.:A Primer:.

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me...

Grace and I watched "Hellboy" yesterday, as "Taking Lives" was already taken out, and "I Will Survive" and "Van Helsing" are just starting, so we can still catch those two next week. In any case, I passed by Don Bosco before going to Megamall to catch it, but I didn't see any of my favorite teachers there. Ah, well. Saw Arnel Ignacio pass by me while I was playing in the arcade and waiting for Grace. Interesting, no question about it.

.:Movie Review: Hellboy:.

As usual, Spoilers Ahead!

Hellboy
Tale as old as time, true as it can be...

Ron Perlman, the Beast in the now-defunct television series called "Beauty and the Beast", stars as the lead character of this exceptionally fun film based on the Dark Horse comic book of the same title ("Hellboy". Not "Beauty and the Beast".). Set in the present day, this film is about an infernal denizen who came from a portal that seems to open up to Hades, only for him to be raised by a devout Catholic scientist who works for the government. Hellboy ends up working as a special agent along with another strange life form and a firestarter lady in order for them to take down Rasputin, the very man who has opened the portal that sent Hellboy here.

I'll spare you the details of the story and instead go right into my analysis. Ron Perlman was never a stellar actor, but he does really well in this film. If anything, the writers ought to be praised for the tight and witty dialogue that they managed to come up with. It's the kind of comedy Joel Schumacher failed to capture in any of his pathetic attempts at the Batman series. I guess Mr. Schumacher should stick to racing cars instead...

The special effects were good, although the fire effect is glaringly not consuming the girl's clothing when she uses it. I guess it's an oversight, or else they really had an explanation that they didn't bother to incorporate into the film. What mainly annoys me is the lack of back stories for some of the characters, as unlike Spider-man or Batman, I haven't read this comic book yet, so a lot of the interesting plot points it had were lost on me. What makes this film good is that you'd still enjoy the film, anyway. Action and pacing was all fine, and I really liked the rooftop scene where Hellboy was being given advice by a nine-year old kid.

Hellboy captures a kind of essence that draws you towards their characters. You didn't want to see Hellboy's "father" die, much less see the same thing happen to Abe, the aquatic alien life form. Myers, however, was an immensely flat character, and I was more fond of the task force head who didn't get along with Hellboy, especially when they started getting along at one point in the film. They were bonding with one another already, which really pushed their character development in the right direction.

This film was well worth catching, whether or not you read the comic book. Hellboy's success as a film may have come as a surprise to me but it's a welcome surprise, nonetheless.

Marcelle's "Fun" Evaluation: A-
Marcelle's "Critical" Evaluation: B