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Hellboy – Rewind

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Hellboy is one, if not my favorite comic book to movie adaptation. Directed by Guillermo Del Toro, and starring Ron Perlman as the giant, very red and other worldly Hellboy. with Selma Blair as Liz Sherman, Hellboy’s love interest. If you haven’t read the comics, or have no idea of the story, here is a quick catch up for you.

Hellboy is a inter dimensional demon that accidentally came through a portal in Scotland. The portal was built by a Mystic Russian with deep knowledge of the supernatural and occult, who was helped by the Nazi German military. Their combined goal was to call forth the seven gods of chaos, in an attempt to bring mayhem and destruction to earth. The plans are scuppered by an American armed forces team led by a professor, Trevor Bruttenholm, who is also well versed in the supernatural/occult world. After the Russian and the Nazis are beaten, the Americans and Bruttenholm search to make sure nothing evil came through the portal, when they spot a little baby red demon looking thing, which is viewed as harmless and adopted by Bruttenhold with the nickname Hellboy.

Hellboy is by all accounts pretty faithful to the comic, but I personally haven’t read any, so I can’t comment. As a movie in itself though, Hellboy is pretty good. The story of the film is merged from the comics and a few short stories from the Hellboy universe, with elements taken from here and there, and some artistic license thrown on top. Visual style is one area where Hellboy really shines, from the stunning looking opening sequence 60 years before the main storyline, you know your going to be in for a good looking movie. With a strange but interesting mix of fantasy storylines, quick witted and interesting characters, its rare to see a subject matter like this handled quite as well.