I was pleasantly surprised by many things in this movie. It is standard comicbook fare, but I genuinely liked the Hellboy character. I won’t go into the whole background of the character (since my knowledge is limited), but suffice to say the Nazis helped create this demon who was “adopted” by a scientist and taken from the Nazis and raised to be “good”.
How good is he? Well, he’s a crimefighter, for one. For another, he likes cats (as pets, not to eat). For another, he doesn’t curse (I loved how Hellboy always said, “Oh crap” when he was in a tough situation. You would think a demon would have more choice words, but obviously his “father” taught him better manners than that).
I won’t go into the whole “how can you like a movie called Hellboy” thing, but I will say this – the reason I like it is the same reason I liked “Buffy” – it shows that even someone that is evil can make the choice to be good (a la vampire Spike getting his soul back as opposed to Angel being “cursed” to have his soul return). In “Hellboy”, the main character is coerced into doing something evil into getting his girlfriend back but it is a reminder of what he has become and his dead father’s rosary beads that help him overcome the temptation and not do evil.
The story was a bit convoluted, but I liked it nonetheless. 2 1/2 stars out of five.