Hellboy Movie Review

Hellboy (2004)

Rent Hellboy on Amazon Video / Buy the comic
Written by: Guillermo del Toro (screenplay), Guillermo del Toro and Peter Briggs (screen story), Mike Mignola (comic books)
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, Selma Blair, Rupert Evans, Jeffrey Tambor, Doug Jones
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
A demon, raised from infancy after being conjured by and rescued from the Nazis, grows up to become a defender against the forces of darkness.

Verdict
It's a solid movie with a stoic hero that happens to be a demon. The introduction is great with soldiers trying to unleash a monster during WWII. One of the villains, Kroenen, is a great design and concept. While the story gets bogged down in some drama, there's a lot to like about this. While I appreciate individual parts, I just don't like the movie as a whole quite as much.
It depends.

Review
This fits with Guellermo del Toro movies showcasing strange creatures, but it also seems like a  strange stab into adapting comic books when everyone was trying that. I'm not sure the movie has quite enough fun to make it work. It's close though, but that just results in an average to above average movie that will never really stand out. This did well enough to spawn a sequel.

Ron Perlman plays Hellboy. Perlman is the premiere actor when wearing prosthetics. After the television series Beauty and the Beast actors would come to him for advice on how to emote.

This opens during World War II with Rasputin opening a portal to unleash chaos and monsters. I don't know how they expected to control these monsters, but it seems like a way to win the war at all costs, namely razing the planet. Rasputin was a real person and that's a wild read on wikipedia.
I like this conspiracy movies about what really happened during WWII. Overlord did the same thing.

We see a soldier wearing a gas mask, and he'll be a reoccurring villain, Kroenen. He's a great character because of how cool he is.

This is an absolutely great introduction. You can sum it up as, that's the story of how I got a baby demon in World War II. It sounds like nonsense, but it's fun.

In the present day Myers is a new hire to the Paranormal Investigation Unit of the government. He'll be the liaison to Hellboy, though I expected him to get a little bit of training before he's put in a strange new role.

Abe Sapien is a humanoid creature that lives in water. He's also in the unit. He's the unsung hero with some very fascinating abilities. He's a precursor to The Shape of Water creature.

Rasputin and Kroenen are still around though they haven't aged. Rasputin still wants chaos.
Kroenen is a triumph of design. He's menacing because we generally don't see his face. He seems to be part steampunk, winding a dial in his chest. When we do see what's under the mask, it's truly terrifying. Del Toro added a lot of backstory for the character and it's a nice touch.

There's some love triangle nonsense between Meyers, Hellboy, and a fire starter who used to be in the unit, but the endgame is Rasputin. He's unleashed monsters where if you kill one, two will appear. I like that conceit, but of course that's not enough. Rasputin needs bigger monsters.

This blends comedy, fantasy, and craziness well. Hellboy is the stoic Clint Eastwood type that deals one liners almost as often as violence. It's just that he's a giant red demon. Maybe that's what makes this movie a bit odd. For all of the fun parts, the whole is less than the parts.