A hell of a lot of fun

Rating: Null/10 (23 June 2004)

A thoroughly enjoyable fantasy adventure romp with a good deal of humour and fun amid the spectacle, and a decent if fairly uncomplicated plot.
The characters are terrific  well defined and developed, both heroes and villains. This is where the film's complexity comes in. I feel that those who've read the comics will get a lot more out of the titbits of back story we are offered, but this is not a criticism. To the uninitiated (me), it all comes over as very intriguing and colourful; a pleasing degree of subtext absent in too many movies these days (Van Helsing, anyone?). The script, then, is good, with much wit and surprisingly little of the OTT melodrama that characterises the genre  the eponymous Hellboy's amusingly down-to-earth attitude punctures a lot of that.
The actors almost all perform extremely well and the visuals are always interesting and often astounding; the effects are exemplary, but then that's expected these days. Some diverting scenes (a chat on the roof and a moment of temper; how to light a cigar) come as a pleasing surprise; you can tell it's not a mainstream Hollywood director.
The film's faults are to do with editing and pace. All too often in action movies, it's clear where cuts have been made (possibly late in the day)  presumably for overall timing reasons and in order to get onto the next big visual moment, but at the expense of much-needed exposition and pacing. **SPOILERS** Particularly jarring are the lack of an aftermath to the destruction of the mental hospital (hundreds must have died, but this wasn't even mentioned, never mind lamented) and the subsequent bringing back into the fold of Liz  one line about a taxi and this major plot point is suddenly dealt with. Similarly, at the end, Hellboy and Liz do the fire thing and burn up the monsters and their eggs, then suddenly she's 'dead' on an altar and our heroes are chained up.
Eh? When did the villains even confront them? Did all three just pass out or something? Once again, audiences are left short-changed and wondering if there might be an extended DVD release Grrr!
Quibbles aside, I really enjoyed this film and can recommend it to fans of sci-fi/fantasy action epics