Hellboy (2004)


I have never read the Hellboy comics, but I guess creator Mike Mignola was happy with Guillermo del Toro's adaptation.  The two worked together, a rarity for this type of movie, and they both agreed that Ron Perlman should be the one playing the title character.  The studio demanded a ton of changes, but del Toro, coming off the success of Blade II, was able to stand firm and make the movie he wanted.  

Hellboy ends up on Earth when he comes through a portal opened by Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden) during World War II.  Rasputin, working toward his own end to bring a race of elder gods into our realm, is ostensibly working for the Nazis, romancing an officer named Ilsa Haupstein (Biddy Hodson) and employing Hitler's top assassin, Karl Ruprecht Kroenen (Ladislav Beran), a man whose heart has been replaced by a clockwork mechanism.  Hellboy is raised by Dr. Broom (John Hurt) and, as an adult, has been employed by a special division of the FBI to defend against monster attacks.

The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense also employs a sentient aquatic being known as Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) as well as a pyrokinetic named Liz (Selma Blair), who is Hellboy's romantic interest.  Into this group comes Agent John Myers (Rupert Evans), whose job is to look after Hellboy and make sure he behaves.  Unfortunately, that is hard to do when Isla resurrections Rasputin, who intends to use Hellboy to unlock a gate that will let the gods through. 

Ron Perlman wasn't the fan of the comics that del Toro was, but he read them and committed to the role.  The reason he was pretty much the only choice is that he looks the way the character was drawn.  He had worked with del Toro before on Cronos, and it turned out that for makeup purposes the models made for the Beauty and the Beast television show were still around.  Everything seemed to come together and, with del Toro's imagination, it managed to work.  It doesn't hurt that there is a fair amount of humor thrown in as well. 

Without del Toro and Perlman, though, this would have fallen as flat as any Marvel film.  Truth is I wasn't a big fan of it when I first saw it.  The practical effects are fine, although Perlman's costume is a bit too obviously just that, but the digital effects were ropey at the time and have aged terribly.  It's a good thing that Sammael (Brian Steele) was a combination of the two and makes an appealing monster, as do the elder things in the other dimension.  Too much of the rest looks half-finished. 

That can also be said about the attempt to make a love triangle between Agent Myers, Liz and Hellboy.  Selma Blair seems out of place, having chemistry with neither of the actors.  It feels like her character should be more important than it is, but that at some point del Toro didn't know exactly what to do with her and she just became a plot device to cause some additional tension between Hellboy and his new handler.  Agent Myers himself feels like an afterthought, pretty much their as an audience surrogate to introduce us to this universe.

Despite its flaws del Toro still managed to take an obscure comic book and make it his passion project.  He didn't do too bad of a job, although I will admit that the sequel was quite a bit better. 

Hellboy (2004)
Time: 122 minutes
Starring: Ron Perlman, Rupert Evans, John Hurt, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Karel Roden
Director: Guillermo del Toro



 

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