Fantastic blend of character and action!

Rating: 10/10 (16 March 2004)

Guillermo del Toro has made a great movie out of Mike Mignola's wonderful comic book, Hellboy. He stays true to the tone and atmosphere of the comic while imbuing it with his own cinematic sensibilities. Hellboy is a genuinely FUN movie with great action and atmosphere, but also with great CHARACTERS. In Hellboy, del Toro combines his skills as an action director displayed in Blade 2 with the artful characterizations he gave us in The Devil's Backbone and Cronos. Ron Perlman is note-perfect as the title character, a demon summoned to bring about the Apocalypse who believes he can escape his destiny and instead fight for the forces of good. He is both funny and touchingly emotional. Hellboy reminds me of Raiders of the Lost Ark in the way it gives us very likeable and fully-drawn characters in a fun, fast-paced comic book adventure movie.