Hellboy (2004) Review

"There are things that go bump in the night, Agent Myers, make no mistake about that.  And we are the ones who bump back."
-Trevor Bruttenholm



During World War II, the Nazis teamed up with Grigori Rasputin (Karel Rogen) to open a portal into deep space to summon monsters to help them win the war.  They are defeated, but one baby monster gets through; Hellboy (Ron Perlman), who grows up to become a monster hunter for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense.  Soon Hellboy and his team discover Rasputin is back and determined to summon a monster to destroy the world.


What Works:

The best part of Hellboy is Ron Perlman.  He is perfect in the role and extremely entertaining.  You can't help but like the guy even though he is very grumpy.  It's especially funny to watch him pine over his love interest, Liz (Selma Blair), who is completely normal on the exterior.  It's bizarre to have this big, red demon get so jealous and lovestruck.

You can definitely tell this film was directed by Guillermo del Toro.  He fills the world of Hellboy with tons of creativity and imagination.  He puts thought into every aspect of this film's look and story and all of the settings are wonderful.

The action scenes are all pretty fun as well.  The creature designs lead to some creative fight sequences and I'm always up to watch some monsters throw down.  The foe Hellboy has to fight most often is a demon that can frequently come back from the dead, which makes things interesting.

Finally, I love the design of the Nazi assassin, Kroenen (Ladislav Beren).  The armor he wears is cool, but when you finally get to see underneath, it's the stuff of nightmares.


What Sucks:

The CGI for Hellboy has not aged very well.  At times, it looks almost cartoony, which I enjoyed, but sometimes it just looks bad and took me out of the film.

The side characters don't get much development, which is unfortunate because most of them are interesting and I wanted to know more about them so I could become emotionally invested.

The biggest problem with the film is Agent John Myers (Rupert Evans), who is the new recruit for the Bureau.  We learn about everything through his eyes, but he does not work in this story.  We learn almost nothing about him and have no reason to care about him.  Every scene with him falls flat, especially his forced love-triangle scenes with Liz.  He's basically useless and adds virtually nothing to the plot.  Either cut this character completely or give him something important to do.


Verdict:

Hellboy is a fun and entertaining movie with solid action sequences, a fun world, and an excellent performance from Ron Perlman.  The CGI hasn't aged well, the supporting characters are underdeveloped, and Agent Myers is a complete waste of space, but this film has still got it going on.

 7/10: Good 

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