Tuesday 06th 2004f April 2004
« « Starsky and Hutch| The Ladykillers » »Hellboy
I do read comic books (by which I mean Graphic Novels) occasionally, but I had never come across Hellboy before. I went to see it based on the trailer, which suggested that, while it wasn’t exactly clear what this was going to be, whatever it was, it was going to be very it. And I wasn’t disappointed.
Alright, so I was a little disappointed. The design was riveting, the plot far reaching. Hellboy is a great character, no doubt about it. And there were other great characters, too. The kindly professor Bruttenholm, played by John Hurt; the mysterious Abe Sapien, voiced by David Hyde Pierce; the wounded firestarter Liz Sherman, played by Selma Blair; and… that’s it.
This movie really falls down in its villains and supporting characters. OK, on the page the main villain is pretty impressive: it’s Rasputin, the mad monk himself. But I just wasn’t feeling it. He just wasn’t that interesting. Kroenen – “Hitler’s top assassin” – was pretty Goddamn scary in his first couple of scenes, but seemed to become less and less fascinating the more we got to know about him. And they were all dispatched so peremptorily when it got right down to it.
The other main character – Rupert Evans – is introduced to us as the one who will replace the ailing professor one day. We’re introduced to the world of Hellboy and his family through him, and in many ways he’s presented as the engine of change, but I just didn’t buy that either. He’s just not that interesting, and when it comes to the crunch he’s really little more than an innocent bystander.
All in all, while there is obviously a lot of very powerful imagination poured into this movie, its like a beautiful dragon with terrifying and ornate wings that doesn’t ever really get to fly. The big deaths that should have mattered didn’t seem to – the big choices seemed too preordained.
But it was still kind of fun. Definitely a lot to look at, and Ron Perlman is great.
