Perlman's great, but the movie's not

Rating: 6/10 (10 January 2005)

Superhero flicks are all the rage right now and Hellboy is yet another one to ponder. Unlike X-Men or Spiderman, I've never actually read a Hellboy comic so I went in knowing next to nothing about the character.
The movie gets a major boost with the casting of Ron Perlman in the lead role. Perlman is great as Hellboy and he breathes considerable life into the character. The best scenes were the ones where Hellboy was just being Hellboy. I liked watching his various girl problems and really enjoyed his conversations with the other characters in the film.
It's too bad the actual superhero aspect of the movie doesn't match up to Perlman's performance. I just never got interested in any of the action scenes. The villains didn't interest me and I actually got bored watching Hellboy fighting the same monsters over and over again. I can't give this movie more than a 6/10.