Monday, April 05, 2004

OK, I've heard from several who've seen Hellboy already and wish to let me know that my fears are ungrounded. Plus, after scanning the reviews section at Rotten Tomatoes, critical reaction hasn't been as uniformly negative as I believed. Of course, until I go and see the damned thing for myself, my own opinions will have to wait...but I know two things I've read right off the bat bug the crap out of me. First, the subtle rearrangement of Hellboy's origin. Instead of being an accidental summoning, who pops up not in the Nazi camp but instead in the Allies', and Rasputin left holding the bag but still not accepting that he screwed up, now we have the Allied forces breaking in on the Nazi summoning and engaging in a big battle, with rasputin being sucked into a dimensional portal of some sort. Why in the name of pamcakes was this necessary? To get a gun battle right off the bat? Were the actual events of the comics' origin so confusing to Joe Sixpack that someone felt the need for a change? I don't understand. Also, the romance between HB and Liz Sherman. NO! NO, NO! People! I admit it makes a certain sense that a pyrotechnic and a hell-spawned demon would hook up, but IT'S NOT IN THE COMICS! Mignola had a reason to not hook up HB and Liz, and I was fine with it. Was it so important to gove him a love interest for the lazy fools who expect such a thing in every fricking movie they see? HB, so far in the comics (unless you count the romantic interest in the Lost Army prose novel), has shunned romantic entanglements, although he seems to have a soft spot for fellow agent Kate, whose last name eludes me right now. In the comics, Liz and Abe have a sort of relationship, or at least a closer understanding. Why was this necessary?

Aren't you glad you won't be seeing this film with me?

No comments: