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Imagine an entire movie taking place in the cantina from Star Wars. Got it? That movie, in your mind, probably looks a lot like Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. Then again, that’s about what you’d hope for in a movie wherein the heir apparent to Hell is working for the US government on… errrr… anti-monster duty. The elaborate, phantasmagorical visuals are director Guillermo Del Toro’s stock-in-trade and reason enough to see the movie. But there’s actually a story, too.

The story feels like a three hour story crammed into two hours, so epic as to be a bit schematic. The truncated feel has an upside, too though—it keeps the movie bumping along at a blindingly fast pace. You don’t have time to get bored. If you go to the bathroom you’ll probably miss a dazzling action sequence.

Did I say you don’t have time to get bored? Most of the time, that’s true. However, Del Toro attempted an unfortunate drunken sing-along scene. To compound the atrocity, the song Del Toro chose was Barry Manilow’s horribly insipid “Can’t Smile Without You.” My face still hurts from wincing at this irredeemably mawkish scene. Worse, the song might get stuck in your head. It wasn’t anywhere enough to ruin the movie for me, though.

Hellboy 2, a light, bubblegum-ish counterpoint to the brooding darkness of Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, is a good ride, and well worth seeing. If you want profundity, look elsewhere. If you want what people usually go to the movies for—spectacle, and a rockin’ good ride, Hellboy 2 is the one to see right now.