Hellboy
A review by Dave Shelton

Being familiar with the comic book and having seen the trailers created major incentive in my wanting to see the screen version of this intriguing story of a spawn of evil being raised by a scientist for the benefit of good and mankind. Comic book character translation to film has proven quite successful over the years especially now with the improvement of special effects and CGI. And, after seeing Hellboy, I can feel comfortable placing it in the same league as X-Men and Spawn, except with a smaller A-List cast, which if cast well, doesn’t make a difference to me.

As I mentioned, I have been intrigued with the story from the time I learned of the comic book and, thankfully, the film kept the story accurate and the characters as sympathetic. For those unfamiliar with Hellboy, it revolves around a psycho who has played with the forces of evil to possess eternal life and take over all the earth but in so doing has pretty much turned himself into a walking stichery. When he uses a device to open the door to hell to gain its power and release the demon who will help him in his plan, a scientist (John Hurt) who oversees a secret government organization (sort of like Van Helsing meets the X-Files and X-Men), steps in to stop him and manages to rescue a demon baby who slips through the door and rears him like a son to do good for mankind (one way by filing his demon horns down to stubs). They name the baby Hellboy.

However, when Hellboy (Ron Perlman) grows up, the psycho reappears, determined to sway him to the bad side and use him to gather all the forces of evil, but by this time Hellboy is beyond reproach. The organization, which is also a haven for other mutants, has kept Hellboy hidden from the public except for rumors as scarce as Bigfoot sightings. When the psycho begins to let loose his array of creatures trying to get the scientist and Hellboy, he kills the scientist but only manages to enrage Hellboy. Involved in all this is the government suit (Jeffrey Tambor) who oversees the reason for the organization and wants to shut it down, an FBI agent (Rupert Evans) assigned to help find the psycho and a firestarter mutant (Selma Blair) who Hellboy has a romantic history with.

What I liked about this film, beyond the story of good over evil with a twist was the interaction of story with action. The fighting scenes were placed throughout the film in logical order and weren’t a constant barrage of overdone special effects. A lot of the success of the film was due to the great casting of Perlman as Hellboy, whom I believe is a diverse actor capable of more than he has subjected himself to in the past few years. Blair also shined (pardon the pun) as the woman Hellboy loves who sets his heart on fire as well as everything else. Hurt, as the scientist, played his role with natural intelligence which has permeated his long career. Tambor was the epitome of bureaucratic wind seeming at home with his “do without thinking” mentality and Evans, as the FBI agent with a soul and a bit of naitivity, carried his part well, though was the least persuasive and sympathetic. The bad guys were also cast well and the script and dialogue flowed well without embarrassment. There’s nothing worse than cringing over bad dialogue. I didn’t cringe once.

I recommend Hellboy to any fan of comic book films but more than that to anyone who likes a good over evil story with an unusual romance thrown in. And, for all those who think there is no one for them out there, you’ll also rethink that after you see this film.