In the summer of the superhero movie, it is easy to overlook some of the more obscure offerings. One of these is the latest offering from the Mike Mignola comic “Hellboy” series.

Hellboy (Ron Perlman) just wants to be accepted by the people he has sworn to protect. As a member of the ultra-secret Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense or B.P.R.D., he is told time and time again to stay out of the public eye, yet Hellboy goes out of his way to get caught on camera. His boss Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) goes so far as to bribe him with Cuban cigars.

As the ruthless Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) tries to retrieve the pieces of the crown to control the Golden Army and sever a truce between the mythical world and humans alike, his sister Princess Nuala (Anna Walton) comes to the B.P.R.D. to recruit their help to stop him. Hellboy, with help of his teammates Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and the newly placed agent and leader of the team Johann Krauss (voiced by Seth MacFarlane), fight against forces of evil to stop him.

Will Hellboy be able to stop Prince Nuada before he gets the final piece of the crown and restarts the mechanical and unstoppable Golden Army?

Hellboy 2 is by far a visual extravaganza. With incredible action sequences that rival any other offering this summer, Guillermo del Toro pulls no stops in stimulating your eyes with color and enough action to keep you entranced. Amping up the action from the first film 110%, del Toro pushes the fight scenes to incredible levels. It is non-stop action.

One thing that always goes unnoticed is performances of people covered in makeup and prosthetics. Doug Jones as Abe Sapien is incredible in the amount of emotion and passion he is able to emote.

Selma Blair is fantastic, yet again, as she returns as the hothead and love of Hellboy’s life, Liz Sherman. Blair has always been a good actress. Her quirky personality shines through as Sherman as she battles with an important secret she needs to tell Hellboy.

Of course, no review of Hellboy would be complete without talking about the performance of Ron Pearlman as the lead character, Hellboy. He just brings a humanity to the character. With his affinity for cats and the love of Liz, you can see the depth to the character that is more than the smash and destroy action film stars of old.

A very good film that is heads and tails better than the original. Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence and some language, you may want to screen it before letting your younger kids.

Go see this film. With duds like “Hancock” (sorry Megan but it was a dud) and “Meet Dave” around, you could do a lot worse. Though I don’t think you will be disappointed.