Dana Stevens:

But over the course of two Hellboy movies (based on the comic by Mike Mignola), Mexican director Guillermo del Toro has started to look like a legitimate successor to Ovid.

Here’s the thing about that statement: there’s a grain of truth to it. The Hellboy films promise a grand narrative arc, one I’ll talk about after the jump because it contains a pretty major spoiler.

In the first film we learn of a prophesy that Hellboy is destined to destroy the world–at the end of it Hellboy appears to have averted this fate by beating back the forces of Hell. OK, fair enough.

In the sequel, Hellboy fights Prince Nuada and appears to be mortally injured. The big red lug, his girlfriend Liz, and two more take a trip to the home of the Golden Army, encountering the Angel of Death once they get there. Teetering on death’s edge, Liz is given a choice by the Angel of Death: she can let Hellboy die and save the Earth, or save Hellboy’s life and ensure the apocalypse. The prophecy, it appears, is still on track.

But this theme isn’t examined at all. It’s practically operatic, but it’s tossed off like a sweet nothing. This is the major problem with the movie–there’s no coherence in the plot. Instead of showing monsters smacking the hell out of each other, focus on the idea that Hellboy could be the Earth’s harbinger of doom. Give us something here.