The question "What is Hellboy?" isn't nearly as loaded (or reloaded, as the case may be) as the question "What is the Matrix?" Still, when "Hellboy" opens tomorrow, the majority of the audience will leave the theater feeling the same bitter taste of lingering ambiguity and waning interest.
Hellboy is a comic book character - not comic book royalty like the demi-gods of Marvel and DC comics, but a heavyweight in his own field of second-tier publishers. Del Toro's "Hellboy" sticks close to the formula of the original comic by Mike Mignola because del Toro and Mignola worked closely on the project, and built a relationship that allowed del Toro to write and direct the movie close to the spirit of the original comics.
The events of the movie center around the origin and deeper significance of Hellboy and pay homage to two of the comic's most popular story arcs. Hellboy's origin is explained in a painfully long introductory sequence further tainted with a terrible voiceover. He is, apparently, from hell. Initially summoned through an occult Nazi ritual during the '40s, he falls into allied hands during a raid. He is then raised among the good guys, and becomes an agent of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence (BPRD).
Firstly, and essential for a comic book movie, del Toro has picked the perfect star to play Hellboy, Ron Perlman. Perlman and del Toro have worked together twice before, and just like Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man," it was a battle to get the studio to cast Perlman. Del Toro had to prove he could make a comic book movie, with "Blade II" in 2002, and cast Perlman in a supporting role in that movie to prove that Perlman could star.
Perlman is del Toro's trump card. He plays a perfect Hellboy that is intimidating and, at the same time, easy to identify with.
Del Toro's grave mistakes with the movie are disturbingly basic. He fails to develop relationships to a satisfying degree, particularly between Hellboy and his love interest Liz. This key relationship is, for all intents and purposes, the key to the center of the "Hellboy" mythos, but del Toro allows awkward dialogue and only plot-divisive conversation to lead the day. Del Toro fails to reveal most information in a way that is not divisive. The result is uninteresting characters and a plot that is difficult to buy from such a poorly characterized supporting cast, which is a fatal flaw for a comic book movie.
Around these basic and central flaws, del Toro builds layer upon layer of intelligent subplot. Around his villains, he builds layers of intricacy that make them creepy. Around his heroes, he adds effective humor to make them accessible. But at the basic level, there just isn't enough there.
Del Toro gets a lot of things wrong in "Hellboy," make no mistake about that. It is also true to say, though, that del Toro does a good job of walking the ever precarious line between pleasing the fans and pleasing the studio. Both statements are true because, let's face it, major production companies are terrible at making superhero movies.
On the scale of "Spider-Man" (being the best) to "Batman and Robin" (being the worst), "Hellboy" ranks somewhere just below the first "X-Men" movie. It's a great setup for a sequel, which is in the writing stage already.
