The most highly marketed movie of the year so far has got to be Hellboy. I don’t even think Return of the King> got this much air time, or a Best Buy free preview DVD for that matter. Hellboy is the latest comic book adaptation, based on Mike Mignola’s comic book series of the same name. This flick is a special effects extravaganza, filled with comic characters with character.
Hellboy is the spawn of the Nazi regime who attempt to use black magic to aid their dying cause, but their camp is soon raided by the allies and the young Hellboy is adopted by the allied army and as he grows up soon becomes their major force against all that is “weird” in the world.
His adopting father Professor Broom (John Hurt) then creates the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, or B.P.R.D. and trouble soon finds them as Rasputin, the one responsible for Hellboy’s existence, comes back to life in an attempt to use Hellboy for what he was born for, world destruction.
Aiding the relentless Rasputin is his primary minion Kroenen, a man that is neither dead or alive as his body rots and the sand from the ancient banks of the Nile river course through his veins. He is quite possibly one of the most intriguing and impressive bad guys of all time.
Fortunately for the B.P.R.D. Hellboy is not on his own either, starting with the little used Abe Sapien (voiced by David Hyde Pierce), the fire starter Liz Sherman (Blair) and newcomer to the group John Myers (Evans). While the group is impressive, it also points out one of the flaws of the film.
After building up the character Abe Sapien he is little used, and when it comes down to the gettin’ down he is inconspicuously absent. Sherman, however, does prove to be exciting as her hands glow blue flame. There is also the queasy love potential between her and Hellboy that plays into the plot, an angle most decidedly used to give Hellboy a more “human” side. However, everything about Hellboy is human except for the horns, tail and being a red demon and whatnot. The big bonus is the personality given to him by Perelman making him one of the more likable comic characters to come out of movies for a long time. Through the use of well-placed punch-lines he really does appeal to the audience. Where the problems arise for this film are not with the cast but with the storyline that doesn’t take advantage of all this story has to offer.
The fight scenes, while spectacular, all begin to seem the same as the majority of the time they involve the same characters and, more or less, the same results. A little bit of a switch was necessary, not to mention a battle with a baddie that would help lead us into a sequel showing the audience a glimpse of what type of creatures Hellboy has been battling all these years, before Rasputin was resurrected.
Another flaw was the double ending, which were both small in nature as opposed to one big ending to dazzle the eye.
Hellboy is a movie filled with special effects and excellent characters, enough to keep you entertained, but it is definitely lacking in story line, that could have propelled this movie to the Spider-Man status I think most audiences are looking forward to.
