10 Movie Sequels That Were Way Better Than They Had Any Right To Be

Never underestimate Guillermo del Toro.

The first Hellboy film is not a bad film, but it is a conflicted one. With the inclusion of characters like the dull-as-watching-paint-dry John Myers, del Toro is noticeably hamstrung by a studio who seems unwilling to really commit to the film.

So with Hellboy II: The Golden Army it was unclear just what kind of film audiences would be getting. Del Toro was hot off of the scorching acclaim of Pan's Labyrinth, so would his return to Hollywood filmmaking be a triumphant one or another compromised vision?

Triumphant. So very triumphant.

Hellboy II ditches everything that was studio-mandated about the first film right up front, with not so much as a cameo for John Myers, and immediately embraces its crazy sci-fi/fantasy roots. With Myers out of the way, Perlman's Hellboy is able to truly be this film's protagonists and his performance is stunning.

The narrative challenges the core cast of characters in new and interesting ways, Seth MacFarlane (of all people) shows up in a scene-stealing and excellent new supporting role, and my god the action sequences are breathtaking. For the first time in his career, del Toro was making a full-on blockbuster, with a higher budget than ever before, and he knows how to use it.

2008 is often remembered as the year comic book films really took strides into new artistic territory, with The Dark Knight and Iron Man being frequently cited. But its important to remember that Hellboy II: The Golden Army came out that same Summer and other franchises still haven't caught up to what del Toro was doing there.