Hellboy

There’s really no questioning Guillermo del Toro’s sense for visual storytelling. Pan’s Labyrinth was an amazing-looking motion picture that reached deep and told a vibrant, dark tale. His upcoming work on The Hobbit is sure to be more of the same, but it was 2004’s Hellboy that brought this Mexican director to the forefront in North America.

Based on Mike Mignola’s Hellboy series for Dark Horse Comics, Hellboy is a visual stunner that introduces us to a compelling world built on creativity and style. It is a bizarre picture, to be sure, but one that leaves an imprint of its charm after the credits roll. The plot is far-fetched (it is a comic book movie, after all) and a little convoluted at times, but the performers and effects give audiences who may not be familiar with the source material plenty to invest in.

Ron Perlman stars as Hellboy, a demon who fights for the United States government against a host of dark forces. The film sets up a story involving Nazis and Rasputin (Karel Roden). The Nazis are trying to use the undead Russian mystic to open a portal to another dimension, naturally, with hopes of unleashing the Ogdru Jahad to help destroy their enemies. Amazingly enough, Indiana Jones is nowhere to be found.

Unfortunately for the Nazis, Rasputin has other ideas and wants to destroy the world himself. Fair enough. Aided by a few Nazis, Rasputin ends up fighting with a small team from the U.S. Army. His aides, including Karl Ruprecht Kroenen (Ladislav Beran), manage to get away for the most part, but he’s absorbed by the portal in the ensuing battle. Of course, this also produces a young Hellboy, who emerges from the portal and into the custody of Professor Trevor Broom (John Hurt).

Fast-forward 60 years and Hellboy is an adult working as a member of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense or B.P.R.D. F.B.I. agent John Myers (Rupert Evans) is sent to check them out and runs into Hellboy and a few other characters with supernatural abilities. Meanwhile, not willing to leave well enough alone, Kroenen attempts the whole Rasputin thing again with a plan to unleash Sammael, a hellhound. It’s up to Hellboy and the rest of the B.P.R.D., including Selma Blair as pyrokinetic Liz Sherman, to stop Rasputin, Kroenen and whatever supernatural devilry it is they’ve dreamt up.

Hellboy does well at introducing the relatively complicated story quickly and the ball gets rolling relatively well with the few usual comic book movie snags along the way. Director del Toro tosses us into the action quickly enough, developing a scheme of things that works with the usual supernatural bells and whistles. He pulls off some nice stuff here, but the action really isn’t mind-blowing and it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.

Where Hellboy succeeds is with its characters. Perlman’s ability to deliver something almost human from Hellboy is interesting to watch, as his natural charisma and ability to enjoy himself transcends the pounds of make-up and CGI he is doubtlessly buried under. As a little bit of trivia, Perlman played Vincent opposite Linda Hamilton’s character in the TV series for Beauty and the Beast back in the late 80s.

Despite the somewhat dark subject matter, Hellboy remains pretty light-hearted fare. The action is never overly violent, the mood never sombre or overly serious, and the performers bring enough energy and charisma to their roles to avoid getting bogged down too much in indulgent philosophy. Put succinctly, del Toro’s Hellboy is generally harmless fun. It isn’t a perfect comic book movie, of course, and it isn’t even one of the five best, but it does an admirable job spinning a difficult story into something entertaining and absolutely watchable.

Trailer: