Sunday, November 23, 2003

In case you haven't seen this yet, and I'd be amazed if you hadn't, you can go here to see the first trailer for the upcoming Hellboy flick.

Good: Selma Blair is Liz Sherman. The Nazis and Rasputin look good. There's a cool scene where Hellboy hits a car on the hood with his stone hand, causing it to flip over his head.

Not-so-good: The scenes inside the BPRD headquarters look a little too James Bondish (or Steranko-style S.H.I.E.L.D., perhaps) for me- part of the charm of the Bureau is that it looks like an old-style office building or even library on the inside. John Hurt as Dr. Bruttenholm (called "Broom" on the Yahoo page). He looks like Dr. Wiley from Mega Man, not a slam on the actor himself (he's a good one), but... The body suit makeup for Abe Sapiens, which looked kinda cheesy but the preview was a bit low-res so it was hard to tell what it looked like sometimes. The jury's still out on Abe. Also, the groan-inducing and clichéd (but necessary from a filmmaking standpoint I suppose) introduction of a pretty-boy newbie agent, an "everyman" through whose eyes we meet everyone. Of course, Mignola introduces new agents all the time so there's a precedent, but he usually gives them a quirk or two to make them a little less ordinary. Finally, the makeup on Ron Perlman just isn't all that convincing. To me, he looks like someone in a better-than-average Hellboy Halloween costume. He is shown speaking some lines, though, and Perlman manages to convey some wryness and emotion through the prosthetics, so maybe there's hope.

Anyway, it's coming in April 2004. Everybody cross your fingers.

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