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Anyone seen Hellboy yet ?

Started by Conexus, 04 September, 2004, 01:41:24 AM

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Tiplodocus

You do realise that by watching pirate versions you are threatening the livelihoods of people involved in the film industry and helping fund crime and terrorism.  And I know Tom Cruise doesn't need the money but there are lots of gaffers, best boys, carpenters and caterers out there who do.


Anyway, I thought it was OK.  The character designs seemed spot on - not sure about the actual characters though as I haven't read that much HELLBOY.  It took me a while to "get into the mood" of the film as well (I have got a terrible cold at the mo').

Strangely, I found it to be the reverse of this kind of film. Normally the action sequencesare pulse pounding and exciting stuff but the story leaves me cold.  This time, I thought the action sequences were rather damp squibs.  And you'll guess the actual denouement about five hours before you go into the cinema.

I think I'd agree on above average (but on my scale, that's a long way from ROCKS and AWESOME).
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Devons Daddy

saw it a few months back
it was out here at the same time as you US
bloody brillant,.

good characters. first ten minutes page for page hellboy first issue.

decent comic book romp,. see and enjoy.
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Floyd-the-k

I saw it on the plane to Australia. I thought it was pretty good. I hadn`t thought you could do a convincing Hellboy that looked like the comic, but there he was.
  It wasn`t absolutely brilliant for mine, though. The character buildups were a bit too rushed (maybe that`s just an effect of watching it whilst exhausted on an overnight flight)

Woolly

Thought it started superbly, the effects were mostly great, Perlman is excellent as Hellboy and the supporting cast are more than adequate.

However, some of the direction leaves alot to be desired. The editing on some action scenes is absolutely terrible and ruins the flow of the scenes (see the scene where Hellboy is stuck on the underground bridge near the end). The film also seems about half an hour too long, and alot of the scenes dont make sense (Hellboy in the middle of a busy road and not a single one of the cars zooming past him give any indication that the drivers have seen him at all? daft!)


Sorry, im rambling again!
Summing up: Disappointing.

wrighty47

Pretty much agree with Wooly. It's a decent action comic book flick. Nothing groundbreaking but fine enough. It looks good, some good performances (Perlman is perfect). Thing is tho, it's all a bit obvious. No surprises in the film at all. Some decent one liners but nothing as outly funny as some of the stuff in Spidey 2. I wasn't as dissappointed as Wooly, it's pretty much what I expected,  but it's by no means the great movie others are saying.

Incidently, is now the time to print more Hellboy stories in the Meg or has that egreement now over?

Alan!

Woolly

Im still very interested by the proposed directors cut.
Anyone know what extra stuff to expect?

Also, to be honest, i enjoyed Hellboy more than i enjoyed Spidey 2.

wrighty47

Ah, well taht's where I completely diagree with you.

I thought that Spidey 2 had a human element that was severly missing from Hellboy. They tried to instill a love interest but it just felt contrived whereas the one in Spidey 2, along with the other Peter Parker elemnts, gave the film a real herat to it.
That said I am a huge Spidey fan so maybe i'm biased but Hellboy, whilst alright, gave us nothing we haven't seen before.

Alan!

Woolly

Normally i'd agree with you there, but all the human elements of spidey 2 were lifted straight from spidey 1 and didnt offer anything new, not till the end at least.

And the stuff about losing his powers? I thought he was changed at the genetic level? How does that just 'wear off' when Parker's feeling down?

There are other things as well, but im at work and getting stared at by a manager, so i better go for now!!!

Wul

wrighty47

I just thought that the human lements were done so much better this time round. I'm not trying to say that spidey 2 was perfect (the end of teh subway scene felt awfully tacked on) but I just thought that everything, from the relationship with MJ, with Aunt May, especially with Harry were spot on. Jameson was as prefect as Hellboy was character wise, and Doc Ock given a more human side made the character so much more real than Hellboys 2D villain(s) by numbers.

Alan!

Woolly

Good points all round, but i still felt that at least half of spidey 2 had been seen before.
But, I guess im being a bit negative here!!

Both films are great fun, even though i am a picky get. I think im just a bit bitter because Judge Dredd was a load of old arse!!

So, who do we think is going to be the big baddie for Spidey 3? Venom?

Proudhuff

Saw Hellboy in April on a nice big screen in Florida.

Its highly enjoyable and if your into comics i think you'll like it, but as been said above, the action bits are clumpy with too much obvious CG stuff, the details and vision in it are great as is John Hurt (if i remember right)

Also saw The Punisher then, which was good fun tooif only they had dumped his 'flatmates' from the story.

Lord Huff
DDT did a job on me

wrighty47

Yeah, there were certain elements in Spidey 2 that had been seen before but remember, it was a sequel and so there were always going to be. The secret is to take those familiar elements and improve on them. Something I presonally think Raimi achieved.

Don't get me wrong re: Hellboy. It is worth a watch, but I wonder how good it appears to a non comic reader, something Spidey 2 did on a massive scale.

Villain for Spidey 3? Dunno, but Raimi has said taht he won't be using Venom. I think the director is a fan of the Stan Lee written stories from the 60's so i'm guessing it'll be someone from those early days.

personally I think they'll go with The Lizard. Curt Conners was introduced in Spidey 2, and it's another 3D villain that the audience can relate to. They, I would imagine also contunue to devleop Harry into the 2nd Goblin, maybe even have him as Hobgoblin to differentiate the character from the first film.

Alan!

dweezil2

To be honest, i found it all sadly unengaging. Was really looking forward to it aswell. I thought it was to info heavy, and not interesting enough naratively. Good cast, and production values couldn't save it for me, i'm afaid. Quite sloppy directed in parts also. shame.
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Art

Grmmph. Didtribuytion is pretty piss-poor in London. I think they've pretty much given up on this one.

Leigh S

Was a bit disappointed (although all I know of Hellboy is the Meg reprint and perusing Mignolas luvverly art every now and then in the comic shop).  

It seemed very Hollywood; Big dumb SFX, big dumb convoluted plot, big dumb fights, big dumb one liners, big dumb romance - not really having the indie feel that Spidey *kinda* has or the emotional intensity/level of threat either.  Hellboy wanders from one demonic beastie to the next with all the trepidation of a paperboy delivering his next paper...not really any tension there... not bad, but didnt really grab me.