It Super-Hero Sequel Weekend here at Geek Rant!

Hellboy II - The Golden Army:  To give you an idea of where I'm coming from with this thing, I loved the first Hellboy, and I've never read the comics.  That being said, Hellboy II did not disappoint.  It tells the story of how, in ancient times, Elves and Humans went to war against each other.  The Elves had a Golden Army of unbeatable soldiers crafted to defeat their foes but, seeing the devastation these creatures wrought, he struck a peace with the Humans.  He sealed away the Golden Army, broke the crown that controlled them into three parts, and gave one of these parts to the humans.  They determined that the Humans would keep to the cities, and the Elves would keep to the forests, and there was peace for a very long time.  Modern times roll around, and the Elven Prince decides he's had enough of the Humans destroying the world, and he's going to be rid of them.  Enter Hellboy to save the day.

What I loved most about this movie was the sheer level and amount of costuming.  I've gotten so sick of seeing a bunch of actors in front of a green screen.  It was cool to see for the first couple of movies that did it, but now it just seems lazy.  Especially when you can make a movie like this and have everything be so much cooler!  Don't get me wrong, this movie used CGI, but they only used it would it would be literally impossible to do it any other way.  And, when they did do it, I never really noticed.  I never had a moment of "whoop, CGI-guy!"  Your eyes were always so drawn to the art of all the rest of it, that you never thought about the few CGI portions.  Let's have more like this!

Suffice it to say, this is much of what you came to expect from the first movie.  A lot of great action, a lot of great laughs.  Old characters return, but they're enhanced by some great new ones.  Also, I loved the story.  In the first movie, it was a more traditional "Good guy versus Bad guy" deal.  In this one, I found myself not only empathizing with the bad guy, but I didn't even disagree with him!  Sure, I rooted for Hellboy, but I wasn't far from rooting for the baddie either!  All-in-all, just fantastic and fun.  You have to see this if, for no other reason, than for all of the new and wonderous creatures that were created.

The Dark Knight:  Jesus!  This movie was intense!  Literally, everything it ought to be.  We've all seen the previews, we all know what it's about.  Batman versus the Joker.  It's everything I wanted and so much more.  Heath Ledger puts Jack Nicholson to shame with his performance as the Joker (of course, no way anybody could have gotten away with something this dark back then).  He goes full-tilt crazy even beyond what you're expecting him to do.  This is true commitment to a role!  There are times when he makes you laugh and there are times when he makes you shield your eyes, and those times are not mutually exclusive.  I could go on and on forever. 

Fights, special effects, makeup ... I'd say even story surpass Batman Begins.  It's semi-long (2 1/2 hours), but any shorter would not have been enough.  Which brings up another point I'd like to make:

Spider-man and some of the X-men movies were either ruined or nearly ruined (depending on who you ask) by the inclusion of too many plot lines.  It's plan and simple overreaching, that doesn't allow you to fully explore each plot line's true potential.  Beyond that, it's plan greedy stupidity.  That being said, Dark Knight has at least 4 distinct plot lines, with several other sub plots, and each and every one of them is necessary.  There's not a bit of it that I would say "If they'd just cut out that part it would have been such a better movie".  Dark Knight is such a nice, tightly woven story that all of it is necessary, and nothing is superfluous.  This is how things should be done.

My one complaint in this entire movie is Christian Bale's "Batman Voice".  I swear MY throat hurt listening to him, and there were times when he was essentially unintelligible.  However, it was only here and there that it was noticed, and it's literally the only negative comment I have to make.  Seriously, I know I've said this before, but drop what you're doing and see this movie!  This easily makes it into the Top Ten Greatest Comic Book Movies, and possibly makes it into the Top Three.  Go.  Now.

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God, I've got to start talking about something other than movies I've seen lately, or I'm going to have to change the name of this thing.  You can fully expect more talk about comic books or video games in the near future.