Hollywood has been churning out blockbuster cinematic adaptations of comic books stories and their inevitable sequels with the grace and ease of an assembly line that by now they surely have perfected the craft.

Hellboy II is no exception. It's entertaining summer fare; requiring only that you give your mind a rest and absorb the action, the romantic subplot, the special effects wizardry, and the elves. This is more summertime fun for the backyard barbecue-set. Where Hellboy II really stands out is on the same merits as its predecessor: Ron Pearlman is a damn charming bastard in red latex body-paint and foam rubber chest muscles. No debates over who's the best Batman here; with Pearlman at the helm of the title role, his gruff features and snappy dry-drunk wit, it could hardly be imagined that anyone else would dare fill those boots.

The film itself moves along with a very comic book like sense of recklessness in every aspect from the city landscape that gets destroyed in order to save it, to the narrative logic of the supernatural fairy-tale world that infiltrates New York City. An elvish take over of the human race? Sure. These same elves live under the Brooklyn Bridge? Don't ask so many questions! Hellboy never over-sentimentalizes, never over-dramatizes so that our uncritical imaginations are free to run like wild. It's all the more entertaining for it.

An ancient war between humans and elves came to a halt when the elves developed an army of indestructible golden clockwork warriors and subsequently whooped human ass. The elvish kings, being a fair and noble race of ur-humans, formed a pact where the crown that controlled the golden army would be broken into three pieces in exchange for everlasting peace. Well, as we all know, the humans ended up populating the earth with Wall-Marts and the elves ended up moving under the Brooklyn Bridge. Now an elvish prince wants to regain his specie's lost power, reassemble the crown, command the golden army, crush the humans, and play out the classic tale of superhero vs. random nasty.

I cringe at having to legitimize the preponderance of sudden media buzzwords, but Hellboy II makes even heavier use of a certain steampunk aesthetic that affords it a unique roll in the eyes of a particular target audience. This combination of Jules Vernes inspired elegance in the meshing of leather and brass technology might be another fickle internet driven trend (Snakes on a Plane, anyone?), but it does help the Hellboy franchise exist in a world that is independent from that of the Batmans, Hulks, and X-mens already out there. Plus it admittedly looks darn cool.

But again, it is within Ron Pearlman's performance that the film is able to squeeze snappy one-liners in the middle of a dramatic sequence and not make you roll your eyes. He is the embodiment of the bad-ass anti-hero, who does what he wants and doesn't take bull from nobody, including sassy movie reviewers. Overall the film maintains a well balanced good humor, which is less a testament to it being terribly knee slapping funny and more to its success at achieving a comic book slapstick-edness.

But perhaps Hollywood has gotten a bit too good at this whole effortless comic book, sci-fi, action business. The underworld elvish/ goblin market bizarre scene seems a bit suspiciously reminiscent of certain well known Star Wars parallel. The briefly touched upon conflict between Hellboy & co.'s allegiance towards humans or towards other supernaturals, reminds me of a similar conflict from a particular X-Men subplot. The antipathy of the authorities all seems a bit Batman-esque.

But let's just chalk it up to the solidification of genre conventions. Perhaps Hellboy II doesn't need to do anything new, Pearlmen is a gem in the lead roll, and so he just needs any particular vehicle to deliver him to box office success. Hellboy II: The Golden Army is a fun ride, even if we have been down this road before.