Hellboy

Following in the footsteps of others comics into movies, Hellboy delivers and action/special effect packed, two hours of entertainment. Hellboy (Ron Perlman) was released by the Nazi's with the help of Rasputin (Karel Roden) in WWII in an attempt to win the war. Fortunately, an American division stopped the Nazi just in time and Professor Trevor 'Broom' Bruttenholm (John Hurt) found Hellboy and raised him. The movie then skipps ahead to the near present, in which Hellboy is in his adolescence and he is a full fledged monsters fighter for the U.S. government. His team headed by the Professor included other "freaks" the fishman Abraham 'Abe' Sapien (Doug Jones) and the pyrokenetic Liz Sherman (Selma Blair). Hellboy also has human back up in agents Clay (Corey Johnson) and John Myers (Rupert Evans).

Rasputin was reborn in the present by Ilsa (Biddy Hodson) his immortal servant. He then proceded to unleash a demon called the hound of hell. Hellboy is called in to stop the demon. There is then a series action packed sequences, some development of the Hellboy character and his relationships with John and Liz and eventually its leads back to Rasputin. Rasputin sent his hired assasin Kronen (Ladislav Beran) to stir things up and try to get Hellboy to come to him. Hellboy falls into the trap and is almost tricked into unleashing the seven gods of hell on earth. In the end Hellboy must deal with Rasputin in his horrible new form, once and for all.

Overall I thought this was a pretty good movie. I haven't read the comics so I didn't know the backstory, so the inconsistancies with the comic didn't bother me and I could enjoy the movie. I've read that fans of the comic were dissapointed with the movie for that reason. I can understand where they are coming from, being a fan of X-Men and being dissapointed about that movie. I thought the action was pretty cool in the movie and I liked the special effects. The story is a very neat idea, but I think they could have done alot more with the plot. It would have been cool to see more demons, instead of just the dog demon over and over again. I was also kind of dissapointed with the seven hell gods they looked like squids to me and weren't very impressive. Hellboy, Abe and Kronen were all very cool characters though. I liked Hellboy's wit and cheesy punchlines. Kronen reminded me of a mix of a nazi Kabal from Mortal Kombat III and Barraka from Mortal Kombat II. Overall a pretty good action movie, nothing amazing about it, don't expect to be blown away. If you sit back, relax and enjoy it for what it is, it can be quite entertaining.

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Hellboy at IMDB
Official Site: Hellboy.com
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