Hellboy (2004)
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
In the final days of World War II, the Nazis attempt to use black magic to aid their dying cause. The Allies raid the camp where the ceremony is taking place, but not before they summon a baby demon who is rescued by Allied forces and dubbed "Hellboy". Sixty years later, Hellboy serves the cause of good rather than evil as an agent in the Bureau of Paranormal Research & Defense, along with Abe Sapien - a merman with psychic powers, and Liz Sherman - a woman with pyrokinesis, protecting America against dark forces.
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Compare to the X-Men movies, which are great fun, but also have an agenda--setting up Magneto and Professor Xavier as Malcolm X/Martin Luther King counterparts in the struggle for leading an oppressed race, or the anti-Patriot Act themes of the second film.
Hellboy's partner and housemate Abe Sapien, an amphibious genius played by Doug Jones and voiced by David Hyde Pierce, comments, "All us freaks have is each other," reminding us of the kinship Hellboy shares with X-Men .
Indeed, “Hellboy” is basically an occult version of “X-Men,” with John Hurt taking the Patrick Stewart role of a fatherly professor with an English accent.
Good superhero movies—from the first Batman (1989) to X-Men (2000)—are like superhero comics, in that they come from a distinct emotional place: that feeling of adolescent outsiderness that drives kids to live through … superhero comics.
Particularly in its treatment of the relationship between Hellboy and Liz, there are times when "Hellboy" resembles Bryan Singer's "X-Men," one of the few other recent comic-book adaptations that understood that comics aren't just about action, but also about mood and language and lyricism.
Never a matinee idol, the actor has done his time under prosthetics before -- he has suffered for our entertainment in TV's old "Beauty and the Beast" series, in "Star Trek" movies, and in "The Island of Dr. Moreau" -- but here, at last, he gets to play an expansive, witty lead, and he treats it like payday.
Underground, the scientist watches over his paranormal brood, including the grown Hellboy (Ron Perlman, in a kick-ass version of his Beauty and the Beast persona) and an agile fish person who can feel the past and future (the body of Doug Jones, matched by the voice of David Hyde Pierce).
For proof, witness his superlative work in TV's Beauty and the Beast or his magnificent 1981 screen debut, Quest for Fire.
Ron Perlman melted hearts as the lion-snouted protagonist in television's "Beauty and the Beast,'' causing a revolt among the show's multiple-cat-owning romance fans after it was canceled.
Perlman is no stranger to performing while encased in identity-obscuring makeup -- he was a multiple Emmy nominee for his work in the 1980s TV series "Beauty and the Beast."
He also demonstrates his ability to present a range of emotions, as this character is far cry from the rage-filled but docile and loving Beast in the TV series Beauty and the Beast.
Back in 1989 when “Batman” hit it big, we were cursed with such crap as “Captain America,” “The Punisher” and “The Flash” television show.
Good superhero movies—from the first Batman (1989) to X-Men (2000)—are like superhero comics, in that they come from a distinct emotional place: that feeling of adolescent outsiderness that drives kids to live through … superhero comics.
Like Tim Burton (whose "Batman" remains one of the finest comic-book adaptations of all time) before him, del Toro understands that the look of a comic-book movie can go a long way in setting its tone.
Its secretive, outcast heroes appear to be modeled upon the X-Men with a touch of the Fantastic Four thrown in for good measure, and the movie's Nazi-occult inspired storyline nudges into Raiders of the Lost Ark territory.
Complications abound, but finally it’s clear that Rasputin and company are trying to lure Hellboy back into their camp; he is the key — literally — to their apocalyptic scheme.There’s certainly a lot of recycling in “Hellboy,” a bravura mixture of elements from “Alien,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “The Empire Strikes Back,” and many more action classics.
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Make no mistake: Hellboy still has a hide as hard-boiled as Lee Marvin in “The Dirty Dozen,” but now he’s also wearing a smile.
The irony should not be lost on the fact that David Fincher's Mank, a dramatized feature about the writing of one of Orson Welles's greatest films, Citizen Kane (1941), is being released by the streaming giant Netflix.
Back in 1989 when “Batman” hit it big, we were cursed with such crap as “Captain America,” “The Punisher” and “The Flash” television show.
Back in 1989 when “Batman” hit it big, we were cursed with such crap as “Captain America,” “The Punisher” and “The Flash” television show.
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Films like “X-men” and “Spider-Man” have done well capturing the look and feel of comic book characters and story, while “Hulk” took after “Creepshow” by actually showing the page borders.
It’s a bit darker than, say, “Spider-Man,” and it somehow manages not to seem as inherently silly as it really is.
Like its hero, "Hellboy" is flip, muscular, and at times, touchingly unsure of itself, and if the movie loses in humor and gains in solemn occult gobbledygook over the long haul, it has more than enough panache to put it up there with the two "X-Men" movies, the first hour of "Spider-Man," and within shouting distance of the original "Matrix."
WRITER-DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro’s “Hellboy” is surprisingly enjoyable, as adaptations of cult comic books go, thanks to a sense of humor all too rare in the genre, winning performances by Ron Perlman and Selma Blair, and a sweet romance of the kind that made “Spider-Man” a richer experience than its competitors.
A good superhero needs a good villain; Batman had the Joker, Spider-man had the Green Goblin, Daredevil had Bullseye.
A romance between the gargoyle and the beauty finds its centerpiece in a scene that reminds of both the blue collar pigeon house epiphanies of On the Waterfront and Perlman's own television show "Beauty and the Beast"; a climactic kiss swathed in blue fire is romantic in the way that only something fresh can be.