HellBoy Review. (Spoilerish, of course)

[Bucket]

Just saw it yesterday. A breakdown, if you will.

Story: 6/10
A better-than-average superhero story, with some believable situations in it(at least in reference to the far-fetched storyline). The overall mood of the movie is kind of like Spawn Lite, with vague occult references being the backdrop for a dark comedy. Although the theme of "man vs. his destiny" is one of the oldest, it's one of the easiest to screw up; that gives this movie a few extra overall points for competence in that area. The characters also seem to hop from location to location, without any real support from the backstory to necessitate these huge leaps in the plot. Also, there's a slight problem at one point in the movie where we're faced with the main villain's "Plan B" which magically appears(also with no explanation)The backstory is minimal, and loose at best-- but the movie very obviously leans toward "human" interaction rather than epic storytelling. In my book, you can make a movie that has absolutely no plot if it manages to succeed at whatever it is it's trying to succeed at.

Characters: 7/10
Obviously, the characters already have a sort of age to them, as this isn't fresh material. But putting aside the main character(s), we're faced with others who simply have to react to what's going on around them. The green FBI agent is a simple case in this regard: his seems to have inherent flaws which come and go as they please; if he weren't so integral to the dialogue, you'd think he was thrown in during post-production. In contrast, you have the main character: HellBoy-- who deals with the supernatural on a day-to-day basis-- doesn't really seem phased by things that would blow the mind of any human being who'd share his personality, and the script handles that well. Like I said in the previous paragraph: interaction is the focus of this movie, so this becomes an important area.

Enemies: 9/10
With a superhero movie, the villains are just as important as any other aspect of the movie. With that in mind, let me just say that Nazi Ninjas=teh roXor. The enemies in this movie are sufficiently twisted for the story that houses them, yet their "importance" seems to fluxuate unpredictably. The end battle defines the word "anticlimax", which takes you out of the movie and back into reality with the thought, "Is this some sort of joke by the writers? Am I supposed to be smirking? Is HellBoy just THAT badass?" The villains do an excellent job here, but I just wish I could've had the feeling of "graduating" to a higher challenge.

Graphics: 8/10
It's hard at my age to deny how much CGI has advanced over the past decade, so you really have to nitpick nowadays in order to be objective. That said, the FX in this movie are well above par-- although designers still seem to have problems with "Rubber Skeleton Syndrome" where the CGI replacements for the actors are WAY too fluid compared to the rigid, jerky muscle movements of the RL actors(possibly caused by their costumes). Spiderman was one of the first movies to suffer from this syndrome-- but let's hope there's a cure sometime soon.

Overall: 7/10
Which translates to "I'd go see it again if someone else wanted to, and I'd most likely buy it on DVD if I were at the store with money to spare".

[Sharessa]

Whee, I'm probably going to see this later today.

[Sephiroth]

action wise it looks good

however the red rubber skin hellboy looks a bit odd, also seems to resemble final fantasy's ifrit in some ways.

either way if i am bored i may check it out. hell i didnt even see the third matrix movie, form what others tell me i didnt miss much

[Coopersville]

"Could've been better"

It was a above-average action comic movie, but I didn't like the ending. It lacked climax.

[Quast]

IMO these superhero/comic book movies are dumb.

[Chopkinsca]

Quast said:

IMO these superhero/comic book movies are dumb.

Aye. I couldn't stand watching Spiderman for more than half an hour. It was too much like so many other movies that are you there.

[Remilia Scarlet]

I'd have to agree with Quast. Superhero movies aren't my favorite as they seem too comic-geared, and outside of manga I'm not a comic fan. So I probably won't go see it unless someone asks me to it.

[DaJuice]

The best thing about this movie is the nazi ninja, aka Kroenen (think Darth Maul, but more fucked up and cooler looking). I got a kick out of him. Well, Abe Sapien was pretty neat, but the rest of the affair was only ok. Generic good vs evil formula, a mentor, a love interest, you've seen it a million times. The effects were very very good for the most part, only a few of the shots looked obviously cg.

[Arioch]

The ending was very quake1.

[DaJuice]

Oh yeah, lol. You're right about that.

[Sharessa]

Whee, this movie roxx0red.

Lovecraft + Christian mythology + Nazis + secret paranormal organization + oddball occult lore + comic book mayhem = win. It was kind of like a mix between Wolfenstein and Quake...kinda. Hell, they even had the Spear of Destiny in there at one point. :P

Anyway, I thought the character of Hellboy was pretty neat, and the storyline was quite interesting, albiet a little rushed and underexplained. It almost makes me sorry that I never read the comic. Its a movie I wouldn't mind seeing again, and something that could do well in sequels.

Arioch said:

The ending was very quake1.

Haha, yeah.

Personaly, I didn't find the ending to be all that anticlimactic. I mean, he got all the main conflicts resolved, and they just had to show that he was back to his good old good-guy ass-kicking self again. Plus, the last battle was pretty short (maybe 5 minutes or so), so it didn't really drag the end out too long like, say, Return of the King kind of seemed to do.

[Arioch]

That's one thing I hate about certain movies is ... no aftermath.

Let's take another example from last year: Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a good movie, and if they, say, closed it right on Leonardo DiCaprio looking into Kate Winslet's eyes after Errol Flynn killed the bad guy with the surprise pistol shot, then it wouldn't have been as satisfying.

Similarly with Return of the King. If they closed out the movie with Frodo and Sam in each other's arms during the eruption of Mount Doom after the ring's been disposed of, then the culmination of 10 fucking hours of movie over all of LOTR just wouldn't have been ... there.

Now, with Hellboy, there are certain unexplained threads to tie up, such as what happened to Sammael's spawn in the New York subway system, where did the FBI head guy go in the end after he and Hellboy had their intimate moment together, etc. That could've been shown, but instead we're left to wonder, and that denoument is simply required for this kind of popcorn flick.

[Arioch]

Disclaimer: I voted "pretty cool" despite my complaint.

[Hyena]

I voted pretty cool. Not the best I've seen, but I'm not as nit-picky as most critic bastards. Some nice one-liners, fairly good action, likeable characters.

Okay, I'll agree, some plot elements bothered me in how they were unexplained and simplistic, but all in all it wasn't so bad.
As long as they're not major elements of the story, sometimes I like it when things are left to your imagination.

The opening scene where the portal is opened is cool, but I would have left out the part where Hellboy is actually introduced. I think it would create a little bit of mystique if you didn't know what Hellboy actually was or where he came from (until the end, of course).

One thing that really needs to be explained, however, is how Rasputin is able to appear right in the middle of Professor Glasses Von Scientist's lair (I don't remember his name. He was Hellboy's "Dad"). I'm sure it has something to do with the assassin guy who "faked" death to infiltrate the lair. Rasputin must have some sort of supernatural link to his pet ninja, but it never suggests what it is.

[Sharessa]

Arioch said:

where did the FBI head guy go in the end after he and Hellboy had their intimate moment together

Heh, obviously you didn't watch the credits.

[Arioch]

Danarchy said:

Heh, obviously you didn't watch the credits.

Yeah, that's one thing I almost never do, which resulted in me missing out on the very very end of the Pirates of the Caribbean credits, with the Jack the monkey sequence, until I heard about it from the director's commentary on the DVD.

[Sharessa]

Wha? There was more at the end of Pirates? Well fiddlemaddlemuck, ain't that a peach? Oh well, I'm guessing I didn't miss much.

[Arioch]

Danarchy said:

Wha? There was more at the end of Pirates? Well fiddlemaddlemuck, ain't that a peach? Oh well, I'm guessing I didn't miss much.

Well, the monkey makes it ashore (it dropped into the ocean during the re-capture of the Black Pearl, remember), obviously relieved of the curse... then it reaches back into the chest and picks up another coin.

[DaJuice]

Maybe it's just me, but I think Pirates could have been a much better movie without Orlando Bloom. Johnny Depp should have got the girl at the end cuz Bloom is just a whimpy ass sissy boy. Of course they'd have to alter the plot a good bit, but it's not like they had a great story to begin with.

[Psyonisis]

It was better than I expected. However, I think that the producers assumed the audience would have proficient background knowledge. I have never even heard of the comic until the trailers for this came out, and I saw the movie not knowing what to expect. Although very entertaining, there were quite a few parts that left me confused...

[Sharessa]

I think it was the fact that they left a lot of stuff open to interpretation, and you had to read behind the lines a bit. I figured everything out all right, but it wasn't actualy explained in the movie, so perhaps I'm wrong.

[Hellbent]

Quast said:

IMO these superhero/comic book movies are dumb.

thank you. :(

[Cyb]

I liked it. Good action, good acting, good special effects, good stuff. As far as comic book movies go it's one of the best.

Re: unexplained stuff, I heard they're going to release an extended dvd in the same vein as the lotr trilogy where scenes explaining small plot points that you can just shrug off (for example the cloaks in lotr are never explained in the theatrical version). I just assumed Rasputin is magical (I mean he did come back from the dead twice) so he can teleport himself places, but who knows?

But now I'm pissed that they had movie during the credits, because I didn't stay long enough... anyone who saw them mind telling me what happened?