<< Front page Arts April 23, 2004

Hellboy brings big screen magic to obscure comic
Comics’ best kept secret makes the transition to film

It’s no secret that ever since Spider-Man made it big at the the box office movie studios have been rushing to get even the most obscure comic properties into the movie business. Yes, we’ve seen such big names as The Hulk and X-Men come to the screen, but more obscure properties like Blade and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen also get their chance on film. Some of these films do their original properties proud (Spider-Man, X-Men), others turn out to be huge disappointments (Hulk, LXG) and others are so bad they become inadvertently hilarious (Daredevil, The Punisher). But what hasn’t been seen yet is a fairly obscure comic property adapted to film that not only possesses the spirit of the source material, but also works on the big screen. Haven’t seen, that is, until now.

Hellboy is the collaboration between one of comic’s best-kept secrets, based off the series of the same name by artist and writer Mike Mignola and one of filmmaking’s best secrets, writer and director Guillermo Del Toro (The Devil’s Backbone, Blade II, no relation to Benicio). Although Del Toro wrote the script for the film, he had Mignola aboard as a consultant throughout the entire filmmaking process. Del Toro fought tooth and nail to have fairly obscure actor Ron Perlman play Hellboy (although you’ve probably seen him in a movie or TV show and just not known it) because both Del Toro and Mignola thought that he was the only one who could play the role to perfection (they were right). Del Toro has worked hard to remain faithful to the comics but also create a film that feels fresh, a film he can truly claim as his own. With Hellboy, his work has paid off in spades.

The film starts out near the end of the Second World War. In one of the last-ditch attempts of the Third Reich, the Nazis try to use the power of the occult with the help of the sorcerer Rasputin (it’s not as corny as it sounds) to summon a demon which will give them the power to rule the world. But thanks to a small band of U.S. soldiers informed of this supernatural plan, the ceremony fails and the summoning stops before any serious damage can be done.

However, the rift is open long enough to let something through — a little red demon baby with a huge stone fist. Along on the mission is the wise and compassionate Professor “Broom” Bruttenholm who works for the newly founded B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense). With the power of a couple Baby Ruth candy bars, Broom befriends the little red demon who becomes called — you guessed it — Hellboy. Flash forward about 50 years and it turns out that you just can’t keep a good evil sorcerer down. Rasputin is resurrected and decides to finish what he started.

What makes Hellboy a special film is its characters and the amount of effort it takes to make them appear real despite their odd appearances and powers. Perlman steals just about every scene. He knows exactly what makes the character work; while Hellboy may be a big red demon who fights monsters, he has the attitude of a working stiff and after a long day of fighting resurrection demons he’s perfectly content to go back to HQ and kick back with a beer and watch some TV. At the same time, he deeply cares for the emotionally scarred Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), a girl who’s had trouble all her life controlling her power of pyrokinesis. She’s torn between wanting to use her power to help people like Hellboy and wanting to try to live a normal life.

Del Toro’s made a $60 million film look like it cost twice that much and the set pieces in this film will really blow your hair back. Del Toro understands that if you’re going to have a larger-than-life fight in your film, the audience better be able to feel the blows. There’s a great melding of special effects, fight choreography and, at the core, the look on Hellboy’s face that reads “let me just kill you so I can go home.”

While some may groan and just roll their eyes at the prospect of another superhero film, at the very least it’s an incredibly fun popcorn movie that knows how to entertain. But more than that, it’s a film that knows to put character and story before all else and in doing so easily becomes one of the better films so far this year.


 
 
   

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