good but not in the way I expected

Rating: 8/10 (17 July 2008)

This would have been a great movie without Hellboy. This was a compelling story about Prince Nauda and Princess Naula, twin elves that hold the fate of the world in their hands. This whole story could have been easily reworked without ever bringing in Hellboy, and it would have been an instant modern fairy tale classic (kind of redundant).
In Hellboy the first installment, the bad guy (Rasputin, the mad monk) wants to destroy the world. He has no plans for what takes it's place; he merely wants to open the portal between the old gods and the new world, and allow the old gods free reign to destroy and destroy...himself included. It is easy to hate him, and root for Hellboy.
This bad guy, Prince Nauda, though, isn't a bad guy. This is shades of grey. And though Hellboy might have a beef with him, in different times and different places, Hellboy probably would have been his bodyguard (instead of Wink). Sooooo....
I did like this movie. The visuals, as always, were stunning. The story was nice (sadly, a bit predictable), and worth the ticket price. And gosh, who hates Ron Perlman? Nobody, that's who. I would go see it again, but I hear Dark Knight is way cool, too.