Fairly fun but Hellboy could use more of an edge

Rating: 5/10 (26 September 2004)

No doubt that this is one of those overly silly films based on a comic book and while this is pretty entertaining it could have benefited from a more darker approach to the material. Story starts out in the later part of WWII where the Nazis and Rasputin (Karel Roden) have opened a time portal to summon the Seven Gods of Chaos which are mutant octopus lying dormant in space. American forces thwart their efforts but a small red creature has passed through the portal where it is adopted by the FBI.
*****SPOILER ALERT*****
Now it's the present day and Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is kept in a secret Government base where he helps the FBI battle monsters that threaten the U.S. and the world. Hellboy is raised by Trevor Bruttenholm (John Hurt) and he assigns a young FBI agent named John Myers (Rupert Evans) to aid Hellboy who scoffs at him. Hellboy is in love with another paranormal named Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) who's a pyrokineticist and can start fires when excited. Meanwhile, Rasputin's lover and aid Ilsa (Bridget Hodson) has resurrected him and they also summon a lizard like creature that can lay eggs quickly and this is all part of their plans to open another portal and once again try to summon the Seven Gods of Chaos.
This film is directed by Guillermo del Toro who's films are some of the darkest and visually exciting of the last 5 years but that seems to be whats lacking here. With "Cronos" and "Mimic" and "Blade II" this material seems tailored made for a dark visionist like del Toro but he plays it extremely safe here and the end result is just another tongue in cheek action film based on a comic book. Not that I disliked this film because I didn't and for the most part I was fairly entertained by what I saw. The big reason for it is the performance by Perlman who does a good job of giving Hellboy a distinct personality that is for the most part played in a comedic manner. Once again Perlman is buried underneath all sorts of make-up but he does allow the viewer to understand his true feelings and I was reminded of a Bruce Willis or Clint Eastwood attitude with Schwarzenegger muscles but painted completely red! The story is pretty convoluted and one can't help but think what would a bunch of mutant octopus do with this world if it had it? But the action scenes are plentiful and the actors seem to be having a good time but I do wish that del Toro could have used his brilliant dark vision to create something more distinct.