Of Men and Monsters

This summer has bequeathed us, on average, one superhero movie every two weeks.

For those of you who are keeping score at home: "Iron Man," "The Incredible Hulk," and a stumblebum Will Smith. Next week it’s Batman’s turn, and there are already reports of pale, fervent fans of the series lining up to see "The Dark Knight" when it opens Thursday at midnight.

In the meantime, you may want to see "Hellboy," admittedly not a name

likely to mean much to anyone who isn’t male and under the age of 25.

"Hellboy" you say?

In fact the movie’s full title reads "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," although what, exactly, the Golden Army is I’m still trying to figure out.

Based on a comic book by Mike Mignola, "Hellboy II" was, like its modestly successful predecessor, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro.

Del Toro is, of course, best known for "Pan’s

Labyrinth," that dark, damp and fetid children’s fable that won three Academy Awards last year.

In all of his movies, from the inspired to the trashy, del Toro has shown himself to have a big thing for men and monsters.

Hellboy, to be quick about it, is both.

The product of a blind date between the Devil and a Nazi occultist, Hellboy was long ago converted to the cause of good, and works for The Bureau for Paranormal Research and

Defense, a sort of FBI for goblins and ghouls.

As played by the actor

Ron Perlman under the heavy armor of makeup, Hellboy is red as a bull

and just about as smart — a real lug. He talks in the hardboiled way of a ’30s detective. He chain-smokes cigars. He’s quick to punch people, King-Kong like, with an enormous right-hook.

Hellboy is also, it turns out, a softie.

When the movie opens,

somewhere outside of New York City, Hellboy’s companions include sidekick Aquaman Abe (Doug Jones), and Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), his girlfriend, who bursts into flames when she gets upset.

If this sounds a little

confusing, well, it is.

The movie slithers and squirts with monsters and things that look, to put it nicely, like something recovered from the back of the fridge months after its expiration date.

Del Toro really lets his imagination run.

One scene, in particular,

where Hellboy uncovers a supermarket for trolls underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, reminded me of the famous bar scene in the first "Star Wars" movie. But he’s not really a great scriptwriter.

Other scenes are at once too detailed and too perfunctory to mean much. You just kind of sit there agog at such inventions as Dr. Krauss, a German gasbag who lives inside a diving suit.

"Hellboy II" is goofily delightful in parts, but not perfect. The movie’s villian, an elf (Luke Goss) who wishes to rid the world of humans, doesn’t ever register on the muckety-muck level of the

movie’s other creatures.

Looking to the future, "Hellboy II" may best be

remembered as a test-run for del Toro’s next movie. He’s scheduled to direct a two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s "The Hobbit," at which point things should get splendidly weird.