Today’s quick review: Hellboy. When a Nazi plot to unleash Hell on Earth is foiled, something is left behind: a demon known as Hellboy (Ron Perlman). The child grows into a man under the guidance of his adoptive father, Professor Broom of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (John Hurt), and spends his days hunting down monsters for the U.S. government. Together with Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), a telepathic fishman; Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), a pyrokinetic with control issues; John Myers (Rupert Evans), a rookie B.P.R.D. agent; and Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor), the B.P.R.D.’s antagonistic director, Hellboy investigates an unkillable beast that leads him to Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden), architect of the Nazis’ plot decades ago.
Hellboy is an action horror film directed by Guillermo Del Toro and based on the Dark Horse comics by Mike Mignola. Hellboy fits nicely into the genre of urban fantasy/action horror characterized by Underworld or Van Helsing: an action protagonist dropped into a world of monsters, magic, and heavy ordnance. Hellboy the character is a cigar-chomping, revolver-toting, trenchcoat-wearing demon who fights monsters using specialty ammunition and the enormous stone hand he was born with. The combat in Hellboy is a matter of endurance. Most problems can be solved with sufficient application of violence, but the monsters are nearly as difficult to kill as Hellboy, even when using large ammunition and any nearby hazards.
The emotional crux of the movie is that Hellboy was born a demon but raised as a man. His appearance—red skin, tail, filed-off horns, stone arm—renders him unable to lead a normal life, but under the guidance of his father, he fights to protect the human world anyway. His emotional immaturity also keeps him from a successful relationship with Liz, who suffers from uncontrollable pyrokinetic fits and has her own issues to work through. These themes lend the movie a darker tone to complement the monster-fighting combat. The result is a dark world that is brightened by the heroes’ willingness and capacity to do good, usually through good, old-fashioned action.
Watch Hellboy if you’re in the mood to see Ron Perlman in red makeup and a trenchcoat pummeling monsters to death with a giant stone arm. The setting and characters are fully realized, at least by genre standards. The plot serves its purpose, the magic is interesting, and the action is fun to watch. Hellboy is not a spectacular movie, but it is a solid one, with an enjoyable protagonist and a good mix of practical and CGI effects. Those who find the concept of a demon in a trenchcoat absurd should steer clear of Hellboy. Those who dislike horror should use their best judgment: the monsters are freakish and there are moments of brooding anticipation, but the tone is oriented towards action rather than fear.
6.8 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it 7.5 for a fully realized world, plenty of action, and a great protagonist; for quality alone it is closer to a 7.0, but likability gives it the bump.