The climactic showdown at the end of "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" takes place on a set of slowly turning giant gears.

It looks cool and provides an extra element of danger for our combatants. If the fight were better staged, that would be enough. But as it is, we have plenty of time to think and to wonder: What are those gears for, anyway?

They aren't actually doing anything, they are just turning independent of any useful purpose. They exist solely to provide a groovy backdrop for a climactic fight.

Which is just like the grinding-gear scenes in which a set of large grinding thingies appears to have been constructed just in case they can ever be used to dispose of a villainous monster that has been trapped in them.

Guillermo del Toro has become the kind of director who gladly sacrifices all notions of logic - or even sense - for the sake of what he must think are exciting visual elements. He has grown so in love with his computer's ability to generate special effects that he neglects the other aspects of storytelling.

So if he thinks it would look neat to have leaves falling throughout a scene, he drops hundreds of computer-generated leaves, never mind that there are no trees and the characters appear to be inside, perhaps in a boiler room.

The shame of it is that the "Hellboy" films offer more potential than most comic-book movies. The characters, for instance, have identifiable personalities and at least two dimensions, with some approaching three. And the main character displays a willingness to attempt a sense of humor.

Even in the first "Hellboy," the jokes weren't particularly funny. But they were gems from Richard Pryor (or perhaps Henny Youngman) compared with the lame efforts here.

Our hero calls his girlfriend "Babe." She says, "Don't call me 'Babe,'" and he, in a moment of high hilarity, ripostes, "'Abe.' I said, 'Abe.'" Even worse is when he calls a German character "Kraut," and when the German character explains his name is Krauss "with two S's," he rejoins, "SS. Of course."

One single scene involving the music of Barry Manilow, however, is pretty hilarious.

The story is your standard case of a prince of mythical creatures who kills his father and wants to wage war on humankind by unleashing an army of 4,900 unstoppable mechanical warriors - the Golden Army of the title. They play a surprisingly small part of the plot.

Attempting to stop them is a small number of human-friendly mutants and demons, including a reptilian dude who sounds disconcertingly like C-3PO and a Leia-like princess.

You don't have to look hard to see references to other movies (even the turning-gear idea has been used before), including one specific nod to "The Wizard of Oz."

All of which would be fine if the story were more interesting and the action scenes more exciting. Because "Hellboy II" doesn't know what to do with its one asset, its characters, it quickly loses its fire.

And that is how Hellboy, who had potential, turns sadly into Heckboy.