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Hellboy (2004): 6/10

Poster (c) Revolution Studios

Expectations have been set way too high now. Every time a movie based on a comic book comes out, everyone expects it to be the next , when a) most, if not all, of the popular comic book franchises have already been made into movies, and b) most comic book movies can't compare to Spider-Man. Yet these movies keep getting pumped out methodically, and people buy into them. I am one of those people, so on its opening weekend, I saw Hellboy, a lesser known comic-movie. There's obviously a reason why it's like that. Hellboy may be an interesting character, but his surroundings aren't.

Ron Perlman plays the title character, a demon transported from hell during the Nazi regime. He's brought up by Prof. Broom (John Hurt, I'll get to him later), and soon helps out the American government in controlling paranormal creatures. However, it turns out he has human feelings and all, and must face his inner demons, so to speak.

I must admit, going into Hellboy, I had high expectations. The trailers looked cool, and I thought it could surpass Spider-Man and get into Hulk territory. But I was wrong. Everything that went right in the two previously mentioned movies didn't happen in this one. The exciting originality and spontaniety of Spider-Man was thrown away in lieu of cheesy special effects. And the stunning story and depth in The Hulk was nowhere to be seen here. But I shouldn't be judging this movie based on others.

In short, Hellboy is generic. Although the plot was far-out, it didn't go that far with it, and ended up just being a generic "kick the bad guy's ass" scenario. Any of the fight scenes seemed completely fake, until you realized that Hellboy was just a guy in makeup. Then I was in awe, but the sheer awkwardness of the computer animation just seemed off. Hellboy's makeup, though, was great; it seemed perfectly flawless (although I did see an image afterwards where some of his fingers were visible when there were supposed to be incased in a wooden arm), and was probably the highest point of the movie. The movie in itself was entertaining, but just not as gripping as it could be.

Perlman is a great Hellboy. He stands out among this cast that could have gone for A-list stars but didn't. Hurt seemed to underplay his role. Ironically, Hurt played the title character in The Elephant Man, and I found these two movies similar, as they both deal with ostricizacation due basically to looks. Selma Blair, as the love interest, does what she can with her one note character, but she can't really do much with it.

All in all, Hellboy is entertaining, generally. There's nothing new. Just some PG-13 blow 'em up, and that's it. Destined to not be a classic.

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and frightening images.

Review Date: April 4, 2004