Hellboy

[birdandbear]

Anybody else seen this? I got dragged along to see another comic book movie last weekend, starring some comic book character I'd never even heard of, and much to my bemusement, ended up enjoying the heck out of it.

The plot might have been a little weak at points, I didn't really notice. Ron Perleman was just that freaking cool.

[[Syl]]

Ron Perlman was great. With the exception of Rasputin (and he being too scarce), the supporting cast was kind of useless, though. Not that the acting was bad, but that it seemed like the writers didn't care enough to give them good lines or much meaning in the overall story. Except for the one religiously invested line at the end, the kid on the roof seemed to matter to the story as much as the FBI guy. The clockwork guy was was beyond ostentatious, in my opinion. And as far as the religious undertones went, I couldn't tell if they were trying to be subtle or not. I know it's a movie called Hellboy, but let's face it, it's not exactly The Prophecy.

The steampunkish, labrynthine crypt and the hellhound were pretty cool, but I kept expecting more from the movie.

I know from all this it might sound like I didn't like the movie, but I did. It's just a flawed good movie, and the flaws are only obvious because it brought down what could've been a great flick. Still, I'd recommend it.

[Worm of Despite]

After seeing it I have to agree with the consensus of the critics (as presented by rottentomatoes.com): Hellboy is pretty derivative, but there's enough wit and humor here to keep it entertaining.

[Fist and Faith]

I liked it. Good, clean fun! And yeah, Perlman was absolutely perfect in the role.

[dANdeLION]

I loved it too, as much as any of the comic movies. I felt like the aqua-man type and the flame girl did fine, though, in their supporting roles. Very visual, and very wiltty; just what a good comic is supposed to be!

[Edinburghemma]

This film was dung. I cannot believe I paid to see it. Where was the script? The characterisations were awful and the acting, understandably under the circumstances abysmal. Almost as bad as Garfield the Movie, but not quite.

[Nav]

I saw it today and quite enjoyed it. I thought it looked fantastic, with the sets being particularly impressive. I liked the Abe character, although they didn't really make it clear why he had to spend the second half of the film in that tank (he wasn't visibly injured, IIRC). I though Selma Blair did a good job too, although her character got a bit run-of-the-mill towards the end.

The dust guy could have been scary as hell if he'd stayed in the shadows and stalked people, but the film makers seemed content with showing us his scary face. Ron Perlman was great though, plus (like Willem Defoe in Spiderman) they got to save a bit on make-up.

[Baradakas]

Script? The movie had a script?

[Nav]

This really does seem to be the bona fide love-it-or-hate-it film. We've established that it isn't perfect but like any sci fi/fantasy film, if you sit back and let it take you away you'll enjoy it. Due to the nature of genre fiction style quite often wins over substance, so if you assess the film as you would a non-genre piece you'll notice flaws that a more involved viewer would likely skip over. Back when I was studying film I got into the habit of deconstructing everything I saw, with the result that enjoying the cinema was a relatively rare event. This approach even caused the Two Towers to leave me completely cold. I've since learned not to concentrate on the details, to such an extent that I actually found the Chronicles of Riddick quite enjoyable.

[sindatur]

We rented it, and enjoyed it, as a "popcorn movie", however, it wasn't something I need to purchase for my DVD collection, for repeated viewings. Not familiar with the comic, so can't comment on how true it was to the original story, but, as a movie, a nice bit of entertainment.

Definitely enjoyed it more than the Hulk, which we weren't even able to finish watching because it was so boring to us.

[jacob Raver, sinTempter]

Mid-way through the opening sequence I got REALLY excited, it felt- right, like Del Torro had actually gotten the "feel" of a comic right...

...the rest of say the first 2/3 I really enjoyed, but the last Act was very weak, and in the end I felt their was too much plot, too many bad-guys to follow...

...overall, I still like it a lot- a good attempt, much better than the sad Hollywood victim that is HBII...

[wayfriend]

As you may or may not know, GDT wanted to make a Hellboy III, but he was unable to get any studios to pay for it.

Then it was announced that the Hellboy franchise was going to be rebooted with a new director and new actors. Screams and cries ensued.

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Now this is a big, crazy out of left field announcement. It seems we're getting a rebooted Hellboy movie. Hellboy's real life daddy, Mike Mignola, announced that there will be a new Hellboy movie, it will be rated R, directed by Neil Marshall and will star Stranger Things' David Harbour as Hellboy.
[link]

The "Rated R" angle seems to be a BIG THING these days. So among the screams and cries were cries of hope and screams of joy. The potential was hard to ignore.

You know David Harbour -- he was the heroic sheriff in Stranger Things and his SAG acceptance speech went viral. Well, we got some leaks of him in his Hellboy getup today. [link for more]