Had potential to be a really dark adult film and, despite being a bit entertaining, fails to deliver in most ways

Rating: Null/10 (9 September 2004)

During WWII, Hitler turned to the dark arts to try and turn the tide, leading the Allies to create a paranormal unit to combat his attempts. An attempt by Rasputin to open a portal to another world is foiled by Bruttenholm and US solider  but not before a strange devil creature has come through into our world. Decades later, Hellboy (as he was named) has aged slowly into his early twenties and, under the guidance of Bruttenholm, has become a secret force for the government in their fight against demons. A new agent starts as Hellboy's handler and is immediately thrown into the deep end with the arrival of a beast in a museum. However this is only the start of a bigger plot by Rasputin and his immortal Nazi allies in their attempts to destroy the world.
As most people seem to be at the moment, I quite like comic book films  I like the potential for action but also the complex characters that the better adaptations will bring out. For this reason I was keen to see Hellboy even though the trailer was filled with CGI and bad kiss-off lines  I should have trusted the trailer. The film starts well with the background for us uninitiated and then skips to the modern day. Using the standard 'new partner' idea as an 'in', the film then pretty much walks the usual tracks of romance, action, monsters and so on. The script never really allows the adult side to come through very well  there is nothing complex here and the dark side that I had hoped for seems to only exist in the sets and costumes.
Without this I was left with just another summer comic book film and, sadly, not one of the better ones at that. The action looks OK but strangely failed to engage me  partly down to the overuse of CGI but also due to the director not injecting enough pace and urgency into them. The effects look OK but it is telling that the CGI beasts are not as impacting as Kroenen who is a much better bad guy  I think he should have been a bigger part and that that CGI been used more sparingly. Likewise, the characters are not as well developed or as interesting as I'd have liked. Hellboy himself is a fairly ordinary action hero  aside from the red skin etc, he has a cigar, is muscle bound and makes wisecracks; hardly breaking the mould is it? Liz and Myers are not used well at all, with their supposed romance not working; meanwhile other characters are just bodies rather than anything else.
It is a shame because it was in the characters that I expected something more grown up to be delivered rather than just more effects and I did feel let down by the lack of this. It is still noisy and big enough to survive in the blockbuster world but I was surprised to see it already have a sequel planned. The cast will be happy with this, even if I was not entirely happy with them. Perlman is a good choice for HB and he does well in a rare leading role  it is not his fault that he has little to work with for the most part. Evans and Blair are fairly bland and uninteresting  partly the scripts fault but also a bit theirs too. Hurt's father figure is interesting, and Pierce delivers what is essentially an underwater Niles. Strangely he was not listed on the credits  unsure why he wasn't. The support cast is less interesting  the bad guys are no more than bad guys and only Beran is good value in his minor role. Tambor is not that well used but his presence is a good influence.
Overall, maybe worth seeing once but, for all its potential it doesn't really stand up against the couple of much better comic book adaptations that are around (Spiderman 2 for example). The action is noisy but uninvolving and unexciting while the adult themes and characters just fail to materialise. Unless it sorts out these pretty major problems in part 2 I would seriously doubt it will have another chance after that.