A good, solid start

Rating: 8/10 (26 July 2008)

I found Hellboy to be a worthy first entry in its' ever-growing series. The commercial success of this film led director Guillermo Del Toro to make Pan's Labyrinth so it also serves as kind of coming out party for such a stellar film-maker. The film runs kind of like a moody, dark, and disarming tale of MIB only were dealing with monsters as opposed to aliens. The real reason this film works is because of its' cast. Ron Perlman is utterly awesome as Hellboy as a someone is truly angered and dealing with a never-ending identity crisis. Selma Blair is kind of simple, but shows her character as one who knows she's vulnerable and scarred and confused as to how she can help the team and Hellboy the man...yes he ACTS like a man...she cares so much for. The action is solid and you can clearly see Del Toro's visuals in almost every scene. I found the scenes in Russia to be breathtaking. The storytelling is thin but the fact that the villains are Nazi's helps because no matter what you always hate them. The plot also seems a predictable bore at times but you don't really notice which is a testament to the cast and Del Toro. All in all this a good movie and a stellar comic-book movie with fantastic driven performances, stunning visuals, solid action and a disarming sense of humor. This mildly-flawed but superbly entertaining picture means a lot to its' genre it's director and it's own ever-improving series. Like I said a good start.