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Arts & Culture

Hellboy

Perlman is used to emoting under layers of heavy make-up having played a primitive man in Quest for Fire and the beast half of TV's Beauty and the Beast . As Hellboy he looks like a cross between the Fantastic Four's The Thing and King Kong, but painted red, sporting a tail, and with a stony, barrel-like right arm. He also has a pair of filed off horns atop his head, a short temper and a big heart.

The film opens with an elaborate prologue set toward the end of World War II and packed with action. This provides the back-story of Hellboy's origins. The resurrected Russian monk Rasputin (Karel Roden) and his Nazi collaborators decide to open the mouth of hell in the hopes of harnessing some evil power. Allied Forces, along with paranormal expert Professor Broom (Kevin Trainor as the young Broom and John Hurt assuming the role as the elderly professor), manage to shutdown the hellhole but not before a demon baby pops out. The red, monkey-like creature is quickly won over by a couple Baby Ruth bars offered by the kindly Professor Broom.

Fast forward some 60 years, Hellboy is now a huge, hulking teenager (apparently Hellboy doesn't age like humans, it's "reverse dog years" with 7 years equaling one human year, or something like that). He's been raised by Professor Broom, who's taught him that his humanity lies in his ability to choose between good and evil. So despite his hellish origins, Hellboy has become a champion for good. He helps keep earth safe from whatever other worldly types may drop in with evil intentions. And he achieves this by working at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence or B.P.R.D. Broom is a loving and understanding father figure but that hasn't stopped Hellboy from being your typical moody teenager who likes to be rebellious and stir up trouble now and again. Despite his strange exterior, Hellboy also strikes one as just a blue collar, average Joe who's a bit disgruntled at his job and has trouble dealing with authority.

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Like the mutants at the special school in X-Men , Hellboy's B.P.R.D. is home to a family of supernatural misfits. Like the mutants, they are hidden from society and whatever good they do is done in secret. In addition to Hellboy, there's Abe Sapien (Doug Jones but with David Hyde Pierce's voice), a telepathic "Mer-Man," and Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), a troubled young woman who can control fire and has something of a romance with Hellboy. On the human side, there's John Myers (Rupert Evans), a young FBI recruit sent to watch over Hellboy. This team is set in action when the mad monk Rasputin rises from the dead aided by a creepily masked, sword wielding Kroenen (Ladislav Beran) and a kind of demon dog named Sammael, who multiplies every time you kill him. Their evil plan apparently involves using Hellboy to help them re-open the hellhole to let in the Gods of Chaos who'll bring forth the Apocalypse. Needless to say, all hell breaks loose before the final climatic showdown between good and evil.

Del Toro made this film as a labor of love, and his respect and affection for his source material is obvious. He hasn't brought Hellboy to the screen because he wants to change it but rather because the themes and ideas developed by Mike Mignola are ones that interest him. The idea of what makes us human can be found in all of Del Toro's films. He always seems to be sympathizing with the monsters whether it's the Christ-like vampire in Cronos or the sad little ghost in The Devil's Backbone. When I interviewed Del Toro years ago, he told me that when he was four years old, he used to see monsters in his bedroom. The creatures scared him so badly that he would rather wet the bed than attempt to walk to the bathroom. Then his mother threatened to punish him if he repeated the offense. So he decided to strike a bargain with the monsters, if they let him get up and go to the bathroom he would be their friend forever. They did and Del Toro has made good on his promise.

Hellboy was made for $60 million, a big but not huge budget by today's bloated standards, and apparently it might have been bigger if someone like Vin Diesel or The Rock had been cast in the lead. The film reveals Del Toro's elegant visual style as it remains graphically true to its source material. Del Toro does instill the film with his particular brand of gothic horror that bears an influence from the Catholic Church. The director chooses to have all the creatures played by humans and then enhanced to varying degrees by make up, CGI work and other effects tricks. The results are dazzling and the approach gives the creatures more personality. Del Toro completely sucks us into his fantasy world and integrates the effects so that they enhance the film rather than distract from the story. And Kroenen has to be one of the most bizarre and creepy creations since the Hellraiser Cenobites were let loose on humanity. Del Toro makes him into a strangely kinky, patchwork creation that is lethal with a pair of swords but seems to need to wind himself up with a key before battle. The action in general is well executed and boasts a satisfying blend of tension and humor.

But what makes this film rise above some of the other comic book fare is the way the character of Hellboy has been brought to the screen by Del Toro and Perlman. They essentially make you forget that he's this bizarre creature because Perlman invests him with such humanity. And maybe what makes him most human are his flaws. At one point, Hellboy, fueled by jealousy, sneaks out and jumps from rooftop to rooftop to spy on John and Liz as they go for an innocent walk. As he lets his suspicions run rampant, he clumsily misses one jump and looks pretty silly as he hangs uncomfortably from the side of a building. Then he immaturely beans John with a rock. Scenes like this make us see Hellboy as a person coping with day-to-day personal problems. As with TV's Buffy , the fun is how this mundane daily life keeps colliding with a supernatural one. As Hellboy, Perlman does what he has done so well before with his heavily made up characters -- he gives him a soul.

Hellboy (rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and frightening images) is a fantastic, entertaining film and I don't need to qualify that by saying "for a comic book movie." I get really tired of people being so dismissive of this genre and I wish more people would go and read some of today's comics, graphic novels and mangas so they could see how far this literary (and yes I do believe it qualifies as literature) genre has come. Hellboy wins us over because the character Hellboy wins us over. And when the film ends, it is the quieter scenes with Hellboy that prove more memorable than the action.

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Companion viewing: Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, Beauty and the Beast (TV series)