one huge, dumb disappointment

Rating: Null/10 (6 April 2004)

I have to agree that Hellboy was one huge disappointment. I can't imagine the studio getting their money back with that film. How can a movie that's this dumb possibly recover its CGI bill alone? I don't mean to insult any longtime fans but this film lacked so very much. I honestly came in to this film as unbiased as a person can get. In fact, as a comic fan in general, I was pulling for this film to be great. I've never read Hellboy. So, I don't know if the lack of character development is a writing flaw or a fault of Hollywood adaptation.
I also agree that this movie seem to degenerate into a nonsensical monster/horror flick and that, sadly, seemed to be its goal. I, too, was frustrated by constant slaughter of the `good guys' as a way to build a story only to have the climax peter out in one thirty second swallow/explosion. The only real exposition in the whole film developed Hellboy's father. So, shouldn't his murder have been of use to this film? It served no purpose. If Flaming chick hadn't said the line `no one has even spoken to him for three days and he won't eat' we would've never even noticed that Hellboy's father had died. Hellboy didn't act any differently and the revenge factor never even happened. He threw a guy that won't stay dead in a pit of spearsÂ… so what. It's as if Del Torro realized that his budget was running out so he had to end the film as fast and as cheaply as possible. Although wild, this movie wasn't even fun enough to recommend to friends and that's a shame because I wanted to rave about this one.