Hellboy, He Comes From Hell

Back in 2004 a movie known as Hellboy was brought forth from the bowels of umm…well, Hell. Anyways this action/adventure summer popcorn flick which was written and directed by Guillermo del Toro received generally positive reviews and had a semi-solid run in the box office despite its opening while The Passion of the Christ was still in theaters. When I was 14 this movie held no appeal to me. At the time I held no interest in the graphic novel medium and judged the movie based on the commercials to be mindless and boring. I’ve grown up, and things have happened to me since then, I’ve gotten a job, a life, facial hair, and most importantly a brain. I now know better than to fully disregard a movie before I personally see it (with a few exceptions such as Epic Movie, Wild Hogs, and Delta Farce). Since its theatrical release I’ve also discovered that del Toro is an imaginative genius. This is blatantly apparent in yesteryear’s Pan’s Labyrinth. Being not only thoroughly impressed but rather mind fucked by the visual presentation and touching story, I suddenly became interested in del Toro. Now it’s the good ol’ year of 2008, and receiving all the beautiful things that come with being in the latter half of puberty, I decided to sit down and watch Hellboy.

The Hellboy mythos is part Batman and part Spawn. This will probably be a put off for you much like it was for me because of the blatant unoriginality. Yet Hellboy succeeds in what it tries to do, have fun. It isn’t an engaging character study or deeply involving plot yet it sets the viewers up for a fun little ride of action and the occasional laugh. The story begins with an Allied raid on an occult Nazi ritual being held on a costal island of Scotland. The mission gets fucked and Hellboy is born. A government specialist on the paranormal takes Hellboy in and raises him as his own son. A background worthy of an eye-roll, yet it succeeds in explaining the impossibility of taming a demon from Hell. We’re then shot 60 years into the future. Hellboy hasn’t aged a day past 25 and now has a passion for pancakes, cigars, cats, and his woman Liz. Liz is a girl who Hellboy grew up with and has powers of her own. In the movie they’re not actually dating but both have an attraction for each other. This is where many of the laughs come in at. Hellboy’s reaction to Liz and the things she does are comical and many times reflect that of a 16 year old. Seeing a giant red demon acting like a 16 year old boy with a crush is a funny sight to behold.

The acting in Hellboy is far from Academy Award worthy. While Ron Pearlman does a decent enough job in the red skin of Hellboy I found Selma Blair’s performance as Liz to be enough to make me cringe in several scenes throughout the movie. I also thought that Ruper Evans did an equally crummy job. Whose character, John Myers who was added exclusively for the movie, is completely pointless and helps the plot development zero.

Directorially speaking Hellboy doesn’t shine like Pan’s Labyrinth does. While Hellboy has its moments there isn’t that level of polish and cinematic love. The fight scenes are fun enough; these are where some of Hellboy’s most iconic characterization comes out. Mike Mignolia the creator of the Hellboy comic has stated before that the original idea of Hellboy came from his father who used to nonchalantly tell him real to life horrific stories of accidents at work with no real excitement or the slightest bit of being disturbed. Hellboy reacts to the horrors of the occult in this exact manor. Cracking jokes much like Spiderman, but unlike Spiderman he doesn’t do it as a way of centering himself during intense situations, you get the feeling that he actually thinks he’s being funny.

All-in-all Hellboy is an okay movie. It has its moments, for good and bad, and while it is not the comic book holy grail I thought it would be after watching Pan’s Labyrinth, it was still a solid watch that I would recommend seeing at least once.