boy, they were all wrong.

On the plus side, Hellboy himself is a fun superhero, and the myriad of inventive little and big "critters" were fun. But the script was plain lousy, indulging in wayward tangents which were distracting from a fairly uninteresting MacGuffin, and reliance on CGI special effects too strong. Note to film-makers: computer generated baddies are rarely scary, and mechanized ones (the golden army) less so.

In a related note: I had said I was psyched for del Torro (the director and co-writer of this film) to direct The Hobbit. Not so sure any more: he seems inventive with thinking up the creatures and gadgets but I hope he doesn't write the script, and that Peter Jackson is a hands-on producer. [Two confessions: this conclusion is based solely on this film, and I haven't even seen Pan's Labrynth. And he also directed and co-wrote the first Hellboy, which I liked. Secondly, my enthusiasm about the Hobbit was based on a confusion on my part, where for some reason I was confusing Del Torro with Alfonso Cuaro'n (director of Children of Men and my favorite Harry Potter film.) And no, I do not think all Mexicans are the same person!. '