Not even close to a masterpiece, but still...

Rating: 6/10 (11 January 2005)

As a fan of the Hellboy comic series it's hard not to compare movie with the original comic although that doesn't do any justice to the movie itself: they are separate things and thus they should be taken too. But nevertheless I find the movie version of Hellboy a little hollow: lot of fun action, a little philosophical banter about nature of humanity and not-so-well-done relationship drama.
Ron Perlman IS Hellboy. When I first read Hellboy ages ago, it was Perlman and no other actor I only could imagine as the lead for Hellboy movie. Thank God he did too. Perlman shines in this one and brims of blunt and stoic charisma. His performance of Hellboy is great mixture of humor and seriousness, just like comic version. John Hurt (professor Broom) performed also well, as usually. Others were more or less OK.
Effects were nice, general atmosphere and sense of adventure was great and Perlman alone was well worth to see this. But what of the downsides? In truth, I disliked the romantic parts of the movie. Too shabby, too hollow. Obviously Hellboy is a man with hormones too, but in the movie his craving for tail (pun definitely intended) was way too dominating element and took a lot more screen time than necessary. In a way more than I could tolerate. Believe it or not, you CAN actually do good relationship drama withOUT any romance. Could someone *please* tell Del Toro this? Friendship, for instance, is what I would have liked the Hellboy movie to express rather than any faked romance. In the comic version almost entire B.P.R.D. was one big family, which made Liz, Abe, Hellboy and the other "freaks" of the Bureau more of siblings and true friends, rather than random romantic encounters. This family behavior gave a lot deeper meaning for their interactions in the comics. None of this was seen on the movie. Hellboy treated Abe as a neutral colleague although Abe claimed they were friends (quess Hellboy just didn't show it on-screen then, hmm?). And Liz was portrayed only as the love interest of the main character, not really a plausible person of her own or a qualified member of the Bureau.
But hey, some might have actually liked those romantic scenes. Good for them. For me the very romantic element itself was just a distraction and a lousy way to add forced romance in a movie that didn't even necessarily require that. It felt so fake. But enough of that. Now to the plot. If you have read the comics, you know the deal and can fill the holes the movie leaves. But without reading them? You might have a little harder time to understand everything than happens. It's OK though, as the plot is not that important, intelligent or even interesting anyway. Things just happen and you can focus on the way too cool Hellboy.
As a rental entertainment this has great value though: Cool main character, great action, funny but a little illogical plot. I've seen a lot worse comic hero movies.
6/10