Didn't have time to comment on your "Hellboy" review, but you described and explained the immense irritation I felt watching that movie. I really enjoyed the first movie, so it was an unpleasant let-down.

It was a very cool world, but that was about it. Dialogue was mostly flat, editing and pacing were for crap, and they seemed to be trying to explore ambiguous themes about loyalty but did such a poor job that it all came out a muddle. And I lost count of the obvious rip-offs by the "Princess Mononoke" sequence...I think I was already into double-digits, and by the end of the film I was sure there hadn't been original idea presented.

Now I'm very concerned about del Toro directing "The Hobbit." I just read a quote by him in EW that "all movies should be designed like animation, where style is the substance." Perhaps he truly is referring just to the design element and not the actual story or themes of a film, but that quote makes me really twitchy.

How is it getting getting good reviews? Weird.