Hellboy (Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]

I was actually shocked! It was very well done! I shouldn't have been too shocked, though, as the director is Guillermo Del Toro, the one who gave us Blade 2 (say what you will about it, but I found it was a shade better than the first even and I liked the first). He's definitely experienced enough now to turn a comic book movie into real cinema and he has no problem making the characters of Hellboy believable.

I think if I had to choose a complaint, it would be this. There are a good number of characters, but due to the amount of them, it's difficult to give much development to them all. Still, given the time the movie runs, all the characters do get a fair treatment and all of them have at least some development, if not a good amount (as Hellboy or Myers). Also, only one or two of the lines struck me as entirely cheesy or campy, and on the whole the writing was great.

The action flowed nicely and there was a good amount of it, though not too much where it can be overwhelming. The plot was interesting and kept the audience involved. Sure, it's not believable, but let's be serious: it's a movie based on a comic, how true-to-life do you WANT the plot to be? The villains are well done and very good at their parts. The CGI doesn't distract too much from the film as they blend that with the rest of the movie very seemlessly. They definitely did their homework and took their time with this one.

Also, on a side note, the PG-13 rating it totally deserved and goes to show how good a movie can be without an overdose of gore, sex, or foul language (the worst word in it being 'ass' I believe). The gore and bloodshed are kept very low (yes, people still die, but aside from one particular scene, the sight of blood is almost non-existent). It's not Puritanical, but well done without overdoing it.

It's totally worth the watch and you will definitely want to do so in the theater. You really need to get that full effect. It will most likely be added to my collection on DVD when it comes out. Enjoy!


Love it even more now   June 8, 2007
 16 out of 16 found this review helpful

First saw it in the theater and thought to myself "What a mess of a movie". It is all over the place. Saw the director's cut on dvd and thought to myself, much better. Character development was apparently stripped from the theatrical release. Now I see the same Director's Cut in BLU-RAY......WOW!!! Seeing it again on a big screen TV in high definition is the way to go with this movie. It seems the more I watch it, the more I fall in love with it. The video looks absolutely stunning. This is now one of my favorite show-off films in blu-ray. Friends and family come over and want to watch something on my setup, Hellboy is now my film of choice. As an action flick, the sound is just to die for. Special effects and fight scene audio take the movie to another level. I show it off with the 5.1 PCM and it never lets me down. A friend of mine came over and said he didn't like the movie before, but after watching it again on my ps3 with big screen and surround sound, even he said it's great.


Monster Seeking Monsters   October 4, 2004
 18 out of 19 found this review helpful

Hellboy, when it was first announced as a film project, shocked me because I kept trying to figure out how it was going to be made. First I pondered the budget necessary to make a film version of Mike Migola's insanely cool comic without making it look stupid and cheap. Second I worried greatly about the director. Last, I couldn't even begin to think about who the hell would play Hellboy.

Amazing as it seems, the budget was more than adequate, the director more than capable (Guillermo del Toro), and the actor playing Hellboy (Ron Perlman) was, is, and always will be the film incarnation of the big red guy. In fact, if I had my way I'd nominate Perlman for an Academy Award (and in doing so validate those frivolities very existence). Betcha it don't happen though.

This film is the grandest presentation of a fanboy project since The Fellowship of the Ring, made all the more amazing by the fact that the source material is a borderline underground comic. Del Toro's genius is in proving that great film making can come from the semi-obscure.

Every shot with Hellboy is eyecatching, and with the special effects teams involved it's no wonder. From creature animation, to backgrounds the best of the best had there hand in this film.

While Hellboy is bad ass, Abe Sapien is perhaps one of the most beautiful creature creations brought to film ever, kind of like the Creature from the Black Lagoon with a yen for book learning instead of white bikinis. Liz, is a Firestarter that would roast Drew Barrymore like some leftover cocktail weenie.

Throw in a tick tock man made of gears and cogs who was a nazi super assassin, the mad monk Rasputin, and several demon/gods from hell and you've got an action/horror hybrid that's enough to put any SFX junkie into joy riddled convulsions.

The best part about this movie (aside from the reported sequel in the works) is that it increased the world's knowledge exponentially of the wonderful comic by Mike Mignola. People are now seeking out the haunting artwork and surreal storytelling of Hellboy and I envy anyone their first glance into Mignola's imagination.

Now for one last thing, apparently a director's cut is on the way, and while on the one hand I feel cheated, I also find myself curious. I'm having a psychic moment, it involves the future and a willfull relinquishing of hard earned funds. Hopefully it will be worth it. I know the original theatrical release was. One of the top 10 movies of 2004.


Give Evil Hell!   April 22, 2004
 14 out of 14 found this review helpful

I was extremely impressed with this movie. It included the comic books, it was hilarious, it was very close to the comics, and the special effects were beautifully well done. Perlman was an excellent Hellboy. The attitude was very resembling. I thought it was interesting that Hellboy and a pyro girl(I forgot her name) were in love. In all, 5 stars, 10/10, an absolute masterpiece.