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Now it may or may not have escaped your notice that I don't really like comic book films. Whilst everyone else can't get enough Spiderman, Iron Man or Batman, I prefer my heroes to not wear capes, turn green or shoot webbing out of their wrists. With everyone falling over themselves to praise The Dark Knight, I can only muster enough enthusiasm for a B-. I don't really care for the original films, let alone the never ending run of sequels they tend to spawn. Granted, TDK was better than Batman Begins, but usually these films obey the laws of diminishing returns. Once you've seen it, there's little value in watching the same characters going over the same old angst within a variation of a plot that you've seen plenty of times before. If I could have one film related wish granted I would ban all comic book, superhero and sequels for a year and see what Hollywood came up with to fill the multiplexes over the summer. So then when I tell you I pretty much loved not only a comic book film, but a sequel at that, it should tell you that this is very very worth your while.

I'd not seen the first Hellboy, and maybe that was just as well, but some very favourable reviews drew me into seeing the Guillermo Del Toro directed sequel. Del Toro of course gave us Pan's Labyrinth in 2006, to wild critical acclaim. Whilst I wasn't sold on the plot, I did enjoy a visual feast that announced a major new talent in world cinema. Del Toro crafted a fantastical world of the curious, the beautiful and the bizarre - characters and landscapes that were hugely original. That breathtaking vision has, if anything, been surpassed in Hellboy 2.

Summer blockbusters are not your usual opportunity to see a director put a strong influence over a film. Tentpole, popcorn flicks will often be rather anonymously directed, with studios loathe to grant too much creative licence for fear of screwing up their box office returns. Not so here though, with Universal bravely pretty much letting Del Toro do whatever he wanted. His creativity is all over the film, from the strange creature with eyes not on its face but on its wings, to the cute but deadly tooth fairies that swarm around eating human bones, teeth and flesh at the start of the film. Every scene is stuffed full of originality and craft. The cinematography is excellent, the set design fantastic and Del Toro's direction faultless. In short it is, and will remain, one of the very best films for visuals you will see this or any other year.

Quite clearly a movie cannot get by on looking great alone, and fortunately Del Toro also took the scriptwriting reigns. Hellboy 2 sees our hero in conflict with the human race - he's the good guy, but they think he's against them. How then does he feel about fighting for the race that fear and torment him against a bad guy that seeks to destroy them, whilst also protecting mythical creatures including Hellboy himself. Del Toro's clever screenplay s full of wit an charm. There are moments of genius - a Barry Manilow sing-a-long is worth the price of admission alone, and there are no shortage of laugh out loud moments throughout a two hour running time that breezes by.

I would even go so far as to say that it may well be the best superhero film I have ever seen - I may well give it another whirl before it leaves cinemas, and I'd recommend everyone at least sees it once. Like me, you don't even have to have seen Hellboy 1.