Flawed but great fun!

Rating: 7/10 (30 October 2005)

This movie is, without doubt, one hell of a lot of fun. Sure, people will nit-pick the flaws, the goofs, but forget them. They're the kind of people who need they're movies to have masses of depth and accuracy, and never take one at face value. If you simply go and watch this movie without trying to see any hidden messages and not caring about continuity errors, you WILL have a good time.
Pearlman is wonderful as Hellboy, adding just the right spark to the character with some well-timed humour, and some incredible acting through the layers of make-up. Doug Jones and David Hyde Pearce bring to life Abe Sapien, and he is definitely one of the most interesting and exciting supporting characters in any comic book movie to date. John Hurt steps in to the role of father figure perfectly, and Selma Blair provides both eye candy, and some fantastic chemistry between Liz and HB.
Guillermo del Toro directs brilliantly, yet again, and his snappy script breathes life in to these wonderful comic book characters.
As I said, the movies is not without it's flaws, the story can be a little convoluted at times, and you have to stay awake to truly keep up, otherwise you may end up thinking 'how did we get here?'. Karel Roden is just a little over the top as Rasputin, but then again, when is being over the top TRULY a flaw with a villain trying to bring about the apocalypse. Occasionally the transition between real Hellboy and digital Hellboy is far too obvious, but this flaw didn't stop Spider-man from being a great movie now, did it? And there are so many continuity errors that if you hate them you'll probably run out of the room screaming.
So basically, if it's depth and accuracy you're looking for, look elsewhere, but if you just want to have some fun, this is definitely worth a look!