Terrible!!! A big mess - WHAT were they thinking?

Rating: 3/10 (24 June 2008)

This film has NO story and no plot. And it's a shame too. The CGI work, directing and acting is all top notch. The film starts off with a small back story (which is fantastic and entertaining), then gets really slow in the middle of the film and then at the very end, becomes tripped, rushed and falls on its face.
Parts of the film just didn't make sense. Some examples: why was it important at the ending to acknowledge that Hellboy had a choice, when throughout the film, this concept was NEVER brought up? Why did HB go into a trance when, again, this was never brought up earlier? What were HB's redeeming characteristics? Too early in the film HB is joking around and making wisecracks like he knows us and we love him and will accept him and what he does. No!!! He needed to do something besides taking candy bars from the father and gobbling them up, to prove himself as likable.
Not everyone knows the Hellboy back story and not everyone read the comic (I didn't even know such a thing existed). As such, I NEEDED this information. Withholding it was detrimental to the story.
The hidden premise of the film is that Hellboy is needed to open a portal to release a bunch of demons into the world so that they can take it over. That's the only reason for the film. Everything else is vague and loosely tied in. Nothing, after the beginning flashback is congruent or makes any form of sense.
So after the initial action scenes in the beginning, the middle is filled with slow and boring scenes that really contribute nothing to the story, and then comes the climax. And then BOOM and the film is over.
Throw this film in the same bucket as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This film sucked! Three stars for everyone in this project except the writers and their horrible script.