The Golden Army saw the return of Guillermo del Toro to make a sequel to his 2004 Hellboy. It's very rare for sequels to outdo its predecessors. But, what Hellboy was, Hellboy II quadrupled it!
This was a jaw-dropping visual splendor from start to finish! With a larger scope, you could clearly tell the team has mustered everything they had for this motion picture! Just like the first movie, the animatronics, props, prosthetics, practical and visual effects quality here were top notch! Mr. Wink with its self-crawling fist, tooth fairies, chamberlain, King Bethmoora's crown, corpses transfiguring into hardened candle wax, egg sprout bean, Elemental Forest God who turns the surrounding green and leafy, Abraham Sapien's contact lens, cylinder imprint map, Bethmoora goblin master blacksmith, troll market, tumor baby, Angel of Death, weapons, ammunitions and the Golden Army itself were spectacular stuff!
Screenwriting wise, the pacing was definitely better. More focus was paid towards the humor, hence the film was lighter in tone. Strauss (John Alexander, James Dodd) versus Hellboy (Ron Perlman), broken Golden Army members fixing itself, creatures' true face seen through gizmos, King Balor's story narration, tooth fairy autopsy, Abe (Doug Jones) and Hellboy drinking beers while listening to songs in love, dead Johann attacking Hellboy through locker doors, unlocking portals and hacking a Golden Soldier using his smoke existence were phenomenal scenes! The last piece of sword fight? Stunning sequence! The intra-species likings was a cute idea.