Blogcritics: Comments on "Hellboy" is a Living Hell

Comment by Bill Sjherman

Mon, 5 Apr 2004 15:03:07 EDT

I'm not sure we can entirely blame Del Toro for the end results - word that I've read indicates that there was much post-production tampering on the part of the studio.

Comment by Shark

Mon, 5 Apr 2004 12:17:48 EDT

Phillip, re. the ending. Yeah. No kidding. I think we were supposed to squirt a few. (And they missed a great opportunity! Dissolve to the future: the girl is in the hospital with hubby Hellboy at her side, and a nurse walks in with a brand-new red baby with horn stubs and a small tail. "Congratulations, Hellboy, it's a... um... ah..." Fade to black.) In the last 15 minutes, the story had gotten so convoluted, obtuse, and downright unintelligible that I was not only totally lost, but was at a point where I couldn't care less. I wasn't even sure what I was rooting for -- which is a HUGE mistake to make in that kind of film. PS: How about the blackout scene after the big battle with the alien antennae monsters? Suddenly, everybody wakes up, Hellboy is doing a Hunchback of Notre Dame routine, and there's something about his arm, some 'locks', and the Apocalypse? Wha? Man, what a stinker. "Sanctuary!!!"

Comment by Phillip Winn

Mon, 5 Apr 2004 11:37:21 EDT

I normally choke pretty hard on badly-done special effects, but I was pretty impressed with Hellboy's. Yeah, there were a couple of moments where they were glaring: the aforementioned across-the-bridge scene was one and the other involved Ron Perlman's huge hand and a cat. Other than that, they worked for me. The fire wasn't supposed to look like normal fire, or they would have made it orange instead of blue. Yeah, yeah, I know about color temperature. But when someone is surrounded by orange fire but glowing blue herself, that seems deliberate. I'll probably write up my own review, but my biggest beef with the film had to do with the anti-climactic ending. If you've seen the movie, you probably know what I mean. Ugh.

Comment by jaded naivety

Mon, 5 Apr 2004 10:36:49 EDT

Well, I saw it, and I liked it. The whole point of some movies is just to take your mind away from the day to day ordinary crapola that we deal with as a matter of course. I mean, would you really watch The Blob or Attack of the Killer Tomatos, or one of the most delightfully hideous movies of all time Rocky Horror picture show looking for the plot???? Not if you want to get your money's worth...as for the translation of comics to the big screen, c'mon give me a break! Are you saying that you think that the studios should be able to take what is in everyone's IMAGINATIONS, and somehow transfer all of that info onto cels? I don't know about yours, but my imagination is capable of producing scenes and special effect movies in my head from reading that they would never be able to imitate on the big screen. And yes, all movies should have some boobs in them.

Comment by Chad Woodland

Mon, 5 Apr 2004 00:32:07 EDT

Uhm. I liked it. It was a great fun movie and I'm sure there will be sequel(s) as Ron Pearlman's dance card is hardly full. If you want an Oscar winner go rent one. This is a comic book and it was done better than many.... X Men 1, League of Extrordinarily Dull and Lifeless Gentelmen, The Hulk.

Comment by Shark

Sun, 4 Apr 2004 13:54:43 EDT

Bob, I agree in part, but disagree elsewhere. Hollywood has had a very hard time translating great comic books into decent movies (Hulk, anyone?), and I think it depends on whether or not the writer has a history, love, and understanding of the comics' real essence. I'd love to hear your opinion (and other comic fanatics out there: BILL SHERMAN, where are you?!) as to which films have succeeded in that regard. Might be a great eductional service. You're right about the fire effects; they were pretty bad. I thought MANY of the FX scenes were pretty poor; the underwater stuff, and Hellboy's run across the crumbling bridge, you could almost see the invisible wires. It was awful! And, no offense, but I'm so tired of hearing "But the special effects were great" that I could scream. After the digital overkill, I pulled out my DVD copy of "Days of Heaven" and watched it just to purge my eyeballs. Best, Shark

Comment by Bob Mozark

Sun, 4 Apr 2004 13:14:40 EDT

I guess you either like to have comic books made into movies or you don't. This movie shows that Hollywood can remain true to the spirit of the original movie if the director understands and respects the source and has the chops to say "no" to the idiots in the studio when they come up with suggestions, like: "How about we have a big name actor do the movie and he just turns into Hellboy when he gets angry?" I for one enjoyed the movie and felt that del Toro did an excellent job of translating Mignola's visions to the screen. And for their share of the modest $60 million dollar movie budget the special effects team did an excellent job with one exception: Selma Blair's pyrokinetic fire did not at all look realistic. For example, the underwater scenes when Abe Sapien went into the underground resevoir and then met up with the hellhounds were filmed on a dry set and the water added later by CGI. The production design team did an excellent job with the settings. And we can be thankful that Vin Diesel didn't get the role of Hellboy, the way the Studio wanted. Despite his being "hot" when this movie was cast, he could never have been a good a Hellboy Ron Perlman, who was born to play this role.

Comment by BB

Sun, 4 Apr 2004 12:53:52 EDT

"No boobs"? What's this world coming to!!!

Comment by Shark

Sun, 4 Apr 2004 11:07:50 EDT

Tek, I badly wanted to like this film. I really like Perlman, but he's just a prop in this movie, and has about 10 lines. My advice: rerent "City of Lost Children" and retain your fond memories of Ron in his glory moment.

Comment by Ms. Tek

Sun, 4 Apr 2004 10:56:59 EDT

I intend on seeing this because I actually like Ron Perlman. The thing is that all of these movies based on comics really suck. I never understood why the X-Men was so popular. I saw the first one and wanted those minutes of my life back! I just hope they don't start touching my beloved Vertigo titles!