Hellboy - Behold the Power of Cheese!
Apr. 5th, 2004 08:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsHe wants to be just a regular guy, but his looks forever set him apart. He has to live in a shelter because whenever he's seen he's hounded by reporters who make up wild stories. He adores his adopted father, but fights with him all the time, particularly over 1) his interest in the world and most especially 2) the girl he's in love with (who lives in regular society). And he's played by Ron Perlman.
Naaaah, no parallels at all to Beauty and the Beast!
Hellboy is a ton of fun. It's not deep, it's not meaningful, but it's amusing as all get-out, mostly because Ron endows Hellboy with a deeply sardonic sense of humor - one which is not only amusing in its particulars ("I'll always look this good," he tells his girlfriend, pointing out every inhuman flaw in his face) but because of its universality. ("I'm gonna be sore in the morning," he grumbles in the middle of a knock-down, drag-out fight.)
However, it's not just the one-liners that make this movie so watchable. Rare as such things are in action movies, Hellboy has an actual plot. Not, perhaps, a strong plot, but a coherent one, and one which gets bonus points for trying to tackle some of the deeper philosophical questions. Who is the real man - the human who turned himself into Tick-Tock the Clockwork Nazi, or Hellboy and his fellow freaks? What is stronger, nature or nurture? Can anyone write their own destiny? The whole movie leads up to Hellboy being faced with that dilemma. Fortunately, the scriptwriters insert these issues without losing the sense of slam-bang comic book action. Morals aren't wrapped up in a bow and lobbed at the audience like a brick; they simply run as a slender subtext just beneath the surface of action and witticism. For those who want such things, they're there for discussion. If not, there's plenty of action to go around.
I don't think Hellboy will rewrite the comic genre like Pirates of the Carribean did for pirate movies, but there are a lot of parallels. Both movies were based on unusual sources, both were considered well out of the mainstream when they were green-lighted, and both had controversial leads. (Disney thought Depp was over the top; many studios passed on Hellboy because they didn't want Perlman in the role.)
Yet upon release both were tremendous delights, mainly due to their leading men.
Hellboy made #1 over the weekend, and well deserved it.
Naaaah, no parallels at all to Beauty and the Beast!
Hellboy is a ton of fun. It's not deep, it's not meaningful, but it's amusing as all get-out, mostly because Ron endows Hellboy with a deeply sardonic sense of humor - one which is not only amusing in its particulars ("I'll always look this good," he tells his girlfriend, pointing out every inhuman flaw in his face) but because of its universality. ("I'm gonna be sore in the morning," he grumbles in the middle of a knock-down, drag-out fight.)
However, it's not just the one-liners that make this movie so watchable. Rare as such things are in action movies, Hellboy has an actual plot. Not, perhaps, a strong plot, but a coherent one, and one which gets bonus points for trying to tackle some of the deeper philosophical questions. Who is the real man - the human who turned himself into Tick-Tock the Clockwork Nazi, or Hellboy and his fellow freaks? What is stronger, nature or nurture? Can anyone write their own destiny? The whole movie leads up to Hellboy being faced with that dilemma. Fortunately, the scriptwriters insert these issues without losing the sense of slam-bang comic book action. Morals aren't wrapped up in a bow and lobbed at the audience like a brick; they simply run as a slender subtext just beneath the surface of action and witticism. For those who want such things, they're there for discussion. If not, there's plenty of action to go around.
I don't think Hellboy will rewrite the comic genre like Pirates of the Carribean did for pirate movies, but there are a lot of parallels. Both movies were based on unusual sources, both were considered well out of the mainstream when they were green-lighted, and both had controversial leads. (Disney thought Depp was over the top; many studios passed on Hellboy because they didn't want Perlman in the role.)
Yet upon release both were tremendous delights, mainly due to their leading men.
Hellboy made #1 over the weekend, and well deserved it.
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Date: 2004-04-05 06:23 am (UTC)