A Unique and Visually Impressive Film

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2014)

Hellboy is a very well-crafted visual treat. It makes fantastic use of both CGI and practical makeup to create its illusions. Ron Perlman as Hellboy (or "Red") is particularly impressive, especially when you consider how much of a pain it would have been to prepare for that role with all of that makeup and prosthetic material every single day.
The plot is "save the world" type of stuff, but that's fine, because a movie as stylish as this has no time or need to dwell on complex subplots and dialogue; it's supposed to be fun.
The movie has a lot of funny little quirks on top of the visual effects. Hellboy happens to be a very charming, funny character who lives up to his appearance with his personality.
Despite the richness of its effects, I found the movie to be surprisingly restrained. Not significantly so, but we have Hellboy, we Abe Sapien (also cool) and we have some scary looking "hounds" that have tentacles and long tongues. But it probably could have been more diverse. The movie is 130 minutes long, but it just doesn't feel like it makes the most of that running time.
Regardless, it's a unique and very entertaining comic book movie.