*** Official HELLBOY Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Quentin]

I was fairly surprised at a few things about this film:

1) There is a noticeable lack of big action set pieces. Particularly the "climactic" battle. A let down.

2) While the villains are visually cool and wildly conceived, they lack depth and a clear overall plan. What do they want? To destroy the world? Give me more than that. Please.

3) The character development and setup are far better in this film than many a genre film out there. Particularly comic book films. I really felt for HB when his "dad" dies, and I cared about his relationship with Liz. Of course, John was a waste of screen space.

Overall, I enjoyed it enough. A solid "B". I just think Del Toro would have been better off with another pass at this one before filming.

 

[Justin_S]

I loved this film! Being a big fan of the comic, I think Del Toro and the cast definitely did it justice. Perlman was the perfect choice for Hellboy, and he shines in the role. He has the perfect combination of snide comments, heroic attitude, and heart. The rest of the cast all do swell jobs as well.

The special effects in the film were just fantastic. The CGI looked very good, and the more traditional effects were outstanding as well. I feared Hellboy's battles with Sammael would look bad, but that wasn't the case at all. I also must say that I loved the shots of the Chaos Gods! They very muchly resembled Cthulhu, and seeing their huge tentacles hanging from the clouds was an overwhelmingly amazing site! Great, great stuff! I also must say that Kroenen was awesome in the film.

This film is possibly my favorite comic film to date. A fantastic film all around, and I was thoroughly pleased with it. I'll definitely be seeing it some more at the theater, and can't wait for the DVDs!

 

[Timothy Alexander]

 

[JonZ]

Julie,
The Lovecraft influences come thru ALOT more in the comic book than the film.

You may want to check the comic book out in trade paperback.The comic book is more "horror" than the film is.



It was fun but I was hoping for more.

Perlman was awesome as usual though

 

[Chris]

I just couldn't connect with anything in this film.

Whereas with "Blade" I really felt along with the ride. With it, they gave you reasoning to appreciate the bad guys and Blade's role. In "Hellboy" there wasn't enough to really support any of the characters to make them more then 2D archetypes.

The villains were, while visually cool, pretty boring, and I couldn't figure out there purpose other then "destroy the world" ..

It's a popcorn flick. I don't know if it's any better then "Daredevil"

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I saw it last night, and the theater seemingly left out a whole reel??

Can anyone fill me in on what happened:
In the scene with Hellboy, Liz and John stumble into the lair under Rasputin's moselium and fight the crazy hellhound things. John slaps Liz, she turns into fire, and kills them all...

all of a sudden there was a reel change, and Hellboy was captured in shackles and Liz was out cold on the slab with Rasputin and his nazi minx trying to get hellboy to say his name and open the portal. No explanation of how they got there, how they got captured, or anything... Reminded me of the comical jumps in "Amazon Women on the Moon"

It felt like there was a good chunk of 10-15 minutes missing? Like a whole action beat was missing. The John character was far more bloody that he was previously, hellboy was shackled (with no explanation of how that happened), and Rasputin was talking about the arrival of an eclipse and other elements that had not been previously explained or introduced into the plot.

It even felt like the score jumped abruptly...

So did i miss something? I cannot imagine that this jump was intentional- if it was, it's one of the worst films I've ever seen... I've seen more smooth transisitions in things made by 3rd graders.

 

[Todd_B]

Nah Vince..I don't think they left a reel out. We saw the same thing.

Liz does her impersonation of a human flame thrower which kills all the monsters and the big pile of eggs (that takes care of them coming back 2 fold I assume), and then we see the fire engulf HB....

...reel change...

John wakes up, we see Liz on the rock slab and HB in shackles.

A little awkward to say the least.

Todd B

 

[Parris]

Vince I think we were at the same theater I think that was just a bad editing job. I was sitting there like WTF just happened. Overall I liked the movie but I really wanted to love it. Ron Perlman has been one of my favorite actors for over 20 years and Im glad he finally got a lead role and as Hellboy he nailed it. I hope this movie does well enough to warrant a sequel as I'd like to see Hellboy in an all out action flick but I worry that people not familiar with Hellboy will walk out disappointed.

favorite scene for me had to be when HB sat on the roof eating cookies with the kid as he spied on Liz. Throwing the rock was just classic

 

[Jason Seaver]

It was a bit of a jarring edit, but I saw it as the concussion knocking the good guys out, then Elsa and Rsputin comes in and find Myers regaining consciousness.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

But the location changed, that wasn't the same room. And they didn't even show Liz fall over or anything... and Hellboy was still fully awake in the last shot they show him in (he's fireproof after all).

I could see if they showed them all collapse in a heap, and then show Rasputin enter and fade down, fade up on the three captured... but it pretty much hard cuts from the fire vanquishing their foes to them already captured and bound...

For them to change location and put the characters in greatly different positions without any explanation was extremely jarring-- to the point that I can't even fathom it NOT being a mistake. There are ABSOLUTELY scenes missing there- and the fact that they tried to shorten the film with such a silly edit is horrid.

LOL

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I didn't have an issue with that. A bit abrupt, but it seemed typical film. Wake up in a bind, that sort of thing.

That said, I do imagine there is a missing scene here, but a short one. I wonder which lackey had to carry HB to the new room? Remember, this whole thing (the film) was a set-up to get Hellboy to that location, with Liz. So this was all planned. It was still not the best edit.

Take care,
Chuck

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Odd, everyone in my group looked at each other-- and I heard several confused sounds coming from those in the packed theater... I even saw one guy go tearing out of the theater right after it happened- I assumed to complain that there was a piece missing.

Odd.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Well, the talking in the dark (that started the transition) is indicative of waking up. I think I had skimmed Ebert's review ahead of time, so I also had fair warning.

That...and I am a friggin genius

Take care,
Chuck

 

[Chris Harvey]

I think it's one of del Toro's weakest efforts, simultaneously over-stuffed and under-developed. The first fight with tentacled monsters? Cool! The seventeenth (and counting) fight with tentacles monsters? Yawn.

It suffers a bit from the same problems of the first X-MEN, in that it delivers a bit more on the character end, but not enough in the action -- which I would've suspected was a slam dunk.

And, let's face it, beyond a couple little nice touches, they spent an *awful* amount of time on stuff we've seen before. Hellboy and Liz? Yawnfest, mostly; and nothing but basic cliches spoken between 'em.

The Nazi/Rasputin occult angle -- marginally interesting, but too many tossaway bits all scrambled together. Kroner (Kronen?) was being set up as a cool and freaky bad guy, but the more they showed, the weaker they got. C'mon, a Nazi kung-fu zombie?

Note to all filmmakers: Lovecraftian god monsters are best referred to but not shown.

 

[Steve_Tk]

Is that what that strange shaped monster was from the sky that was tightly packed in something that looked like a kitty toy?

 

[richardWI]

Very true. The buzz that Del Toro wants to do the Mountains of Madness next doesn't excite me as he's displayed a basic misunderstanding about Lovecraft: It's not about the tentacles! A truly Lovecraftian story is the oppposite of an ADD paced, eye candy, CGI tentacle fest.. It involves suspense and fear of the unknown and the unknowable.

 

[Pete-D]

I felt a little like I did in Blade 2.

The first 40 or 50 minutes is good. Infact, I thought after the first three or four scenes we might have the successor to the Indiana Jones films on our hands.

But it never really got to that next level.

The opening sequence in the rain is still my favorite of the film.

Yeah the editing seemed to get a bit choppy towards the end and even though the characters are more vulnerable and relatable -- somehow the film seemed to be running on an empty gas tank by the end. It's hard to really pinpoint.

Still its better than most comic book adapations and definitely worth seeing. I thought there was a hell of a lot of bang for the buck on screen for only $60 million dollars, which I think shows director's can still make a "big" movie without resorting to $120-$150 million dollar budgets. Wasn't CGI supposed to make movies cheaper to make?

I agree though -- enough with the tentacle monsters. Its hard to see exactly whats happening on-screen during action sequences and its just redundant by now.

Hopefully though we get a Hellboy 2 though. This character still could do a lot more in the future and the actors seem to have a nice chemistry with each other (I love the scene with Perlman and Jeffrey Tambor (Dr. Tom Manning).

This film does a lot of things other comic book films do not. I got the sense that these character's were really freakish and at odds with society moreso than X-Men, where most of the characters look like supermodels with cool powers (kinda hard to feel sorry for them). I enjoy X-Men a lot, but I though Hellboy hit that story note a lot stronger.

 

[Alex Spindler]

I'm working up a review, but I have to say that the pacing of the film and the resolution are perfectly in line with the comic itself. The resolution in the film is also right in line with it as well, not being dragged out like a typical finale.

As I was thinking about it, I realized that it a big back and forth battle just isn't in the spirit of it. The battle with the conqueror worm in the comic isn't very long either.

I think it very effectively captures the spirit and pace of the comic and managed to get in all kinds of nice references and character without being uncharactaristically wordy. Just great.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Alex,
I agree with the structure. It is very much in the style of Hellboy...the bigger they are, the quicker they fall. It's atypical, and refreshing. And in Hellboy, the Dragon is often shown in it's prison, and I didn't mind a sneak peek. Got to have some sizzle with the steak. Frankly, I thought those were some of the cooler scenes.

Hellboy: The Corpse can be found for a quarter at many place, and online at playboy.com. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend it. Brilliant piece of work.

"If I had legs, I'd kick your ass"
Chuck

 

[Kristin O]

I really liked Hellboy. I didn't find the transition to be awkward, but I'm used to anything happening in movies so I guess I just figured that they would all pass out or something. I figured Liz would pass out because they said she always passes out after that happens to her. So I didn't really find that to be too awkward for me.

I especially liked the part where HB throws the rock and it hits him in the head...that was so funny.