There is an element to our culture that seems to eschew imagination, our child-like creativity—that seeks to crush it from us as a rite of passage to what it means to grow up. Guillermo Del Toro not only imbues all of his work with his own embrace of his child-like imagination, but sets this war on magic as an underlying theme to Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. His creature creations leap off the screen with their vividness, their realness.

After an ancient truce between humankind and the invisible realm, the realm of fairies and dark elves, is broken, Hellboy (Ron Perlman)—he of the shorn horns, tail, and oversized right hand—and his team from the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense have to put a stop to the machinations of war. They travel between the surface world and the unseen magical one, where creatures of fantasy become corporeal as an elven prince, Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), seeks to unleash an army of creatures—mechanical golems that appear fueled by molten rock—in a fey jihad.

So we have a "Lord of the Crowns" backdrop, with one crown to unite them all, playing out against a love story. On the personal front, Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and Hellboy are a new couple in the process of making&ellips; adjustments.

"We die and the world will be poorer for it." --Prince Nuada

Villains are heroes in their own stories and Prince Nuada is no different. Despite the trail of bloodshed and bodies, he's a man fighting for a just cause. He is reclaiming his land and birthright, since humanity has forgotten the gods and magic while also neglecting the environment. He fights for an appreciation and preservation of the old ways, for lost things which may never be regained. In a lot of ways, he harkens back to our youth, when we could believe, and fears for the death of magic and imagination.

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