Year:
2004
Studio:
Columbia Pictures/Revolution Studios
Feature:
3/5
Feature
In 1943 (or maybe 1944), President Roosevelt created the Bureau of
Paranormal Research and Defense to combat Hitler's obsession with the
occult and the powers the Fuhrer gained from various occult artifacts
and rituals. Trevor Broom (John Hurt) was a young man then, and his
mission was to stop the Germans from their dastardly plan somewhere in
a remote island off of Scotland.
Broom and his attached GI platoon stopped Grigori Rasputin (Karel
Roden) [yes, *that* Rasputin and still not dead], the clockwork-man
Kroenen (Ladislav Beran) , and Rasputin's lover and disciple Ilsa
(Bridget Hodson). Rasputin was presumed dead and the other two escaped.
Their plan was to open a portal and let these Cthulhu-like gods into
our world. They failed but something did come through the portal -- a
small demon boy that the GIs named Hellboy.
Skip 60 years to today. FBI Agent John Myers (Rupert Evans) has been
assigned straight out of the academy to the BPRD, America's first line
of defense against the paranormal. John meets the grown-up Hellboy (Ron
Perlman), the psychich fish-man Abraham Sapien (Doug Jones, though most
if not all CGI), and the pyrokinetic Liz Sherman (Selma Blair).
Together they have to fight the return of Grigori Rasputin and his
renewed quest to bring in the Great Old Ones to Earth.
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Hellboy is based on Mike Mignola's
comic book. The Hellboy universe is one of the mystical and occult,
abounding with conspiracy theories and humor. It's a popular universe,
as evidenced by the creation of a major motion picture. I've read some
Hellboy and it's ok but not great. Maybe I haven't read the good stuff
yet so I'll keep reading.
As far as I can tell, the movie is a fairly good adaptation of the
Hellboy universe. It has the supernatural, it has humor, it has quirky
characters. The special effects are pretty good and I liked that
Hellboy is rarely CGIed -- most of the fights seem to be real fights
with stuntmen. Compare that to the Spider-man
2 trailer I saw just before the movie where Spidey is obviously
CGIed in some scenes and just borderline cartooney.
Ron Perlman as Hellboy is quite good. There's only so much acting you
can do in a big costume but the Hellboy costume has good detail and
articulation. But my favorite character was the villain Kroenen. He's a
man who has replaced most of his body with artificial parts. Not so
much cybernetic as steampunkish in that the parts the moving parts are
gears and clockworks. It was cool watching him move.
I thought this was a fun movie. Fairly straightforward plot, lots of
action scenes, interesting characters (both good guys and bad guys),
good dialogue and funny moments. The three other people I went with
weren't all that impressed with the movie. But I have some familiarity
and think the movie does a good job both being a good adaptation and
being entertaining.
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