HELLBOY (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Mike Mignola's comic book character Hellboy comes to the screen
in
high visual style but none too coherently. Guillermo del Toro does a
better
job directing than adapting the story from the comic book to the screen.
This
is a film that is sullen and dark, and those are its good points. The
grim
humor is ironically enjoyable and makes this film worth seeing. But
neither
del Toro nor Mignola knows who Hellboy should be. Rating: high +1 (-4 to
+4)
or 6/10
The biggest problem with HELLBOY is that Guillermo del Toro's direction is
wasted on Guillermo del Toro's (and Peter Briggs's) script. The
adaptation is
visually very nice. Its images very well match the story's very dark tone
and
the artwork in the comic book. The problem is that while we know Hellboy
is in
a mammoth fight, we never have much of an idea of what Hellboy's powers
are. I
don't think we really know what Hellboy's goals are either. And we
certainly
do not know what constitutes "winning" in his fight. In THE GUNS OF
NAVARONE
the goal is to destroy the guns. In GOLDFINGER it is to kill Goldfinger.
Hellboy is called into a conflict and I didn't know what would end it. If
he
kills the monster, is that enough? If he kills the villain, is that
sufficient? If a good guy is killed does he stay dead? It is like an
American
watching a curling match. You can get a rough idea of whether it is going
well, but that is about all. In the end Hellboy wins because the evil
side
stops spawning new threats. Come to think of it, perhaps an ill-defined
struggle is really a lot like what happens in the real world.
It seems that in 1944 the Nazis were once again fooling around trying to
turn
the mythic supernatural into a weapon. This time there is no Indiana
Jones to
stop them. They open a large portal to a big, evil space-going whatsis.
Think
of it as an interstellar version of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu. But the
portal
is also open to hell and through it comes something not expected by
anyone. It
is a little baby demon from hell, still young and innocent and very
impressionable. The American military (did I mention that they were on
hand to
blow up the Nazis and their portal?) capture the baby and raise him as
their
own weapon.
Flash-forward to the present and Hellboy (now played by Ron Perlman,
veteran of
del Toro's CRONOS) is big and red and smokes cigars. He has sliced off
the two
huge ram's horns growing out of his forehead so from a distance he just
looks
like he is wearing goggles. (That was my impression when I first saw the
comic
book and Guillermo del Toro had the same reaction.) Hellboy is needed to
stop
an invasion of a very Lovecraftian tentacled monster. This is the kind of
thing
that when it dies, two take its place. Hellboy has a sidekick, Abe (Doug
Jones)
who is sort of a fish-man. (I kept asking myself why the fish-man looked
so
familiar. I had seen a very similar race depicted in the 1973 French
animated
film FANTASTIC PLANET.) The other major figure in Hellboy's life is
Professor
Trevor 'Broom' Bruttenholm (John Hurt, as always a joy to see on the
screen).
Broom has raised Hellboy and is the father figure in his life.
The problem with this script is that while it has some nice ideas,
borrowed
from the comic book, and a nice visual style, the writing is really not
very
good. The story adds just about nothing to the standard
good-guy-going-after-bad-guy plot. The writers have not thought out the
implications of scenes. Like Bigfoot, Hellboy is supposed to be just a
legend,
the subject of a few fuzzy photographs. Yet hundreds of people see him in
big
spectacular, destructive (not to say ultimately boring) fights like one
shown
in the subway.
Hellboy should be an interesting character torn between positive and
demonic
impulses. Instead he is basically just one more wise-cracking superhero.
Fighting a monster he will make a comment like "no tongues on the second
date."
That is a joke from popular culture, not from the mind of a demon from
hell.
I don't think that del Toro had a clue who Hellboy is or should be. I
will
take that a step further. After reading two "Hellboy" comic books I don't
think that Mignola has a clue who Hellboy is or should be. Both Mignola
and del
Toro have a good feel for the visual atmosphere, but neither shows much
interest in looking inside the mind of a Hellboy. Such a character would
be
tormented and revolted by unspeakable memories of what it was like in Hell
in
half of his personality. The other half of his personality would be
telling
him that what he remembers of Hell is really the way things ought to be.
What
he has seen of Earth would be pitted against his demonic instincts. These
stories would have resonance and they would have allegorical meaning.
Instead
we have just another sardonic superhero. It is such a waste.
As it happens I would call Guillermo del Toro one of the two greatest
horror
film directors alive. (Kiyoshi Kurosawa is the other.) His last two
films
have been disappointing mixtures of the horror and super-hero genres.
(BLADE
II is the other.) But for these two films the horror has been compromised
and
is much less effective. And there is not much new to do in the superhero
genre. My advice to del Toro would be to go back to making those
wonderfully
inventive horror films and leave superheroes alone for a while until he
gets
some fresh new ideas. I rate HELLBOY a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or
6/10.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
2004 Mark R. Leeper
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X-RAMR-ID: 37591
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1274307
X-RT-TitleID: 1131153
X-RT-AuthorID: 1309
X-RT-RatingText: 6/10
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