most of these comments seem far off the mark to me...

Rating: 8/10 (11 April 2004)

I'm seeing far too much use of the words "corny" and "cheesy" to suit me here. There was VERY little cheese in this flick as I understand the word (and I am a devotee of MST3K, so I think I know cinema du fromage when I see it). OK, so maybe we've seen enough movies with Nazis as occultist villains: still, Mignola wrote it that way, and I am happy to see a movie follow its source material so closely (points for including a Spear of Destiny that looked just like the bloody real thing!). I have seldom seen Lovecraftian monsters done so effectively--only LOTR's Watcher in the Water comes close. (And as a lifelong Creature from the Black Lagoon fan, I was personally delighted to see old Blacky updated as a bookish recluse with a Threepio accent.) I thought Perlman's world-weary, stoic workingman attitude was *far* from the melodramatic, "tortured lone hero" pose that some are accusing him of--he's just a hardworking guy who's unlucky in love and tired of watching TV alone with his kittycats. (Nowhere near the stock, pasted-on torment of a cardboard character like Blade, IMHO.) I suppose one *could* say that having him fight off monsters with one hand while saving a box of kittens with the other was corny, but (a) we already knew he loves cats, and (b) it was sweet, darn it! C'mon! Show me where it says big red bruisers can't do the sweet thing sometimes. =) I'll even admit that the last five minutes had me scratching my head--I get really tired of the "Vast Enormous Evil Universe-Destroying Ritual Foiled At The Last Instant" plot--but, well...
Overall I just loved this movie. It is so good-natured and well-intended (all Hellboy's important motivations spring from love for someone), its humor is so gentle, and it just doesn't have that cold hard internal edge that I am so weary of in big SFX action movies (Blade, Blade II, Underworld, ad nauseam..) . Like its hero, it's a big powerhouse with a soft heart.