"Look at the size of that whammer!"

Rating: 7/10 (5 September 2017)

Fans of just about every comic book super-hero character dream of the day when their favorite makes it to the big screen. I read the Hellboy comics for a while and didn't think them anything special, and I was actually surprised that the character would get a movie treatment. Since it did, Ron Perlman seems the logical choice to portray the character, he has just the right size and look to translate Hellboy into an on screen action hero.
I liked the idea of a Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, sounds sort of like The X-Files, doesn't it? The idea that Hitler survived World War II and lived till 1958 sounded interesting too, but once we learn that, nothing ever comes of it. In the end though, the story goes the route of all big super hero films with an all out assault of over the top, mind blowing action and indestructible monsters for the good guys to defeat. It's a pretty standard formula that's not interrupted here.
The movie does pose one major question mark. It opens with a narration by one of the principal characters, Professor Broom (John Hurt). He adopts the infant demon Hellboy who comes through a time portal engineered by the Nazis, and brings FBI agent John Myers (Rupert Evans) aboard his team to battle present day forces of darkness. I always have to wonder how a picture with a principal character that doubles as the narrator winds up being killed in the story.