Hellboy

I expected more from this film, uh, flick. It had the strong support of its creator (Mike Mignola) and included some halfway decent character actors. Plus all the special effects you can buy. Maybe that's it -- it was all special effects and not enough story. As opposed to, for instance, Spider-Man and X-Men, which had plenty of story to keep you interested in the fight scenes. I believe the studios are finally getting around to realizing that not only boys ages 7-15 are going to see these films. Perhaps they thought that Hellboy, not being a household name, wouldn't gather a lot of attention from the regular masses. Then why even bother with a character who's wisecracking and sarcastic? In other words, I'm not sure the filmmakers had a particular audience in mind during the making of the film, and it shows in the lack of cohesion between story and special effects. Now, for all of you who don't know who Hellboy is, he was "discovered" in the 1930s, is bright red with horns, likes stogies and Baby Ruths, and works for a paranormal research government facility. Oh, and he's a comic book character, in case that wasn't obvious yet. Played by Ron Perlman (who is much more interesting in La Cité des Enfants Perdus). I'm not even going to comment on the love triangle. Okay, one comment: he's not supposed to be in love with Liz Sherman! She's a friend! Always was, and nothing more! Done now.

year: 2004
length: 132 min.
rating: 2.5
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167190/combined