Very enjoyable comic book hero adaptation thing.

Rating: 7/10 (29 November 2007)

Hellboy starts in 1944 off the coast of Scotland where some evil Nazi's are conducting experiments in the black arts to try & tip the war in the favour of Hitler, with the help of Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden) who tries to open a portal way to hell in order to unleash demons from another dimension. However Professor Trevor 'Broom' Bruttenholm (John Hurt) & allied forces manage to stop them but not before a small red boy like creature enters our world through the portal, this small red creature grows up to become Hellboy (Ron Pearlman) who now works for the US Government in a secret organisation called the Bureau for Paranormal Research & Defense who monitor & combat supernatural & demonic threats to the Earth. Upon investigating a monster at a museum the team find out that Grigori is back & intends to destroy the world by reopening the portal & finishing what he started in 1944...
Written & directed by Guillermo del Toro one has to say I think Hellboy is easily one of the, if not the best comic book adaptation of the recent CGI computer effects stuffed years. First of all Hellboy is one of those frustrating films which is available in it's original theatrical version & a 'director's cut', now I know Hellboy wasn't the first & won't be the last but I am sick of Hollywood studios treating us film fans like idiots & trying to milk as much money out of us as possible. Why two different versions? The director's cut only adds 10 minutes to a film which lasts over two hours anyway so the differences aren't likely to be significant, it just annoys me that studios are so cynical in knowing that the fans want the best version & will probably end up buying both & the studio ends up making more money from us, true film fans. Anyway, rant over. The character of Hellboy originally appeared in a series of Dark Horse graphic novel books & was created by Mike Mingola, with the success of other comic book adaptations like Spider-Man (2002) in particular the powers that be decided to make a Hellboy film & a fine film it is too. Even though it lasts for two hours it didn't feel that long, it moves along at a really good pace & your never too far away from a monster, a fight, an explosion or some other action set-piece. Also another factor which makes Hellboy work so well is that it's fun, it doesn't take itself too seriously & it just wants to entertain you which as far as I'm concerned it did in style. The character's are surprisingly good, Hellboy himself is pretty likable although one has to say beyond all the flashy effects, the action & the unique central character there's not that much else here, there certainly isn't much of a story to get involved in. Keep watching after the end credits start, once the big orange ones finish we discover that the makers hadn't forget Manning after all, it doesn't really say what happens to him but at least he gets a mention.
Director del Toro made Hellboy straight after another comic book flick Balde II (2002) which is actually a better film than Hellboy because it's darker & has more of a story. Here del Toro was obviously under instruction to turn in a PG rated family film & therefore it's relatively restrained in the violence department. I will say that the film looks gorgeous though, the wonderful high tech sets of the bureau to the dark & dirty New York sewer system to the wonderful looking Gothic castles when the film switches to Russia to the costumes & in particular the Nazi assassin Kroenen with his sleek black metal mask & blades which shoot out of his sleeves. Hellboy looks fabulous in more ways than one because Hellboy the film looks great as does Hellboy the character brought to life by Rick Baker & his team as they applied the make-up to Pearlman which took fours hours everyday. The CGI computer effects also look brilliant, when done poorly CGI effects look awful but when done properly they are simply amazing & Hellboy is a good case in point, from monsters with swaying tentacles to explosions the CGI is top notch.
With a supposed budget of about $66,000,000 Hellboy's budget was probably kept down due to the fact there weren't any really big stars in it demanding a $10,000,000 plus pay-cheque, I'd imagine most of that money actually ended up on screen & it shows because Hellboy does look the business. Surprisingly shot in Prague in the Czech Republic although actually set in America, Russia & Scotland. The acting is good but most of the human cast are given little to do, Pearlman steals the show here.
Hellboy is a really fun, action & CGI computer effects packed comic book hero adaptation which in my humble opinion is maybe the best of the recent superhero films & better than Spider-Man at any rate. A must for fantasy film fans & fans of the graphic novels, very enjoyable on a big dumb loud noisy fun type of level. Look out for the forthcoming sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).