Yeah, so Hellboy. The more I think about it, the more I think it’s a great adaptation of the comics. It’s by no means a great action movie — it’s a good one, but not great. But the comics aren’t great comics, either; they’re just (just?) very very entertaining pulp. Hellboy is exactly that.
Also, del Toro infuses the movie with some of the best Lovecraftian feel since Dagon. The monster design is great, the villain design is great, it’s all great. I loved the tentacles. The movie looks just about perfect. Likewise, Ron Perlman is ideal for his role.
Flaws: the pacing of the ending is really odd. There are a couple of places where the transitions make absolutely no sense (weren’t those demons in New York five minutes ago?). But really, that’s about it.
And Hellboy’s stone right hand is excellent. It moves right, it feels like it can swat a tank through a wall, and someone was smart enough to use Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand” in the soundtrack. Ironic musical gracenotes make my day.
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The ending came pretty close to killing the entire movie for me. It’s like they were getting ready to film a 30-minute finale, then they watched Hulk and said, “Whoa! Better not do that. Let’s trim this puppy down.” I know that the whole sequence in the final room wasn’t as fast as it seemed, but it really felt like it was all over in three minutes.
Still, overall, the movie goes down in the plus column of the “Movie Adaptations of Comic Books” ledger. There were a few “Hey! Audience! Do you guys see where this is going? Isn’t foreshadowing AWESOME?” moments, but that’s kind of what you get with comic books, isn’t it?
Yah, the ending, from right after Liz goes fwoosh, all seemed much much much too easy. It was my only real objection to the movie. I kinda wonder what the DVD will have in store for us. 🙂
But overall, man. I really enjoyed that movie. 🙂
Hellboy comics aren’t great? Do I know you?
If I gotta choose between Hellboy and Invisibles, it’s gonna be Invisibles. I think, hm. I think Hellboy succeeds nearly perfectly within its realm, but is not ambitious enough to be great.
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All right, you live. FOR NOW.
I do challenge you to assert that “The Amazing Screw-On Head” is not the best thing EVER, though.
Saw Hellboy last night, and all I have to say is … well, what he said. Seriously, I went to see the movie with a friend, and we talked about exactly the same things as Bryant afterward. (Well, except we weren’t hip enough to pick up on the Nick Cave…