Red alert

Rating: 7/10 (26 October 2004)

Hellboy joins the recent trend of popular comic book adaptations (X-Men, Spiderman) and unfortunately also the dire trend of movies that drown in computer engineered effects (like Underworld or Van Helsing). The good news is that it was directed and co-written by Guillermo Del Toro, who has a terrific sense of perspective. Hellboy doesn't take itself too serious and that's why it is a lot easier to digest than an overly pretentious film like Underworld, for example. I never read any of the Hellboy comics during my youth but that isn't a necessity in order to follow the film. Apparently, he's a demon awakened by the most stereotypical Nazi's you'll ever see and nursed by an American scientist (John Hurt). As a fully-grown demon, Hellboy serves the FBI as some sort of caretaker along with some other freaks of nature. There's an aqua-man that shows a lot of resemblance with the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Selma Blair who bursts into flames whenever she gets emotional. Blair's character seems to come right out of an X-Men comic. Hellboy features a few very cool gimmicks and  surprisingly enough  a couple of very atmospheric and eerie sequences like the one shot at the Russian cemetery when it's snowing. The plot is utterly thin but there's the outstanding performance by Ron Perlman as Hellboy to fill up the emptiness. Some of his one-liners are pathetically lame but his charisma and grimaces do the job. The big advantage about these comics-turned-into-films is that anything goes. Here you have Nazi's collaborating with Rasputin (?), Hellhounds in the subway and more of this cheerful crap. Hey, at least it was better than Daredevil.