I liked this film.

Rating: 8/10 (3 April 2004)

Granted, I could see how some scenes of this movie could be considered derivative (Alien, Deep Rising). Know what? Dont care. Lots of weirdness in this film. It has no real mythology to latch onto. Thats ok though, Hellboy makes its own, and it does a decent job. Hellboy is a good movie because while every character has his strengths, both physically and emotionally, they also have their weaknesses, both physically and emotionally. The characters are not driven by a single visual or biochemical motif, which I believe to be a plus for the movie. It shows that such a group does not simply evolve through normal circumstance and that each character is a true rarity and thus a system based on such rarity cannot function as normal teams would. Each player comes from an entirely different background; they each do their job and do it well enough that the group, regardless of personal shortcomings, are able to succeed more often than not.
In the end, this movie is decent. The only problem that I had with it is the initial release of the monsters upon the city. Maybe I missed the reason, but I saw no real effect towards the ultimate goals of the main antagonists. I will have to wait until the DVD comes out so I can buy it and watch it again.
Overall Rating: Solid 8