Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the sequel to Hellboy, is the coming out story of a demon, a human fish and the hottest woman in the world. Spectacular visuals save the story from its average plot and make Hellboy II: The Golden Army a serious popcorn-chomper.

A demon, code named Hellboy, but called Red by his friends is found by paranormal investigators when very small and has lived his entire life with them, but isolated from the rest of the world. When he is grown up he wants nothing more than to be accepted as a normal person by society, but the government wants to keep him secret while he and his team, Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), and Johann Kraus (John Alexander) protect the world from the paranormal. One day, they are sent out to investigate what happened at an auction where all the people have disappeared. What they find is the beginnings of a war between the creatures who live in the dark and humans.

Writer and director Guillermo del Toro smears his style all over Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Often dark and gritty, the visuals in Hellboy II: The Golden Army range from average to amazing. Maybe it is precisely because del Toro is willing to venture so far into fantasy that makes the characters plausible. There is nothing that tells your mind, "No".