Surprisingly Entertaining

Rating: 7/10 (13 May 2004)

Since I'm not a huge comic book fan (gasp! yes, I know comic books are ultra-cool for trendy kids) I wasn't sure I would like it. The trailers looked kind of interesting, but with a name like Hell Boy, I thought it might be the equivalent of an 80s heavy-metal hair band in movie form.
A friend finally convinced me to go see it and I enjoyed it. It delivers what it promises--a fun action movie with enough plot and character development so that it's not completely brainless (just mostly). I thought this movie was similar in quality with X-Men and a little better than X2 (which I didn't like as well). It has similar themes of misfit, outcast mutants, er, supernatural creatures trying to save mankind from disaster and destruction. You get some love, redemption and Hell Boy has some good lines.
While you're there, do a guessing game to see if you can figure out which character John Hurt plays (don't look at the credits here until you've watched it). I was a little surprised to see his name on the credits. Maybe I'm just dopey but I really didn't know he was in it until I looked.
A lot is predictable, but the makers put in some elements that weren't complete formula. For example, I kept expecting the obnoxious boss (played by Jeffrey Tambor) to "get his" since these types of characters usually turn into monster food pretty fast (just like the unnamed minor characters that always get killed on Star Trek away missions). Stay through most of the credits and you'll get a little clip of him as a comic reward. He was funny and contemptible, but in the end he wasn't so bad. This is just a minor example, but the movie felt fresher than a lot of things that have been trying to recycle formulas lately.
I can't help comparing this movie to Van Helsing since they're both in the theaters at the same time and vaguely in the same genre. Skip Van Helsing and see Hell Boy instead. It is by far a more effective movie than Van Helsing was and on a much smaller budget. I hope someone in Hollywood is paying attention and notices that bigger, faster, and more expensive is not always better. You notice that this movie bothered to create at least a minimal plot and some character definition?
Just wait 10 years when everyone can do high-quality special effects for even cheaper and special effects will stop being able to sell a movie on their own.
In all an entertaining movie. Not profound, but one of the best sci-fi/action movies this year.