Hellboy Blu-Ray Review

Posted by Film-Critic

August 21, 2008

With the arrival of Hellboy 2 in our cinemas today, accompanied by generally very positive reviews, I thought I’d take this opportunity to review the original Hellboy film as we seem to be lacking one around the site (and I won’t get to see The Golden Army until at least the weekend!). First a note on how you should watch this piece of cinematic comic-book popcorn fodder: if you can then get the BluRay transfer of this film. Whilst not the greatest example of what BluRay can achieve, some of the set pieces are well worth the extra couple of ££ you’ll be spending and you can generally pick it up in a 2 for £30 offer at some of the major retailers.

Hellboy on BluRay

I won’t bother with the details of the plot, as I’m sure people would rather find those out for themselves and, to be quite honest, the plot isn’t really the main reason to watch this film. Ron Perlman, playing the titular stone-armed hero clearly has an absolute ball in the film despite being concealed under 30lb of prosthetics, and steals just about every single scene he is in. Perlman was Guillermo del Toro’s first choice for the role (they had previously worked together on Blade II, a review of which I’m sure I’ll get around to at some stage) and he really is the star of the picture. One of my major criticisms of Hellboy stems from this; Perlman is charismatic, he is funny and, at the end of the day, he is a badass. So why is he not given half as much screen-time as his character should have? Perlman does have a habit of out-acting (if indeed it is acting and not just Perlman being Perlman) everyone around him and was easily the best thing about Blade 2, in which I’m willing to bet he had a similar amount of screen time despite playing a secondary character.

The main reason for Perlman lacking screentime is the introduction of Rupert Evans as John Meyers, the initially timid FBI agent who acts as our guide through the world of Hellboy. It’s no fault of Evans hat he plays a character that could largely be interpreted as an utter distraction from the purpose of the movie, and he does add a human side to a story about a bunch of super (or sub) humans, but it is painfully obvious at times that he’s only there at the studio’s insistence. We spend far too much time with him as he fawns over the firey Liz Sherman (you’re up against a man who’s hand is bigger than your whole body…give it up!) and not enough time focussing on the film’s other, perhaps more important, characters. The good news is that he’s not in the sequel. Sorry Rupert, but I think it’ll be better without you.

The supporting roles in the film are played out well, but again you almost feel like you’re given a teaser of them. Doug Jones’ Abe Sapien (voiced by an uncredited David Hyde Pierce from Frasier) comes across as the most interesting of the group. The complete opposite to Perlman’s shoot-first anti-hero, Abe Sapien is calmer, more measured and wasted for the most part. It’s a real shame and I hope he gets far more screen time in the sequel. Selma Blair (she of Cruel Intentions fame) is fine as Liz Sherman and John Hurt (as he is prone to do) gives a measured performance as the elderly Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm.

But this film really isn’t about any of that, it’s about spectacular set-pieces and those it delivers in bucket-loads. This is where the Blu Ray transfer comes into its own as from the opening Nazi experiment through to a giant room of hammers, del Toro does his utmost to impress. However it all comes unstuck with the final set-piece in which it becomes painfully obvious that the computers were hard at work.

A quick word on Guillermo del Toro, the man who will be directing Peter Jackson’s vision of The Hobbit. The worlds he creates, not just in this film, are as detailed and incredible as they are twisted. Any del Toro is worth picking up on bluray just in case you miss something on a standard print of the film. Hellboy is no exception. Its just a real shame about that last fight scene…

Hellboy is by no means a bad film. It does what you would expect from a summer comicbook film and its entertaining to boot. The film is worth watching for the titular wise-cracking character alone. Yet at the end of it all you just can’t help but feel like there could’ve been more. The sequel looks set to deliver that.