Our favorite bringer of doom Hellboy returns to the big screen with a bigger cast, bigger budget, and surprisingly… a bigger heart. There’s a whole lotta love in this story, but there’s also no shortage of odd critters, horrible monsters and the obligatory feast of fantasy violence. Once again, Guillermo del Toro makes us care for the prince of Hell and his motley band of freaks.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army is an improvement on big Red’s first cinematic outing, with a more coherent script, more compelling adversaries, and more emotionally engaging performances from the principal players. Ron Perlman and Selma Blair discover more subtlety among the passion in their portrayal of the rocky romance between Hellboy and firestarter Liz. Even Abe Sapien – played by Doug Jones – has the opportunity to expand his emotional range while helping to save the world from certain destruction.

Of the story itself, suffice to say that as modern humanity voraciously consumes the last vestiges of the Earth’s untamed land, an ages-old truce is broken, and global warming becomes the least of mankind’s worries. Carnivorous fairies, a steampunk troll, a badass elf, and that titular Golden Army all stand ready to reclaim the world, with only the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense to stop them.

It’s all in a day’s work for Hellboy.