"Hellboy" - promo poster
A review of "Hellboy" directed by Guillermo del Toro, 2004
In my opinion this is a virtually perfect movie. It has everything going for it: A great comic background, great sets, great colours, great anti-hero, great monsters, great evil occult leader, perfect casting, great acting (as far an action movie allows...), perfect eerie music, coolness, humour, a satisfying ending and perfectly focused and paced by its director: Guillermo del Toro. What's not to love?
Well according to the critics - plenty! IMDB gave it 6.9, Rotten Tomatoes gave it 6.8 and Metacritic gave it 7.2. To be fair, these are not terrible scores and there are plenty of good movies that have suffered worse at the critic's pen than this, however, I believe the film is far better than they have given it credit for. Even worse were the punters who did not turn up and the film only took $99 million worldwide. Again this is not actually a fail, but it certainly does not do the film justice when turkeys like Shrek 3 or Transformers 3 take over $700M and Disney colour-by-numbers pablum like Frozen or Star Wars 7 taken over a billion! There ain't no justice!
Many "adults", (many of whom also fancy themselves as "critics", (not that I can talk...)), take issue with this movie on the grounds that the story is too far-fetched. Oh really? So the son of the demon Azzael, a duke of Hell, is brought through a portal into this world by the dead Rasputin, acting as an agent for the Gods of Chaos in his role as occult consultant to Adolf Hitler, on a Scottish Island at the end of WW2, and is caught by US GIs and is brought up by an English professor and becomes the muscle in an unofficial USA defence-against-the-dark-arts department. What is so far-fetched about that? And if the said Rasputin should be sucked through the said portal and be resurrected in a pool of blood and if Hitler's chief assassin should have sand instead of blood and be able to kill teams of armed guards with just a pair of knives... what of it? And if a blood moon should turn into a portal to the Ogdru Jahad at the turn of Big Red's arm, and if a Cthulhu like entity should enter the world through Rasputin's head during the eclipse and if it should eat the hero and die in the process... Nothing strange or outrageous there...
Ok, it's not going to happen in this world, but so what? We go to the movies to escape our drab wretched lives do we not? We want to see something amazing and out-of-this-world do we not? Certainly this story gives us escape in spades! It was written by Guillermo del Toro based on Mike Mignola's famous comics and kudos to Del Toro for having the balls to put such an outrageous story onto the screen, front and centre, and stay with it to the last frame!
In order to enjoy a movie involving one or more unbelievable constructs however, it is necessary to suspend one's normal critical functions and accept the basic premises upon which the film is based. If you can't accept the premise you won't enjoy the movie and you shouldn't bother entering the cinema. This is true for most movies these days, whether you need to accept that there is a ridiculously handsome and well proportioned young man who can fly really fast and is also absurdly strong, has X-ray vision, super hearing and bunch of other impossible attributes or that there is an alien creature that gestates by turning into a pair of hands and grabbing people by the face so that it can penetrate through to the stomach in order to transform into an imp which grows into a huge malevolent dinosaur-like entity in just a few hours, which can survive and multiply in the dark with no food, which has 2nd jaws inside its primary jaws with acid for blood... Really? Who thought that up?
Clearly we are pretty good at suspending disbelief or most movies today would be shunned. Generally I am happy to accept most movie premises unless they are stupid, childish or scientifically clearly impossible. For example The Matrix, (great movie though it be), lost me when the reason for making people dream was to generate energy. Sorry Wachowski Brothers, although I love SF and can tolerate time machines and matter transporters I cannot tolerate generating energy by making people dream in a tank with their nutrients supplied intravenously. Clearly that is costing energy not creating it. FAIL! Burrowing to the centre of the earth in a steel vessel? Clearly impossible as the liquid mantle would obviously melt any metal object. FAIL!
However, Hellboy has no such problems. You only need to accept that the Ogdru Jahad exist in some other dimensions and that it is possible to open a portal to such dimensions. Since these beings are incredibly powerful and knowledgeable they can be of great assistance in such matters. Conceivably they could communicate with Rasputin across the dimensions because they had entered his mind. Thanks to their godlike powers they are able to recreate Rasputin on Earth when the appropriate spells are cast, with or without eyes. You also need to accept a demonic set of dimensions housing Satan and his brood, conceivably he could even be one of the Ogdru Jahad. Having accepted this it is easy to accept that Azzael did a deal with Cthulhu to allow his son to enter the world and open the gate to allow the Elder Gods to enter this plane and turn the Earth to the fiery chaotic doom that they so greatly desire. Even involving Hitler is not entirely unreasonable since some of the early Nazis such as Rudolf Hesse and Dietrich Eckhart were involved in the Thule Society and Hitler did acquire the Viennese Holy Lance after the Anschluss.
What I don't like about numerous SF and Fantasy movies is that having laid down some outrageous premises they then contradict them in the story. When that happens I feel betrayed. I have accepted a fantasy world for the sake of entertainment and have, in effect, taken part in a contract with the script-writer in that regard. He is duty bound from then on to stick to the foundation of his fantasy world and deliver a story that it consistent with his framework. If you can't be true to your own vision either because you have insufficient imagination to keep it going or because you are too stupid or lazy to follow your own rules then you shouldn't be writing such stories in the first place. Hellboy has no such shortcomings. Certainly you may find the Ogdru Jahad difficult to swallow, (no more difficult that swallowing the Bible, probably easier actually...), but having done so the movie is beautifully consistent and it delivers an avatar of Cthulhu at the end. Almost totally can't fault Del Toro on his plot framework! Ahem, I did object to the hammer scything through the stone bridgework beneath the catacombs though... If you wanted to set a trap to protect your tomb you wouldn't have it destroy the joint to do it... probably... unless you were mad... Anyway it is a small flaw in an otherwise flawless work. Proceed!
People who can't accept the fantastic basis of such a story are people who hate Fantasy and SF and only go to such movies so that they can criticise them later. Such people lack imagination, are uncool, can't cook and lousy in bed...
It was the great Howard Phillips Lovecraft who created the Elder Gods and their best known member: Cthulhu. Clearly the "Ogdru Jahad" are based on the Elder Gods of Lovecraft's mythos and the Behemoth at the end of the movie is based on Cthulhu. Lovecraft died in 1937 and since the movie was made in 2004 there were probably copyright issues which I am guessing would have forced Del Toro and his team to avoid calling Cthulhu by his name. Fortunately for Cthulhu fans everywhere Lovecraft's work is now in the public domain, (certain disputing parties notwithstanding), and no doubt there are numerous Lovecraft adaptations waiting to be delivered. Reanimator has been done of course but that is not Cthulhu.
Cthulhu is majestic! Cthulhu is Legion! Cthulhu doesn't care about you!
Iä! Shub-Niggurath! Ah Yog Sothoth.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
One of the trademarks of Guillermo del Toro are his rich, detailed and stylish sets and in this movie he gives it full rein. Every scene LOOKS great! Whether it's Professor Bruttenholm's library or Hellboy's room or the street parade or the subway station or the demon's lair under the catacombs, they all look believable and they all have detail. But it's not just the detail, it's the style! They look fantastic! When things can be beautiful they are sumptuous! Clearly the sets are a labour of love for Del Toro and his team and in my opinion that labour is not wasted.
The costumes are always great too. Whether it's Hellboy himself or Abe Sapien or Samael or Rasputin. They all have style and they all look great! Actually the movie won a Saturn Award for Best Make-Up. So it should, as poor Ron Perlman had to spend 4 hours in the chair every day getting it on just to look right. Speaking of the look of Hellboy; the movie hangs on it and it REALLY works. Obviously with such large prosthetics it is very difficult not to appear statue-like or computer generated but the team made it work! Kudos!
And it's not just the style and detail and appropriateness, it's the COLOURS! Del Toro works from a broad palette and he likes saturated colours and he knows which colours work with what and he varies the hues of each scene to separate each scene in your mind and so that you remember each scene and each scene is beautiful. He's really good at doing this and damn it! I love the results.
Any hero film depends on the hero and Hellboy is no exception. However, unlike Batman, Spiderman and Superman, Hellboy is a bright red demon with a stone forearm and horns, 6'11" and 400lbs. Its not so easy to find someone who can physically play the part. Although Ron Perlman is only 6'1" he gets away with it due to his unusual face, his natural strength and his commanding aura. The amazing prosthetic make up and costume complete with a remote controlled stone arm and large steam punk weaponry complete the deal beautifully and Hellboy is born! Hallelujah!
Abe Sapien is also difficult to create on the screen but again Del Toro and his team produced a wonderful realisation and Doug Jones played him perfectly. Hats off to the Ron and Doug and the team for bringing these characters to the screen because it clearly was not easy and they worked something of a miracle. Kudos!
Yes, it's a fantasy, super-hero action movie with guns and hand-to-hand combat but it is much more than that and there is considerable character development, byplay and humour. This is all tastefully handled and it comes off well and it gives the film the satisfying character depth that is sometimes missing in rival colour-by-numbers products. All the characters talk, which gives all the actors a chance to ACT which, under the baton of Del Toro, they all do very well. Kudos again! But extra kudos to Ron Perlman who took on the job of trying to act when wearing a heavy, full-body costume with his head covered in extensive prosthetic makeup. How he was able to do it all is quite amazing! But he managed to make his character quite believable despite the inevitable woodenness of his face. Sure, the woodenness is there but it is quite mild and easily ignored. There are even closeups and tender moments with that face and it still works. Amazing!
A wide array of character types are there on the screen for your enjoyment: The kindly old man, the troubled young woman, the troubled young man, the ambitious young man, the devoted amoral lover, the great sage who has become the devotee of evil, the arrogant painful boss, the sadistic assassin, the greedy Communist apparatchik, the intellectual outcast, the cannon fodder. Sure, they are nothing new at their core but they are consistent, well scripted and well played. At least there is a wide variety of cookie cutter characters on offer here, unlike some movies consisting of just good guy and bad guy...
As is inevitable these days there is a considerable CG component in this movie, with motion capture technology using the actor on a trapeze against a green screen employed to create the impossible battles with the monsters. Clearly a real world battle against a enormous squid is not possible and there is really no alternative to CG for such things. Del Toro makes no apology for his use of computers and why should he? Their inclusion is done so well that the joins are seamless and you probably won't even notice it's happening unless you are a CG geek and know all the tricks. The touch of a master.
Not only are the CG effects really well handled, the CG monsters are really convincing as they were originally created by an artist on paper, then in clay, then scaled up, perfected, painted and finally converted to computer format. What you see may be generated by a computer but it has an organic origin.
I consider "Hellboy" to be one of the best movies ever made. It is a super-hero action movie and must be judged in that context. Once there you will struggle to find a fault in this masterpiece by one of the great directors in Guillermo del Toro.
Yes, the characters' moralities are a tad cookie cutter but this is a super-hero action movie, any extra depth in characterisation would detract from the action and the film would suffer. Besides, the characters are satisfying enough and although their moralities may be conventional their professions are not! Plus they are all different. As far as the genre goes, Del Toro's characters are about as deep and believable as you'll get. No weakness there.
And you can't fault the casting or acting. Every character looks, sounds and feels right.
The story is a cracking one, assuming you can accept the Ogdru Jahad. It works on the grand scale and also in the small. There is the coming-of-age of the hero, a troubled love affair, Nazis, battles with demons, occult workings and finally saving the world against the presage of inevitable doom. What more could you ask?
The sets and costumes are fantastic and the movie simply looks great! The camera work is perfect too. So right that you don't even notice it.
The movie is perfectly paced too with the right amount of action and the right amount of comedy relief. It doesn't feel too long, nor too short and it doesn't drag. Again, you can't fault it.
Finally, the end result of all this perfection is entertaining. Mission accomplished! Del Toro contracted to take you on an amazing journey and by Gum! He did it! You come out of the movie thinking Wow! and feeling satisfied. That is the sign of a good movie.
But this isn't just a good movie. In my opinion it's a great movie! Of course you may argue about what constitutes "great". Certainly it isn't going to change your life, nor does it contain the language of Shakespeare, nor is it an accurate snapshot of the human condition. A movie can't be all things and only bad movies attempt to be two things at once. Hellboy is a "great" super-hero action movie, it doesn't try to be anything else and IMO it is a benchmark in that genre.
I've probably seen it at least 5 times and I've watched the documentaries. I guess I've sucked all the juice out of it that I can, so I probably won't see it again more than a few times but it will always be one of my favourite films. Hellboy 2 is also very good and I heartily recommend it as well. It is a pity that the parties couldn't agree on a 3rd Del Toro movie with Ron Perlman as I feel that a treatment of the Apocalypse would have been truly satisfying for all concerned and should have been within their grasp. The right ending would have capped off a trilogy for the ages. Ah well, another opportunity lost... Still, we have the diptych.
score 10/10
Warren Mars - February 4, 2019