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Everybody knows Guillermo del Toro is first and foremost a visual filmmaker. That's not to say he can't add some substance to his eye candy, but from his dark, atmospheric American debut with Mimic, all the way up to his critically lauded Pan's Labyrinth, the Mexican filmmaker has proved that the visions dancing in his head - no matter how dark and twisted they may be - are much more interesting than the vast majority of his peers. With the first Hellboy, del Toro was able to tread that fine line between personal vision and studio appeasement and created a film that was simultaneously visually stunning and emotionally engaging. With Pan's Labyrinth - fully financed and produced by companies outside the U.S. - del Toro was given free rein to create whatever he wanted, bound only by his own imagination. I needn't remind any of you of the brilliance that unleashed. After that, no producer in their right mind would dream of telling del Toro what he could or couldn't do so he re-focused his creative arsenal on diving deeper into the world of the whimsical that was only hinted at in the initial Hellboy. del Toro pulls out all the stops in Hellboy II: The Golden Army and the theory goes something like, if it worked for Pan's Labyrinth, it'll work here. But if that's really the case, why am I so disappointed with the results?

Tensions are running high at the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. With Professor Broom (John Hurt) gone, Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) has been left in charge and isn't getting much respect from Hellboy (Ron Perlman), especially in regards to Manning's orders that the hero keep his existence a secret from the public. Things aren't much better on the home front either, as Hellboy's relationship with Liz (Selma Blair) is rocky at best. When the film starts, Liz is furious with her beau for his sloppy and neglectful approach to both his work and their relationship and her mood isn't helped by the fact that she's pregnant - a fact she hides from him over doubts of his competence as a father. The couple and Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) are soon called into action to investigate the ransacking of an auction house and the disappearances of its attendees. Found at the scene are numerous artifacts donning the royal seal of the Woodland King of the Underworld and a subsequent battle with swarms of (far from friendly) tooth fairies results in Hellboy's exposure to the masses outside.

Forced to admit the existence of the BPRD, the FBI brings in a no-nonsense agent named Johann Kraus (James Dodd, voiced by Seth McFarlane) - an ectoplasmic spirit contained within a special suit - to control Hellboy. Teamwork is more important than ever for the team as Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), Elfen son of the Woodland King, has returned from a self-imposed exile to collect the final piece of a crown that will grant him control of the Golden Army - an indestructible force of seventy-times-seven mechs that were created at the dawn of time by the Woodland King to quell the attemtps of humans to exert complete control over the earth. The army, however, was so merciless and efficient that the king felt great regret in their construction and sealed them away vowing to never use them again. The crown to control the army was split into three pieces, two of which Nuada controls after killing his father and raiding the auction house. Intending to destroy the world of men for forgetting the Underworld and ruining the earth with unchecked consumerism, Nuada needs only the final piece held by his sister, Princess Nuala (Anna Walton), with whom he shares a mentally and physically empathetic bond - what one knows, the other knows; when one hurts, so does the other. Nuala is determined not to allow her brother to awake the Golden Army and with Abe feeling the pangs of affection for her, the agents of the BPRD are determined to support her.

While Hellboy informed us that a larger world of the mythical and paranormal did exist, it only gave us a taste of it; like dipping your toe into a pool. Watching Hellboy II: The Golden Army is like diving head-first into that pool all the way to the bottom. It's clear that del Toro's imagination is firing on all cylinders and, WOW, it's surprising how beautifully twisted one man's visions can be. The example that will be cited over and over again in regards to this will be the Troll Market, a common area for creatures and monsters of all shapes and sizes, that resembles the Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars mixed with an acid trip-induced nightmare. From his mind-blowing creature design, to his expansive set design, to his signature dark cinematography, there's not enough that can be said about del Toro's visual styling - it's like injecting candy directly into your eyeballs.

But every review you'll read will praise that and rightly they should. For some reason though, that's where most reviews stop. It's almost as if most critics were only expecting, and satisfied with, an aesthetically pleasing sideshow. But don't forget that half of del Toro's charm comes from his ability to use his visuals as the shiny paper that wraps up the satisfying story underneath. To make a crude analogy, Hellboy II is wrapped in some very shiny paper, but more for the purposes of distracting you from the disappointing package underneath. Gone is the touching emotional poignancy and dry wit of the first film, being replaced instead with a slapstick, almost juvenile sense of humor. In some ways this enhances the film, helping to bridge the gap between the worlds of child-like whimsy and adult maturity, which, in turn, almost creates a fairy tale for adults. Mostly though, it adds a sense of tonal confusion that makes it very difficult for the film to reconcile the gritty (a man who kills his father in an attempt to wipe out the human race) with the fantasy (but look at all the fun, mythical creatures!). Instead of endearing, it comes off with an over the top Men in Black II quality.

These irreconcilable differences aren't the films only stumbling block, though. Overarching themes, which were brought to such touching and mature fruition in the first Hellboy, aren't handled with the same care in Hellboy II. One prevalent theme, that Hellboy has more of a place in the fanciful Underworld than he does with humans, is brought upon by a sloppy set up and draws a less than satisfactory conclusion. Prince Nuada embodies the importance of hanging onto the world of fantasy in which we all indulged as children and which is physically alive in the film. It's important to keep in mind that del Toro doesn't write Nuada as one-dimensionally evil, but as an empathetic character who presents Hellboy with a very important choice. But fumbling the ball, del Toro doesn't give too much insight into the effect on Hellboy's psyche, content instead to delve deeper into his own fantasies. Without that personal relation with our hero, the film loses a lot of the affection so skillfully crafted in the first film.

With Pan's Labyrinth, we saw how del Toro had matured as a filmmaker and how he could so seamlessly blend the worlds of fantasy and reality. In turn, many of us, myself included, believed that that was Guillermo del Toro unleashed only to be proven wrong by the man himself with Hellboy II: The Golden Army. With this film, it seems that either del Toro duped us all with Pan's (which is highly unlikely), or that del Toro is essentially a big kid and unleashing him results it one of the most beautiful, albeit it lacking, fairy tales you'll ever see.