Characters are Heaven-sent, but the final act is Hell-bent (spoilers)

Rating: 6/10 (20 April 2004)

Another comic book has made its way to the big screen, and it is refreshing to see that this selection is dark and mysterious as well as lesser-known among the comic crowd. In this film, a team of heroic misfits is dedicated to saving the world from the "things that go bump in the night" with their secret weapon of a powerhouse, the titular Hellboy (played by Ron Perlman and referred to as `HB' in the film). He is confident and proud of his special gifts but after 60 years of seclusion, is eager for a taste of normalcy. Although they don't quite become the sum of their parts, the filmmakers paint quite a tapestry of primary-color action.
The film opens with a violent prologue set at the end of World War Two as the Nazis are desperate enough to test their first mystical weapon and bring hell to earth just to defeat the allied powers. A platoon of marines and President Roosevelt's paranormal specialist has surrounded the site and proceeds to disrupt the proceedings. Russian sorcerer, Rasputin (Karel Roden), and the Nazis are partly successful and they get the portal open long enough for a few things to slip through. One of those things is a little demon baby with a huge stone hand. He turns out to be friendly enough and grows to become the cornerstone of the American Bureau of Paranormal Research. Flash forward 60 years and the BPR is busy keeping down those other shameless creatures of the dark side when Rasputin is resurrected by his ageless Nazi lover and they renew the work that might bring about the end of the world. The BPR is having domestic problems keeping Hellboy under wraps as he tries to visit his estranged girlfriend, Liz (Selma Blair) and watches Hellboy's father figure, Professor Bruttenholm (John Hurt), slip into the clutches of cancer. The new member, John Myers (Rupert Evans), might be able to fill the leadership role if he can just keep HB calm and comfortable.
The movie is at its best when riffing on the unspoken things that binds friends together, especially when the outside world is not a welcoming place. The Professor is a reject mocked and discounted by the marines who he is accompanying on the US military's first counter-paranormal mission. Myers, who is the audience's window into this strange world, has been demoted from regular FBI duty to be Hellboy's babysitter. There's Hellboy, who is desperately vulnerable because of his looks when it comes to his would-be girlfriend, Liz, who bears Herculean guilt for the lives she has accidentally taken with her nearly uncontrollable ability to generate fire. Quietly lending ESP intelligence to the group is the amphibious Abe Sapien (voiced by David Hyde Pierce) who has more mysterious origins, but who bears the burden of social isolation with far more grace than his counterparts. Although the Nazis are the group that put the evil of the movie in motion, could you ask for a more mysterious real-life personification of villainy than an undead Rasputin? His former Nazi henchman, Kroenen (Ladislav Beran), is eerily silent as he slices his way among heroes and does the world's best impersonation of a Trojan horse.
The work of keeping the world safe has made Hellboy a bit jaded, and he saunters in to defeat bad guys with the casual confidence of a bartender serving a drink to a regular that just doesn't know when to cut himself off. HB's heroic moments range from direct (saving John from a speeding car or snapping jaws) to the farcically comical (a box of kittens suddenly becomes a priority when duking it out with a bad guy in a crowded subway station). Simple visual jokes, such as John carrying a mountain of pancakes to try and satiate HB's voracious appetite while the big red guy trims his horns with a power sander are inspired glimpses into the day-to-day happenings of their quirky lives. The villains are remorseless, but not entirely cartoonish. They are evil, but rounded enough to give at least the illusion of depth. The henchman is obsessed with refining the tools of his sick trade, but likes to unwind while listening to his antique phonograph. Rasputin is wicked, but is also romantic and has enough of some sense of honor to offer a longtime enemy a quick and merciful end. Making the villains more credible and vicious only makes the heroes more heroic for facing up to them.
With all of these characters assembled, one might expect an articulately layered addition to the comic-book genre of film. All this is not to say that there isn't fun to be had from watching "Hellboy". However, too many good questions are raised and left unanswered. Hellboy himself asks to know the reason that Agent John screwed up enough to get demoted from regular FBI assignments, but is still trustworthy enough to be the personal valet to the country's best-kept paranormal secret? It is never answered. How did Rasputin know about the connection between Liz and Hellboy? What caused HB and the Professor to have a falling out? They are all wonderfully realized characters, and the cast really deserves applause for their work here. It's just the story that doesn't go the whole nine yards in the end.
It certainly never takes itself as seriously as "Daredevil" did (that one ultimately collapsed under the weight of its own seriousness), but it never really soars to the ensemble satisfaction of "X-Men". It only falls apart in the climactic final act when everyone is in Moscow trying to defeat Rasputin's plan. Suspension of disbelief is allowed, but when all the characters that have kept you interested are tossed aside for sheer spectacle, the audience starts to disconnect. It seems at times to be preoccupied with violence. For example, does a final slugfest with another monster really need to be there when HB has already faced down his own creepy inner demon? But before all that, it is a quirky character tale of individuals who could only come from the world of comic books where something as simple as a candy bar is reason enough to come to the good side.
6 out of 10