Hellboy
Originally written for The Milpitas Post
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Karel Roden, Rupert Evans, John Hurt, Doug Jones
Rated: PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and frightening images.
Parental Notes: There’s plenty of violence here, but it’s comic-book style and mostly harmless for the teen and mature preteen set.
“Hellboy” is one of those films that’s a blast if you love the characters but somewhat pointless if you don’t. The action scenes are great and the omnipresent and varied special effects are for the most part a visual delight, but the film’s focus is its rather sweet mench of a hero, Hellboy.
Back during World War II, Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden) helped the Nazis open a portal in an attempt to wake and summon the Seven Gods of Chaos. The American Army with the help of one Prof. Broom, paranormal advisor to President Roosevelt, foiled that attempt and sent Rasputin through the portal, but not before a small demon with an oversized left hand and a pair of horns got through. Broom won him over by feeding him a Baby Ruth candy bar and raised him to be a hero.
Now Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is one of a small group of paranormals working for the FBI’s secret Beauro for Paranormal Research and Development. He, along with Abe Sapien (Doug Jones, voice by David Hyde Pierce) and the now elderly Professor Broom (John Hurt) fight the things that go bump in the night. Newbie Agent Meyers (Rupert Evans) provides a great way to introduce everyone to the audience, not to mention giving a little tension to the relationship between Hellboy and pyrokinetic Liz (Selma Blair), formerly of the BPRD but now a resident of the outside world.
Everyone knows it’s hard to keep a good villain down, and Rasputin is no exception. His former cohorts, the immortal Nazi Ilsa (Biddy Hodson) and the mysterious Kroenen, summon him back to our world and they set about hunting down Hellboy. Battles and excitement ensue.
This is a standard sort of comic book movie, with big effects, a fairly predictable and lightweight plot, and really cool fight sequences. Although the climactic fight is a bit of a letdown after the rock-em-sock-em glory of the rest of the film and the various elements of the film don’t quite gel perfectly, it’s still a lot of fun. What makes this film work, what lets it skip lightly over the silly elements and engage its viewers is the charm of the characters.
Hellboy is an overgrown teenager at heart – he loves cats, eats mounds of food, and occasionally gets grounded by Professor Bloom (whom he calls “father”). Perlman is known for acting brilliantly through makeup, and he brings the prosthetics here to life. We don’t look at Hellboy and think, “wow, nice makeup,” we look at Hellboy and think, “poor guy, in love with a girl he can’t get,” or “yeah, he’s gonna get up and kick that monster’s butt!” Hellboy isn’t just a guy in a suit, he’s a character we can like.
Jones does an equally good job in the suit of Abe Sapien, although he doesn’t do the voice. Abe is a dreamy fish of a guy, and although he’s brilliant and often witty, he’s also quite graceful and otherworldly. Liz, whose normal looks are at odds with her amazing powers, is of course the only one not comfortable with who she is. Blair lets us see how easy it is for Liz to pretend she’s normal.
This isn’t a particularly deep film, but it’s a promising one. “X-Men” was a fun film too, and provided an excellent foundation for the delightful “X-Men 2.” With luck, “Hellboy” will provide a foundation for a superior sequel, giving comic book fans and those of us who just love big movies about things that go bump in the night something to look forward to.