Not dark enough, not adult enough

Rating: 7/10 (25 June 2009)

It really could have been so much richer. I have a feeling that del Toro, an amazing director in his own right, was creatively limited by working with Hollywood execs. (Hollywood has a solid record of importing great foreign directors and turning their work into pulp.)
There was a sense of internal struggle watching this flick; it lacked coherency and solidity.
That said, I did enjoy the phantasmagorical visuals and the Miyazaki-like themes of deep nature impinging on modern life. And the opening sequence of Hellboy-as-all-American boy being mentored by his father figure was deliciously subversive.
Not having read the original graphic novels, I only know Hellboy's character through Perlman's wonderful mug. He manages to play the brutish-yet-sensitive types with a subtle spark of intelligence. I also admired Blair's performance.