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9
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10 |
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10
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
The
Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD)
is the secret government agency that deals with
ghosties, ghoulies, monsters and other things
that go bump in the night. The Bureau's two prime
operatives are Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and Abraham
Sapien (Doug Jones), the former a super-strong
demon and the latter a unique amphibious biped
with various mental abilities. The Bureau is headed
by Professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm
(John Hurt) who 60 years ago witnessed the birth
of Hellboy into our universe. In 1944 a squad
of American soldiers led by Broom stopped Nazi
agents working with Rasputin (Karel Roden) from
opening a portal to another dimension. Rasputin
was attempting to bring about the end of the world
by releasing a race of hideous Lovecraftian god-monsters
on Earth but all he managed to bring through was
an infant demon. Raised by Broom as a son, Hellboy
often chafes at the need to stay out of the public
eye even while he does his best to fit in with
his colleagues — going so far as to file down
his horns. Just as he's trying to finally express
his feelings for fellow Bureau member Liz Sherman
(Selma Blair), Rasputin returns from the dead
to complete his plan. The team swings into action
but it looks like Hellboy's stone right hand may
be the key to opening the door that will allow
the imprisoned gods to destroy the planet.
I've been a superhero fan since
the age of five so I'm a pretty tough audience
for this type of film. Even Sam Raimi's universally
lauded Spider-Man films had story and logic flaws
that pissed me off. So when I say that this is
the best superhero film I've ever seen, it means
something. Bursting with amazing action scenes
brought to perfect life, Hellboy
also nails something most adventure movies miss:
characters that make the whole thing work. Much
has been made of the solid acting in the X-Men
and Spider-Man movies but the ensemble here beats
both. Hellboy is the part Perlman was born to
play; in a better world he'd be getting acting
awards for this film. He's able to convey so much
emotion through the heavy makeup that it is easy
to forget that he's in costume. Even subtle facial
movements are clear and with Perlman's expressive
eyes he's able to do more than most actors can
out of makeup. John Hurt is wonderful as Bruttenholm
and the entire supporting cast is fantastic, with
special mention going to Jeffrey Tambor as the
ill-tempered but ultimately dependable Tom Manning.
Constructed very tightly, the
film combines two separate comic book story arcs
into one seamless tale. With many comic adaptations
fans complain the movies destroy the best elements
of beloved stories, substituting Hollywood formula
crap — and often they're correct. (As much as
I like the first two Superman movies you have
to admit they have some really stupid sections.)
But by including Hellboy creator Mike Mignola
at every level, writer/director Guillermo del
Toro (Blade II) assured
fidelity to the original vision while creating
something even stronger. Hellboy
is the first superhero movie to actually improve
on its source! In taking things off the page and
giving them celluloid life Del Toro has fully
rounded the characters while also managing to
transport the rich texture of Mignola's art to
the screen. By adding details as big as the romance
to as small as the color-coded nicknames for HB
and Abe Sapien, Del Toro makes these 'freaks'
human and believable. But of all the additions
the smartest are the expanded role for Broom and
bringing in John Myers (Rupert Evans) as a new
member of the BPRD. Myers has been assigned as
Hellboy's new partner and is the audience's wide-eyed
surrogate as he's introduced to the movie's incredible
world. Professor Bruttenholm's enhanced role is
instrumental in showing us Hellboy's softer side.
Their father/son relationship is well played and
quite affecting, making this aging boy tear up
more than once. Of course the director is a comic
fan himself, so I expected good attention to detail;
but his scriptwriting here is so smart that I
could only find one moment of discord (where he
steps on a tragic event with a laugh). Still,
this is a near perfect model of how modern big
budget movies should be crafted — with heart and
brains underpinning the action.
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When
it was announced that a director's cut DVD of
Hellboy would be
released after the theatrical version I held off
knowing I wouldn't be happy with the shorter edit.
Boy, am I glad I did! By adding about 13 minutes
to the running time Del Toro has restored a few
subplots, made some scenes longer and brings a
bit more depth to several characters. Most of
the additions are subtle but their accumulated
effect makes the film stronger. The transfer of
the film looks as fantastic as a modern film should:
sharp, detailed and clean with amazing colors.
The booming soundtrack is rendered very well in
5.1 Dolby and guarantees your home system a workout.
But, of course, with a 3-DVD set you can expect
extras — and DAMN! Do you ever get 'em! This one
has a brief introduction to the film and a full
running commentary track from the director as
well as an isolated score track with commentary
from composer Marco Beltrami. Del Toro's track
is great as he lays out Hellboy's pulp fiction
antecedents and in the process manages to give
a brief history of the supernatural detective
genre. The director is always entertaining and
if you harbor any love of movies, comics or fantastic
fiction you'll enjoy his nonstop monolog. This
disc also allows the option of watching the film
with branching comics linked to the story or with
pop-up factoids and optional video behind the
scenes set visits. To cap things there's a DVD-ROM
accessible version of the screenplay, the script
supervisor's book and the director's notebook.
Disc Two gives us a
video intro from Selma Blair, three deleted scenes
with optional commentary, animatics, motion board-a-matics
and multi-angle storyboard comparisons showing
the nuts and bolts of the filmmaking process.
There are filmographies of the actors as well
as character bios written by Del Toro, trailers/TV
spots and a look at the many ideas laid out for
poster art. But the meat of this DVD is the documentary
Hellboy: Seeds of Creation. This sucker
clocks in longer than the film itself and not
only showed me what I wanted to see (Perlman getting
into his makeup) but exhaustively details the
full production from comic to final cut. This
is a very fine film doc and is fun on its own
for an evenings viewing. My favorite extra though
is a brief look at each Maquette statuette made
for the creatures in the film that rotates them
around so you can see all the details. Cool!
Disc
Three starts with an intro from Perlman leading
to the fun cast video commentary. Perlman, Blair,
Jeffrey Tambor and Rupert Evans do a commentary
track for the theatrical cut of the film but they
are on screen in the audio booth with the film
only shown in the lower left corner. This is a
blast, with the four of them having a good time
talking about the film and making lots of jokes
about their director. Who would have known Tambor
was so into monster movies? There are a group
of Production Workshops delving into makeup and
lighting tests as well as How-To's on the visual
effects. Following this is a 22-minute bit of
video from a Q & A session at the San Diego Comic
Con in 2002 where Del Toro, Perlman and Mignola
let the fans ask about plans for the movie. Next
there's a 12-minute monolog from comic book author
and authority Scott McCloud called A Quick
Guide to Understanding Comics. It's a nice
intro to the techniques of comic book storytelling;
McCloud is the right guy to do it. (I highly recommend
those interested to read his books on the subject
starting with Understanding Comics.) Capping
Disc Three are several galleries of artwork. Mignola's
pre-production art is presented as well as the
director's notebook pages that are covered in
doodles and lots of conceptual art for the movie.
I like these galleries, though the best is the
section of Hellboy pinups from various comic artists
— beautiful stuff!
12/01/04
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