Fairly generic sci-fi adventure tale, but with some fantastic art-design and a really likable lead at the core of it

Rating: 6/10 (4 August 2018)

Hellboy seems like a cool hero, and he deserves a better film than the one he gets here, which is too full of leaps in logic and extraordinarily inconsistent in tone. Like Superman, he seems to care enough for our world in order to save it from some pretty nefarious people when the time comes - perhaps chiefly because, like Superman, he doesn't actually have a home world of his own to go back to. He's cocky; confident and a little rebellious, although remains faithful to those who have taken care of him up to this point in his life.
The film's beginning sets an odd, fantastical tone which does not really dissipate for the rest of its runtime. It's 1944, and despite the fact the Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles the Germans ever conquered during The Second World War, the Nazis are in Scotland. There, they are looking to end the war quickly; sensing, I suppose, defeat, what with their failing campaigns in North Africa and on the Eastern Front, and so turn to opening up portals to dimensions beyond our observable world in order to call upon higher powers to help them. But, how do they know if this unknown entity will be sympathetic to their aims? The imagery of the opening is also too reminiscent of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", which culminated in such a show - we are at a stage now in blockbuster cinema whereby a film like "Hellboy" decides to BEGIN with it.
Alas, for the Nazis, something goes wrong in their experiment when the American (not British) soldiers, who have been tracking them all this way, launch an ambush to quash the mission. With them is a young professor named Trevor Bruttenholm, who is eventually played in his old age by John Hurt. In the ensuing chaos, something does indeed pop out of what was a gateway to Hell - the aforementioned and eponymous Hellboy: a small, red demon who is eventually played in his 'old' age by Ron Perlman, by which point he is a conspiracy theory amongst modern New Yorkers despite there being photographic evidence of him posing in a picture with the soldiers.
Guillermo del Toro uses this set up to tell a tale which is mostly interested in set direction and costume, which makes a change to having to sit through a film of this stock which is mostly interested in action, although there is quite a bit of action... In the twenty-first century, Hellboy is kept in an FBI lockup with a variety of other quirky occultist stuff from non-history - he's at an age in his life now whereby he is bored, and craves action and adventure and quite likes the idea of having a girlfriend. Whatever it is they groom young demons to do in Hell, Hellboy isn't getting it here.
Away from this, something is brewing - the Nazis who failed to win The War the first time around are gunning for another shot. In true "The Mummy" style, two of these Nazis, played by Karel Roden and Bridget Hodson, are able to live forever in a cursed state and set out with the intent to bring about the apocalypse anyway. On their side is an odd, machine-like tin-made ninja decked out in Nazi garb and a bizarre fish-like creature whose raw brawn they use to buttress their offensive.
The thinking and the energy behind "Hellboy" is a lot more interesting than the finished product itself, which finds comfort in telling a tale of heroes fighting villains with the world at stake. More interesting are the characters, particularly the supporting ones who are all at once beautiful; terrifying; fascinating and ugly to look at - we sense they each have their own worlds, complete with complicated biological ecosystem to slot into, somewhere in the universe, just nowhere that we can imagine.
The film seems to lose its focus too often, coming off as very wayward in tone as scenes of brutal violence involving villainous sword-play are intercut with sardonic putdowns from the protagonist. It also seemed as if there was a love story in an earlier draft, or cut altogether, involving a character who could not control the fire she could produce from the palms of her hands. The film ends up in deepest of snowy Russia and Hellboy being carted around in a box, but why bother hiding him if his identity is out by this point? And what do the Russian authorities think of an FBI entourage in their country anyway? Irrespective, "Hellboy" is a lot of good, harmless fun which fans of the genres of action, horror and science fiction should devour.