Hellboy (2004)

IMDb plot summary: A demon, raised from infancy after being conjured by and rescued from the Nazis, grows up to become a defender against the forces of darkness.
Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Starring Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Selma Blair, and Rupert Evans.

This movie looks fantastic -- great character design and effects, some really nice action sequences -- but it picks up as if we're right in the middle of a bunch of character drama I'm supposed to have a frame of reference for. (I kept checking to make sure I was actually watching the first Hellboy and not the sequel.) We get technical backstory on Hellboy but it never establishes his inner thoughts or his relationship with the people around him, especially not his romantic relationship. It just jumps right into the middle of the drama and then we're supposed to feel things? But I don't know why I should care about any of these things. We spend way more time on plot logistics and examining side characters than we do seeing anything other than jealousy from Hellboy. I just feel out of the loop, and that's not a great place for this movie to start.

(On a completely different note... the discovery of Hellboy happens on October 9, 1944, according to the movie captions... but the soundtrack on Spotify as a track called "October 7, 1944"? Which I'm assuming it's a mislabeling but maybe it's just a nice pleasant little track people could have listened to two days before Hellboy showed up before anything significant to this story happened. Also, October 7th is my birthday. But that doesn't really matter in this context.)

3 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Hellboy > No Country for Old Men (which I don't like... what's that doing in the middle of my chart?!)

Hellboy < Quartet

Hellboy > The Illusionist (2006)

Hellboy < Demetri Martin. Person.

Hellboy < Signs

Hellboy < Father Goose

Hellboy > Nine to Five

Hellboy < Galaxy Quest

Hellboy < The Kid (2000)

Hellboy < Gandhi

Hellboy > The Major and the Minor

Final spot: #1014 out of 2770.