Hellboy 2004 Film Review

When people think of comic book movies they nine times out of ten think of something that's from either Marvel or DC which is understandable as they are two of the biggest comic book publishers really in the world. However there is a whole other world of smaller known comic book publishers that have all had movies based in there characters made and yet because there not a Marvel or DC film not alot of people know about them and well I want to talk about one such film as the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today is perhaps the most successful of these types of films as this film has spawned technically three sequels with one being live action and the other two being animated with there even being two reboot films one as recently as a few years ago and so then join me as I review the film that is by far the best live Hellboy film with the film in question being called simply just "Hellboy" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when his adoptive father is killed it's up to Hellboy and the members of the Bureau Of Paranormal Research And Defense to track down the killer and stop them from taking over the world for good. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty OK at best. This films plot is one that could be described as being nothing more then OK and given the fact that this film came out at a time where comic book movies were seen as being nothing more the box office poison the fact that this films plot is as OK as it is is still a good good thing as this film was made by a genuine fan of the Hellboy comics in Guillermo Del Toro and yet this films plot still does feel like it could have been alot more better and had it been made today there is a good chance that it would have been alot more better. While this films plot is a pretty standard for the time comic book plot with there even being a sky beam at the end of the film what makes this films plot work as well as it does is the fact that the film does take the time to noy only let you breathe in this world with the world itself coming across as being another character in the film but it also lets you get to know it's characters on top of that but at the same time tho this films plot is admittedly a bit on the weak side when it should have been alot more stronger of a plot as this films plot does feel like the plot to a pilot episode of a Hellboy TV series then it does a Hellboy movie with this films plot also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Ron Perlman as Hellboy , Selma Blair as Liz Sherman , Jeffrey Tambor as Tom Manning. Also starring in this film is Karel Roden as Grigori Rasputin , Rupert Evans as John Myers , Brian Steele as Sammael , Doug Jones as Abe Sapien , David Hyde Pierce as the voice of Abe Sapien , Sir John Hurt as Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm , Kevin Trainor as Young Trevor Bruttenholm , Ladislav Beran as Karl Ruprecht Kroenen , Bridget Hodson as Ilsa Haupstein , William Hoyland as Klaus Werner Von Krupt and Corey Johnson as Agent Clay.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With this films acting alot more better then what it really had any right to be as by all rights this films acting should have been really bad just due to the fact that you didn't really get good acting in comic book movies back then unlike today and yet that's exactly what we got in this film with all of this films actors giving us some truly wonderful performance and heck even today no one has really topped what Ron Pearlman did with the character as he is just that good as the character. With the best actor in the whole entire being Ron Pearlman himself as while all of the films other actors are playing a character he's the only one that feels like he is the character and with him having to act under pounds of heavy make up and a rubber suit something which would have been hard for any actor to do its thanks to not only his skills as as a actor but Guillermo Del Toros skills as both a writer and a director as he does have to somehow get a good performance out of him and that is something that he does do with utter ease and while his skills as a writer aren't that great his skills as director are out of this would with Ron's acting being a good example of this. With the acting that's in this very film not really being helped by the fact that this films script isn't that good due to the fact that it gives none of this films actors absolutely anything to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the CGI for this film is Reality Check Studios , The Orphanage , Eden FX , CafeFX , HimAnI Productions , Black Box Digital and Fantasy II Film Effects. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty very mixed. With the film having a mixture of good and bad looking CGI with the films bad CGI mainly being from when they switch from live action actors to digital doubles as you can very easily tell in some shots that it's not Ron Pearlman as Hellboy it's a computer and yet it's like that for alot of the films action scenes and all that does is take you out of the film however to be fair there this film does make the best of what little technology that the effects world had at the time and given the fact that this film only a small budget they of course aren't going to have the best off effects. While the film does have bad effects when it comes to digital doubles when it comes to quite literally any other effect in the film the quality does go up slightly with the film making great use of extending it's set which does look really seamless all of the time and the films creature designs do look good with them using a mixture of practical and CGI effects to bring it's monsters to life and it is hard to tell alot of the time just which is which as they both look really good with it being made clear as the day the makers of this film didn't really put alot of effort into creating life like digital doubles of it's hero characters and that is something that does show as it is something that does take you out of the film.

While movies like Wonder Woman and X-Men did prove that comic book movies could be consistently good films and make studios alot of money at the box office. Neither of those films would be as well remembered if they were based on characters from a smaller known comic book company  as don't forget we were getting female led comic book movies in the nineties with films like Barb Wire and Tank Girl both of which yes were pretty bad films but they were also films that were based on characters from smaller known comic book companies with the same thing also true for Hellboy as we when people mention the comic book films that got made in the two thousands that are actually good nine times out of ten they never mention this film this is despite the fact that Dark Horse Comics is a fairly well known comic book company but as it's not as well as known as either Marvel or DC nobody is going to be talking about this film. As popular culture seems to only think that only Marvel and DC have movies made about there characters when the truth is far different and while this is something that is slowly changing as people do seem recognise that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a comic book property they still don't know that films like Men In Black , Casper and Richie Rich for example are actually based on comic books with the only grey area there being Casper as the animated short films started before his comic book but he does still count as being a comic book character. Even google when you search list of comic book movies all of the popular movies listed are all either Marvel or DC based films yet if people took there time to search these more lesser known comic book movies and did there research they will find that there is more to comic book movies then just Marvel or DC.

To give this film some form of credit one of the things that it does get really right is the fact that it does take the time to develop the romance between Hellboy and Liz. Something which both does start and end sweet enough with it being made clear as day that the both of them do like each other and can't live without each other but then it does get kind of weird in the middle where they straight up mention the fact that Hellboy has known her since she was eight years old which is something that is kind of weird as while yes Hellboy does age much more slower then we do with the film even pointing out that even tho he was born well over sixty years ago he is just now in his twenties and while that does lessen the creepiness of him knowing Liz since she was eight and still falling in love with presumably as an adult or teenager is still quite a weird thing for them to have in the film. However the film does kind of pull it off by having the characters have these rather sweet moments together and by showing that when he thinks that Liz and John are going out on a date together he does stalk them due to how jealous that he is with him thinking that John is trying to Liz away when all he's doing is talking Hellboy up to her and yet even tho he does get jealous of the pair of them when it comes down to it in the final act Hellboy is there trying to save them from some monsters with him even willing to sacrifice himself for the pair of them. With it being helped by the fact that there relationship does feel real as you can tell right from there first scene together that both the actors and the characters have some wonderful chemistry together with this being something that does help you buy into there relationship with the thing that makes it feel real being the fact that we do see them having some wonderful banter with each other and the fact that we see that they are there for each other alot of the time.

Our main villain for the film is Grigori Rasputin altho given the fact that he doesn't have that much of an impact on the films plot barring a few scenes people would be forgiven for thinking that someone else was the main villain of the film. As Karl Ruprecht Kroenen not only has more scenes in the film but also has just as much f an impact on the film that what Grigori has on the film with it being Kroenen that kills Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm in the first place and it's him that infiltrates the Bureau Of Paranormal Research And Defense however to be fair tho he did both of those things whilst under orders from Grigori. With Grigori not really having that much of an end goal in mind as he does want to use to Hellboy to take over the world by having him open a certain door that will unlock all of these of monsters and will destroy the whole world and everything on it which to be fair is a pretty cool villain plan to have and the characters is all about reaching that goal however there truly is nothing to this character as the character doesn't have any scenes where he gets to show off just what his personality is like a while yes we do see that he loves Lisa and that she loves him that's the only bit of information that we get about the character and it's not enough to make him an interesting character with it being made clear as day that the makers of this film put alot more thought and effort into making the hero characters be somewhat interesting and that they just outright forgot to do the same thing for the films villains as all of the villains in this films are just interchangeable when it would have worked just as well if the makers of this film put just as much thought and effort into making Grigori be this really interesting character and someone who can match Hellboy's strength as that would then force Hellboy to think out the box and be the better hero because of it.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly two hours and twelve minuets and twenty nine seconds. Which to be fair to this film is fairly solid running time for this film to have given the fact that it not only has to set up Hellboy as a character but also set up the world which this film takes place and still tell a good story in its own right which is something that this film wouldn't have been able to do if the film was a lot more shorter then this as that would then do alot of damage to the film itself with the film even having the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place. However tho this film really doesn't use its running time all that wisely as the film doesn't take the time to fully develop its plot due to the fact that the film doesn't spent alot of time on it's plot with the film instead being more focused on showing us Hellboy pine for Liz and showing his relationship with both John and Trevor both of which us pointless as they add nothing to the films overall plot and would have been better if they weren't in the film at all. This is something that does also kind of take away from the films character development as the film doesn't really give all of it's characters any kind of character development with the only character to get any kind of character being Liz who has to learn to not be afraid of her powers and instead of embrace them something which she has technically begun to do in her first scene in the film but it's only when we are near the end of the film that the grown up Liz uses her powers full blast to save Hellboy something which she would have never been able to do at the start of the film but yeah even Hellboy the films title character gets zero character in the film when both he and Liz should have been getting all of the character development with even Grigori feeling undercooked as a character but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty OK at best. With the films action being as good as it was ever going to be given the fact that the films main hero doesn't really have that many super powers outside of super strength this is something that does lead the films action scenes to basically feel the same as we do get to see Hellboy first try shooting the villains before then deciding to punch them alot of the time which is fine for one two action scenes but when that's in every single action scene in the film then it does start to get a bit boring to watch. With the best action scene in the whole film being the third act fight between Hellboy and giant creature as we do get to Hellboy use something other then his fists or gun to solve the problem and while the final fight isn't as flashy or as over the top like in comic book movie action scenes today it is something that does fit his film perfectly this film isn't a flashy film with flashy effects rather its a more grounded film that just so happens to have effect in it and to be fair that final action scene does represent that rather well would it have helped if it was a bit more longer and if we got to see the whole team take part yes as then we could see what all three of them bring to the team but on the flip side of that the movie is called Hellboy and therefor having just Hellboy in that final fight scene is something that does also make sense as he is the films title character afterall with the rest of the films action scenes being just as OK in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall whilst alot of people might not remember this film this one film did spawn a live action sequel plus two other animated films with the franchise eventually being rebooted twice and failing both times with this film being the best out of all of them as that's just how good that this film can be alot of the time in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as lades and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great the official Star Wars fandom wiki page this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.