Hellboy
Let me preface this review by stating two things:
1) I am a *HUGE* fan of Hellboy
2) I already liked this film before I saw it
What I'm trying to say is I'm biased, and thus this is a biased review. Whether it's biased in a positive (ie. "I love Hellboy and nothing can be wrong with a Hellboy movie") or biased in a negative (ie. "They got it all wrong") well, that's hard to say. I'm trying to be destroy all my prejudices here and objectively review the film, but the fan in me is torn. So very, very torn.
Hellboy is a film based on a comic book of the same title, a very stylized comic created, written and drawn by Mike Mignola. Guillermo Del Toro, the film's director, is a huge self-admitted comic book geek, and after a dinner conversation with Mignola, so the story goes, Del Toro acquired the film rights to a Hellboy movie. In the same breath, the two also decided that Ron Perlman was the man they wanted to paint red.
Mignola, as creator, was involved in nearly every step of the film's process, Del Toro allowing him complete unrestricted access and providing him with executive producer status. As well, Mignola was tasked with a lot of design issues, which, when you put it all together, one should wind up with a movie completely true to the original source.
And yet it's not. But as much as I'd like to complain about the fact that there are inconsistencies between the comic and the film, that kind of nitpicking is better reserved for a private forum of comic geeks.
The film's visual esthetic remains true to the comic, continually basked in Mignola-esque shadows and flat, occassionally monochromatic accent colours. The set pieces, costuming, and pretty much anything and everything visual is either stunning or cool. This film looks damn, damn good from the first frame to the last.
The story isn't really crystal, it's clouded and often conventional. We are introduced to Professor Broom in 1944 as he leads an American military squad onto a dark and rainy island. Here Nazi scientists, working with Rasputin and Hitler's #1 assassin, Kroenen, are attemting to bring dark and demonic forces to Earth with the intent that from the ashes of destruction, the Nazi regime will reign. As it becomes apparent they are about to succeed, the Americans attack, battle ensues, and when the dust clears they discover something indeed has come through. It's a small, red, ape-like creature with a stone hand and two small horns on his head.
60 years later the myth of the "hellboy" has grown, as has the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence (a "secret" division of the FBI). When Rasputin is resurrected, bringing the demon of resurrection, Sammael (when it is destroyed, from its remains will rise two), with him. Hellboy, fish-man Abe Sapien, and new recruit John Myers (as well as a bunch of your expected "red shirt" disposable agents) hunt down Sammael through the sewer (Sammael who becomes many Sammael over the course of the film).
Eventually Rasputin, and his clockwork agent Kroenen, reveal themselves and lure Hellboy and crew to Russia where another portal between the demon realm and the natural world resides. Hellboy, it turns out, posesses the right hand of doom, the big stone hand he pummels bad guys with is the key to opening the gate. As such, he is supposed to be the king of a cindered Earth... but of course, Big Red has his own plans and free will and he will do what he damn well pleases, thank you very much.
The story, as you can see, contains the time treaded convention of the "chosen one syndrome". But what holds it up is the characters, the many, many, many characters (perhaps a little too many... I think this should have been a BPRD film and not a Hellboy film). Our lead character in the ensemble is Hellboy (perfectly portrayed by Ron Perlman under a pile of prosthetics, paint and make-up), a multi-dimentional (pun intended) character whose multi-dimentions aren't explored nearly enough. He's well over 60 years old but he's still got the temperment of a teenager, which speaks to his slow physical and mental development. He's a trash talker (but to keep the ratings board happy, he keeps it clean) with his opponents as well as with his friends. He's a love-struck puppy pining over Liz Sherman, a cat lover, and an totally self-conscious (like a teen embarassed by massive acne, he grinds down his horns to little stumps so that he can fit in better). His deepest desire is to be a part of the outside world without being stared at. His soft side juxtaposes nicely with his rough and tumble, never-say-die attitude. His lust for pain knows no bounds. He craves fire (hence the cigars) which explains much of his attraction to Liz, a pyrokinetic. The rest of his attraction can probably be explained by his need to protect her. Her attraction to him is he doesn't fear her. She as much wants him to protect her, if only to tell her everything will be okay. Traumatized by an explosive (literally) outburst in her youth, she is psychologically scarred, and has trouble resolving not only her feelings about H.B. (as she calls him) but resolving any feelings at all. If she keeps a cold heart, perhaps she won't set things on fire again.
Abe Sapien (performed by Doug Jones and voiced by David Hyde-Peirce) is the opposite of Hellboy. He wants nothing to do with the outside world, preferring instead to interact with the world through books, reading 12 novels at once, perched upon stands outside his aquachamber. Abe is sensitive to the environments, to lingering emotions, and has some psychic sensibilities, he's not a fighter, and conflict is often too much for him. As witnessed in an underwater encounter with a pair of Sammael, Abe may not be brave, but he's also definitely not stupid.
Professor Bloom (John Hurt) plays the mentor/father/seen-it-all-before figure, while John Myers (Rupert Evans) is the wide-eyed newcomer/never-seen-that-before archetype. Jeffrey Tambor plays Dr. Manning, the obligatory internal FBI opposition to the BPRD (and Tambor in those kinds of roles is always such a delight). For the bad guys, the silent but deadly (no jokes please) Kroenin (Ladislav Beran) is an intriguing villain much in the vein of Darth Maul or Michael Meyers. He shows up, looks cool, kills people, and when the time comes, dies appropriately. Rasputin, as the main villain, is an intangible. There's never really clarification as to what his deal is exactly, except perhaps that he's inhabited by a demon creature of some sort which allows him some peculiar abilities.
Corey Johnson as Hellboy's BPRD buddy Agent Clay and Bridget Hodson as Rasputin's immortal aide and lover Ilsa are totally extraneous characters and serve merely as distraction or scene-fill.
The interaction between characters and actors is peak, everyone seems extremely comfortable in their surroundings, and nobody seems to even register a twinge of a snicker having to act opposite a big red demon or a lanky blue fish-man. The odd special effect is choppy and obvious, but for the most part Del Toro has combined the mix of prosthetics, rubber suits, visual trickery and digital effect quite nicely, opting for more often for the tangible rather than the blue screen.
Overall, my personal hype factor wouldn't allow much room for the film to exceed my expectations, and in fact I think it fell a little short of them. It's a bright film, but not the brilliant one I had hoped it would be. It kept me entertained thoroughly for two hours, though, so it is solid, like HB's right hand of doom.