Reviewed by RUSSELL BAILLIE
(Herald rating: * * * *)
If you want to get technical about it, Hellboy isn't actually a superhero. For superheroes have to be someone else when they're not saving stuff. It's the alter-ego that makes them superheroic. Hellboy - creation of Mike Mignola on the comic page and the aptly named Mexican director del Toro in his first screen incarnation - is just Hellboy.
He's big, he's red, he eats like a horse, smokes like a chimney, glowers like a gargoyle.
Though his gentle affection for kittens shows he does have his own duality.
He might be the spawn of Satan conjured up by the Nazis late in World War II with the help of Rasputin (the unholy man's apparent demise in Tsarist Russia years before was just a clever ruse).
But he was raised to be a good guy by his adoptive father, Professor Broom (Hurt), who rescued him from the dark side at his birth.
Which is why now that's he all grown up and working for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) he spends much of his downtime filing down those horns of his - "To fit in," quips an agent to his new minder, John Myers (Rupert Evans).
But if he isn't really a superhero can this still be a superhero kind of movie? Well, yes and a near-terrific one, which can remind of the first X-Men flick, only it's got more Catholic tastes.
It's also got character actor Perlman, perfectly cast - and brilliantly made-up - as Hellboy. He may resemble a capsicum crossed with King Kong, but Perlman delivers a finely shaded performance that gives the big guy a personality to be believed in. He's just as entrancing in the quiet scenes - especially when he's pining for fellow freak of nature, the pyrokinetic Liz - as he is exciting in the action sequences.
And while a plot requiring a lot of mumbo-jumbo to explain its lead character is always going to tend towards the convoluted, at least director del Toro makes judicious use of Hellboy's capacity for violence.
The ideas behind Hellboy and its mix of black comedy, fantasy and cosmic cop drama remain the point of the film, not what he's capable of with that very big fist and his matching very big handgun.
The story involves the return of Rasputin, wanting to open up the portal to the other side through which Hellboy slipped 60 years ago.
Hellboy isn't alone, though. As well as his wise Dad, he's got the fiery Liz and his balletic amphibian mate Abe Sapien up against the Ruskie and his cronies, which include a Nazi zombie with a clockwork heart.
There is a lot of running about the sewers and rooftops and the mega-mumbo-jumbo ending is the only point where it all gets a bit overwrought and starts resembling the heavy metal album cover it has tried so hard for the previous two hours not to be.
Still, it easily pulls off the required double - giving the comic-book fans a movie of depth and texture which echoes the original material, and delivering the non-believers a wild ride while it's at it.
CAST: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Karel Roden, Doug Jones, John Hurt
DIRECTOR: Guillermo del Toro
RATING: M (medium level violence)
RUNNING TIME: 122 mins
SCREENING: Village, Hoyts cinemas
Hellboy
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.