In the mid 40's during the war, Nazi scientists led by the long lived Rasputin seek to find an edge to help win the war. Opening a portal to hell, Rasputin intends to usher in the apocalypse. The Reich and his plans are soon thwarted by an American strike team. Upon cleaning up the mess the U.S. agents find a little something that snuck through the gate.

Now set in the present day, Rasputin is back and once again trying to let hell onto earth. In steps our big red hero Hellboy, who works for a secret task force for the government along with a few other oddities: Abe Sapien, the aquatic telepath, and Liz Sherman, the pyrokinetic. Hellboy and friends must stop the evil Rasputin and his plans for domination.

Ron Perlman plays Hellboy, who is an amazing character, as charismatic as he is red. Abe is a great sidekick and Liz is more or less the love interest.

Hellboy just can't decide whether or not it wants to be a superhero action flick or an occult creaturefest. Based off of the comic series by the same name, Hellboy is a good try but falls a little short.

Fights seem to make you dizzy and rely a little too much on the CGI. The main villain, Rasputin, is a bit of a slouch. His Nazi Assassin is a work of art, though.

The movie has a good mix of action, humor and effects but just never really seems to get started. It's a shame because Perlman is fantastic as the wise cracking, red skinned powerhouse. Hellboy has incredible potential which just wasn't lived up to in this film.

Decent by all means it's just a tad too bland and at times too slow, but worth a look at least once.

5 of 10

I REALLY enjoyed this movie, unlike Prime I never got into any of the Hellboy comics, I was aware of who Hellboy was and what he looked like but knew nothing about the story. That may be why I enjoyed the film so much, I didn't have anything to base the accuracy on (rarely am I not dissapointed in this aspect).

Normally I don't like CGI fests, but in my humble opinion, the CGI was done very well for Hellboy. There was lots of it, and there were a few points where Hellboy or whatever was obviously CGI'd, but there were also plenty of "Gee I wonder if that's CGI or not?" moments, and that's usually a sign of a job well done.

Ron Perlman's portrayal of Hellboy was brilliant, really a great job that couldn't have been done by anybody else, and it was nice to see him get a chance to carry a film especially since he did it so damn well.

I also enjoyed seeing Selma Blair in a role that didn't make her out to be the dingy airhead, she also had a much more integral role than I expected.

Altogether, as if you hadn't surmised, I loved this movie and had a BLAST! Plenty of action, comedy, a bit of gore, and great EFX. I'll definitely pick it up the very day it comes out.

9 out of 10 Bug eyed, sand filled, surgery addicted, wicked old Nazi's

I was really looking forward to seeing this film because of the good things I had heard. After finally viewing it, I have to agree with Jareprime's review. I wasn't that impressed.

Let's start with the good aspects first. I think everyone was impressed with the performance of Ron Perlman in the title role. It seemed to be a role tailor-made for Perlman and he absolutely nailed the brooding but very witty character.

I also liked Del Toro's choice to make the film darker both in scenery and mood. I had the feeling that Hellboy and Abe were seen as freaks more than heros and that added to the appreciation of the difficult jobs they had.

What didn't work for me was the love interest aspect of the film. I felt as though I was expected to know that Hellboy was in love with Liz without knowing much about their past encounters. Why did he care for her? How did they meet? Did they have a closer relationship in the past? All of these unanswered questions made the whole thing feel forced.

Don't get me wrong, I did like this film. I just share the same sentiment that Jareprime made known. It could have been so much more.

6 out of 10dust filled assassins