History YMMV / HellboyIITheGoldenArmy

* EvilIsSexy: Nuada is a gorgeous elf prince who just so happens to be trying to wipe out mankind. Doesn't hurt that he gets a ShirtlessScene that shows off his athleticism either.

* RootingForTheEmpire: Prince Nuada's [[EvilIsSexy good looks,]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist sympathetic motives]] and general coolness made a few people actually want him to succeed.

* BrokenBase: In Spain, veteran actor/comedian Santiago Segura voicing Johann Krauss (which was specially requested by Creator/GuillermoDelToro, a close friend of Segura) met a divided reaction. Some found it surprisingly well done for a non-specialist voice actor and very adequate for the character, while others saw it as a cheap attempt to get more appeal for the film in Spain and claimed that many other voice actors would have done the character better.

** Hiroshi Yanaka, Japanese dub actor for Nuada, provided the dub voice for elven Lord Celeborn in the ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' trilogy.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: As per usual, Guillermo del Toro's limited reliance to CGI delivers a film with beautifully designed and believable fantasy creatures, the Troll Market scene especially being a SceneryPorn of gorgeous PracticalEffects and stunning character designs. The CGI for the Golden Army also aged rather nicely.

* HilariousInHindsight: Hiroshi Yanaka, Japanese dub actor for Nuada, provided the dub voice for elven Lord Celeborn in the ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' trilogy.

%%* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: And relatively small budgets.

** The large fertility goddess statue for sale at the auction is based heavily on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Willendorf Venus of Willendorf]], with one major piece of artistic license: the real statue is smaller than the average person's hand.

* IdiotPlot:
** Beside the usual "I'm pregnant but I won't tell him as to maximize the angst" plot, the heroes rapidly capture one of the McGuffin Nuada needs to awake the titular Golden Army. Now, they realize that ''they'' have no particular need for that item or the Golden Army, but rather than destroying it by giving it to the one team member who can melt ''anything'', they leave it with Nuala, who told them explicitly that she acts as a magic homing beacon for the BigBad. Guess what happens?
** There's also the fact that Nuala seems completely unaware of the fact that she ought to actually ''warn'' the Investigation team about stuff. She just stands there with her mouth hanging open when her brother drops the Forest God seed, not telling then to keep it from water ''until it's two inches from a drain''. She then oh-so-casually tells Abe that her very dangerous, psychotic, human-hating, murderous brother will be able to find their hide-out because they are mentally linked and thus he knows everything that she knows. Apparently this wasn't worth mentioning ''before'' bringing her there, so they could find some way to hide her without her figuring out where it is? Or that she only thinks to hide the map and crown piece when her brother is right at the door, breaking in? Or Abe deciding to get drunk and sing love songs after being told that Nuala's brother would be showing up for blood instead of warning the team?
** Nuada isn't immune either. He correctly guessed that his twin sister hid the MacGuffin in a book of her favourite color (because, again, she's an idiot), has wounded a drunken Hellboy whose girlfriend is now craddling Hellboy instead of fighting Nuada and none of the RedShirt human agents have ever proven to be a threat to him. Instead of going through the few dozen books of the right color, he decides to take his twin sister hostage (who, remember, he is incapable of harming without suffering the same injuries himself, and thus makes for a terrible hostage), as well leave Hellboy with his deadly wound, unless they do a HostageForMacGuffin.

** Nuala herself could end the movie at literally ''any time''. When we are first introduced to her and her brother, it is determined that her brother must die for the good of the world. Since they are linked, this would kill Nuala as well. She is actually asked if she is okay with this, and agrees to die. But the brother attacks, and she flees, and the entire rest of the movie happens. Then at the end, she stabs herself, killing them both. Since she was resigned to die from the very beginning in order to stop her brother from going on a rampage, why did she wait ''until he had already gone on a rampage''?!
*** In fact the movie itself gives Nuala a catch-22 she never thinks of: The Golden Army will only answer a commander who is ''unchallenged''. All Nuala needs to do to foil her brother is challenge him for command. He can't win the challenge - as it'd kill him - so this leaves the army effectively deadlocked.
** Nuada isn't immune either. He correctly guessed that his twin sister hid the MacGuffin in a book of her favourite color (because, again, she's an idiot), has wounded a drunken Hellboy whose girlfriend is now craddling Hellboy instead of fighting Nuada and none of the RedShirt human agents have ever proven to be a threat to him. Instead of going through the few dozen books of the right color, he decides to take his twin sister hostage (who, remember, he is incapable of harming without suffering the same injuries himself, and thus makes for a terrible hostage), as well leave Hellboy with his deadly wound, unless they do a HostageForMacGuffin. Although he has no intention of handing over either and plans to KillEmAll once he has his Golden Army activated, he holds the hostage exchange in a location where the protagonist actually have to pass the repentant creator of the Golden Army and a being who actually can heal Hellboy, just to get to the hostage exchange.
** And then there are Hellboy's human superiors who decide that, knowing Nuada has two pieces of a doomsday weapon, that they don't know where the final piece is but do know that Nuada has the last person who had it hostage, and that Nuada had effortlessly slaughter his way into their base before and that the only one who even slowed him down was now wounded... they decide that they got Nuada right where they want him, and that they can just sit back and wait.
** There's also the fact that the movie tries to present the Golden Army as this unstoppable threat to humanity when it... really isn't? It's 70 times 70 soldiers (so 4900 total), which is a pitifully low number. And they all use swords, have no ranged attacks, and aren't particularly mobile or nimble. Sure they can rebuild themselves seemingly infinitely (Which no one in the movie tests the limits of), but the entire army is contingent on one dude who is neither ImmuneToBullet or to a cruise missile to the face. In fact Hellboy himself demonstrates the Golden Army itself isn't immune to bullets.

* IdiotBall: At one point the heroes possess two vital items to the villain's plan, the map of the Golden Army's location and part of the key necessary to activate it. At no point do they consider just destroying both. It's especially noteworthy as [[spoiler: they do end up incinerating the key, but only after it's already been used.]]

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Prince Nuada is, depending on who you ask, a cool AntiVillain or an annoyance compared to the previous film's villains. People in favor of him tend to like his complexity and sympathetic motives centered on his genuine love of magical creatures and remorse for his actions, his lengthy and elaborate fight scenes, and his costuming and makeup, all of which were generally hailed as highlights of the film. Fans against Nuada tend to dislike the film's attempts to make him sympathetic, feeling they revolve around a SpaceWhaleAesop, feel that the IncestSubtext between himself and Nuala makes him too creepy to be likeable or sympathetic, and feel his edgy look and resemblance to [[Literature/TheElricSaga Elric]] make him a derivative villain who isn't nearly as interesting and sympathetic as the film thinks he is.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Prince Nuada is, depending on who you ask, a cool AntiVillain or an annoyance compared to the previous film's villains. People in favor of him tend to like his complexity and sympathetic motives centered on his genuine love of magical creatures and remorse for his actions, his lengthy and elaborate fight scenes, and his costuming and makeup, all of which were generally hailed as highlights of the film. Fans against Nuada tend to dislike the film's attempts to make him sympathetic, feeling it revolves around a SpaceWhaleAesop, feel that the IncestSubtext between himself and Nuala makes him too creepy to be likeable or sympathetic, and feel his edgy look and resemblance to [[Literature/TheElricSaga Elric]] make him a derivative villain who isn't nearly as interesting and sympathetic as the film thinks he is.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Prince Nuada is, depending on who you ask, a cool AntiVillain or an annoyance compared to the previous film's villains. People in favor of him tend to like his complexity and sympathetic motives centered on his genuine love of magical creatures and remorse for his actions, his lengthy and elaborate fight scenes, and his costuming and makeup, all of which were generally hailed as highlights of the film. Points against Nuada tend to dislike the film's attempts to make him sympathetic, feeling it revolves around a SpaceWhaleAesop, feel that the IncestSubtext between himself and Nuala makes him too creepy to be likeable or sympathetic, and feel his edgy look and resemblance to [[Literature/TheElricSaga Elric]] make him a derivative villain who isn't nearly as interesting and sympathetic as the film thinks he is.

* GeniusBonus: The creature in the Troll Market who helps Nuala has a cityscape of towers on his head, which looks cool, but it's apparently inspired by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mural_crown mural crowns]] found in the heraldry of classical antiquity, worn by the guardian spirits of cities.

* BrokenBase: In Spain, Santiago Segura voicing Johann Krauss (which was specially requested by Creator/GuillermoDelToro, a close friend of Segura) met a very divided reaction. Some found it surprisingly well done for a non-professional voice actor and very adequate for the character, while others saw it as a cheap attempt to get more appeal for the film in Spain and claimed that many other voice actors would have done the character better.

* Narm: Nuada stating he always loved his father, right after killing him and in a strangely deadpan delivery.

* {{Narm}}: Nuada stating he always loved his father, right after killing him and in a strangely deadpan delivery.
* NarmCharm: When Hellboy's fighting the forest god, he also has to protect a baby in a carriage. It's completely ridiculous and contrived, and yet very endearing and one of the best scenes in the movie. Also. Only an actor as talented as Creator/RonPerlman could make this line sound like a convincingly badass death threat.

** "Mein Hertz Brennt" by Music/{{Rammstein}}, used in the trailers, is especially noteworthy. It fits extremely well with the setting and tone.

** "Mein Hertz Brennt" by Rammstein, used in the trailers, is especially noteworthy. It fits extremely well with the setting and tone.
* BrokenBase: In Spain, Santiago Segura voicing Johann Krauss (which was specially requested by Guillermo del Toro, a close friend of Segura) met a very divided reaction. Some found it surprisingly well done for a non-professional voice actor and very adequate for the character, while others saw it as a cheap attempt to get more appeal for the film in Spain and claimed that many other voice actors would have done the character better.

* NarmCharm: When Hellboy's fighting the forest god, he also has to protect a baby in a carriage. It's completely ridiculous and contrived, and yet very endearing and one of the best scenes in the movie. Also. Only an actor as talented as Ron Perlman could make this line sound like a convincingly badass death threat.

* BrokenBase: In Spain, Santiago Segura voicing Johann Krauss (which was specially requested by Guillermo del Toro, a close friend of Segura) met a very divided reaction. Some found it surprisingly well done for a non-professional voice actor and very adequate for the character, while others saw it as a disgrace and claimed that other actors would have done the character better.

* NarmCharm: When Hellboy's fighting the forest god, he also has to protect a baby in a carriage. It's completely ridiculous and contrived, and yet very endearing. Only an actor as talented as Ron Perlman could make this line sound like a convincingly badass death threat.

* OneSceneWonder: The Angel of Death is only on screen for a couple of minutes, but is one of the most memorable. Not only does its distinctive look lead it to be heavily featured in promotional materials, but it very potently reminds everyone, in- and out-of-universe, just what Hellboy is.
* StrangledByTheRedString: Abe and Nuala. They've known each other for a few days, but act as though they're deeply in love, mostly Abe. The film attempts to justify it by having the two share a PsychicLink briefly, and playing up their [[BirdsOfAFeather inability to fit in]], but that doesn't change the fact that the two barely share any scenes together. This causes Abe to grab hold of the IdiotBall and set the film's climax into motion by giving Nuada exactly what he needs to activate the titular Golden Army after he kidnaps Nuala, claiming that Hellboy would've done the same thing for Liz, which ignores the fact that Hellboy and Liz have known each other, and have been dating, for ''years''.