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Sir Terrence the Terrible
12-06-2004, 11:01 AM
I loved this movie so much I watched it twice. Everything was so well balanced(plot, premise, soundtrack, visuals) it just drew me in, and kept giving and giving.

The picture opens in Germany in 1944, where Rasputin (Karel Roden) and nazi soldiers are attempting to open a portal to another world in order to try and achieve enough evil power to try and win the war. Forces, accompanied by Prof. Bruttenholm (John Hurt), are able to close the portal, but before they can, Hellboy (Perlman as an adult Hellboy) escapes into the world. Prof. Bruttenholm (John Hurt) runs a cell of the government investigating paranormal findings, and he decides to become a father figure to Hellboy.

Sixty years after, signs show that Rasputin has returned to once again attempt to take over the world, so it's up to Hellboy, empath Abe Sapien (voiced by David Hyde Pierce), and firestarter Liz (Selma Blair) to try and stop him from taking over the world. When Bruttenholm finds that he doesn't have much time left, he summons FBI agent John Myers (Rupert Evans) to try and become Hellboy's new handler. It doesn't exactly go well.

Hellboy does go over familiar ground in a lot of respects: there's another supervillian trying to take over the world, another bureaucrat - Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) - to try and sabotage the work being done by Hellboy and his fellow crimefighters and there's even something of a love triangle between Hellboy, Meyers and Liz.

This DVD edition of the film provides the director's cut of the picture, which adds more character-building scenes. While the running time seems to be the same, there is about 13 minutes of new scenes seen in this cut, making me guess that some scenes have been recut, with this new footage replacing material in the theatrical cut. This edition is unrated, while the theatrical edition is PG-13.

"Hellboy" is presented by Columbia/Tristar in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The picture quality is really quite superb - even with the film's almost consistent low-light situations, the picture offered a rather stunning amount of detail and clarity. Sharpness and definition never let up throughout the show, either.

The imge generally seemed free of flaws. A little bit of edge enhancement was spotted in the image once or twice and maybe a couple of slight instances of compression artifacts were spotted. Otherwise, everything appeared spotless - no print flaws or other concerns. The film's rich color palette looked outstanding, with no smearing and vibrant, well-saturated tones. The new footage appeared to be the same quality as the rest of the film.

"Hellboy" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 by Columbia/Tristar. The film's sound mix remained a fine example of a good action film sound mix. Surrounds were used consistently to provide some perfectly enjoyable effects work, which remained enveloping and immersive. Audio quality was excellent, as effects were often backed with fine helpings of low bass information, while dialogue and music remained crisp and clear. If you sub is a wimp, this soundtrack will expose that. I give this soundtrack two thumbs up for it's consistant use of the soundfield to push you into the movie.

Highly recommended for purchase.

Worf101
12-07-2004, 07:56 AM
Hellboy was an unusual thing for me. It's the first movie based on a comic character who I was totally unfamiliar with. Every other filmed superhero I was either intimately or passionately aware of not so in this case. So I went in totally blind with no expectations. I feel the movie met my low bar of expectations but it didn't wow me. I liked it, so much so that after seeing it in the flicks I rented it and watched it with the family. While liked the film I was never really "engaged". When HB's "dad" dies I felt next to nothing unlike when Aunt May took a beating in Spiderman2. So I'm giving it a sideways thumb. I think a sequel is warranted but not by much.

Da Worfster :cool:

eqm
12-08-2004, 06:19 AM
Hellboy was an unusual thing for me. It's the first movie based on a comic character who I was totally unfamiliar with. Every other filmed superhero I was either intimately or passionately aware of not so in this case. So I went in totally blind with no expectations. I feel the movie met my low bar of expectations but it didn't wow me. I liked it, so much so that after seeing it in the flicks I rented it and watched it with the family. While liked the film I was never really "engaged". When HB's "dad" dies I felt next to nothing unlike when Aunt May took a beating in Spiderman2. So I'm giving it a sideways thumb. I think a sequel is warranted but not by much.

Da Worfster :cool:

agreed...i rented this on dvd a few months ago when it first came out...i really didn't have any emotional connection to the characters in this film, as i felt there were a. too many villians (i.e. the demon dogs, the mechanical man, rasputin, and the giant jellyfish) that didn't have speaking parts. what's my motivation for hating them and rooting for the hero? the solid special effects aside, imo this movie suffered from the "and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened" syndrome that the star wars ep 1 also suffered from. and yes, spiderman deuce succeeded in this by peppering the action in with good ol' fashioned character building so that the action actually meant something...you want to root for the good guy and you actually feel the character's emotions....without that building, all the action in the world is simply eye candy.