Showing posts with label dark horses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dark horses. Show all posts

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Oh, The Horror! #10: Hellboy (film)

Well, after reviewing Hellboy vol. 3: The Chained Coffin and Others it only seems plausible to watch Hellboy and review it. Only, I didn't finish watching it again and I was actually going to write a review about it before my friend even let me borrow the Hellboy trade. But yes, anyhoo, my baby sister decided to put the DVD on so it played in the background while I surfed but still turned around to catch most of the movie. Damn good movie this is. The direction, the make-up, the actors, the characters, the score, everything! Heck, the score is playing in the background right now as I type this! My sister just let the credits play until it's now at the disc menu just replaying itself. But hey, I love the music, so I won't shut it off. And who doesn't love that magnificent score piece during the funeral of Hellboy's dad? That is just heart rendering.

Ron Perlman is much too awesome as Hellboy. He gives him such a charm that it's hard not to fall in love with him. The same goes to Abe Sapien who is played by Doug Jones and voiced by David Hyde Pierce. I love the two of them together in Hellboy 2 as they most certainly bring out such great laughs, especially their drunken scene when they sing Barry Manilow. But that's the sequel! This is about Hellboy 1! Once again, great movie. It's funyn how much I love this movie now as when I first saw it in theaters I didn't like it at all. My family did, but I didn't. When it came out on DVD I somehow ended up buying it, watched it again and still didn't like it, thinking I wasted my money. And SOMEHOW I watched it again and just fell in love with it. I dunno what it was. But I'm glad I did because now I love the character and the mythology around everything of his and his world. I love how the movie tries to depict Hellboy wanting to be a man and that's pushed even further in the sequel. I also love his love him/hate him relationship with John Mayers, played by Rupert Evans. It saddened me that Evans wasn't in the sequel but it's a little hard to wonder how he would have fit in. Especially given that he's not a character from the books. And of course we have Selma Blair as Liz, the firestarter! One of my absolute favorite scenes is when she gets kissed in her sleep which causes her to blow up a whole asylum!

The villains! How can you not love the villains?! You have Gregori Rasputin, who in this movie starts off working for the Nazis as he's a man of great knowledge of the occult and eventually brings Hellboy to our world as a cute lil' thing. He comes back later, hoping to bring the demons Ogdru Jahad to our world that brings Hellboy straight into the main plot where he has to stop him and over-come his destiny of being a God of Destruction. Then there's Kroenen who totally steals the movie for me. A deadly killing machine who's blood has turned into dust but just keeps on ticking. He is a victim of plastic surgery and has such a beautiful face. My oh my. And who doesn't love that creepy scene where he gently goes down those steps to kill Hellboy's father, Professor Broom played by John Hurt. And then later in the film you cheer on when Hellboy packs some much deserved pounds into Kroenen's face!

Great humor, great action, and great everything! Watch this movie and just let it take you into a magically world. Then catch the sequel which just multiples everything into total bliss! I can't wait to see the sequel again and review it.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Oh, The Horror! #9: Hellboy Vol. 3: The Chained Coffin and Others



I love Hellboy. Yes, I do! I think he's a great character and I just love his world and the other folks he surrounds himself with. I love both the fantastic movies directed by the great Guillermo Del Toro and I love the animated movies. One problem, though... I've never really read Hellboy. Some kinda fan I am, ay? Years ago I've read the famous The Corpse story, and I've read the crossover with Savage Dragon. One thing I've ALWAYS loved was the wonderful art done by the creator Mike Mignola. But yes, a few days ago I went to one of my friends' house to discuss our film assignment for film class. I saw he had a few comics and I asked if I could borrow Hellboy. I would have loved it to be Vol. 1, but it was Vol. 3: The Chained Coffin and Others, but who was I to pass up a chance to FINALLY read the damn book?! So I borrowed it and finally read it earlier today, and holy moley was this a blast to read! Each chapter was a short issue or a few pages all introduced by Mignola himself on the background of the story.

You can totally see Mignola having tons of fun writing and drawing this comic and coming up with the stories. It's seriously like watching a boy play with his toys. Mignola is highly imaginative with each panel-to-page of the stories, but at the same time produces the complexity of everything to a very simple story that's enough to have you cheering for the hero. Mignola is a HUGE folklore junky and his stories are deeply inspired by old folklore that range from all types of cultures. That's one thing that's always fascinated me about the character even in the movies, live action and animated. In this specific volume, there's inspiration from English, Irish, Russian culture, even a bit of Frankenstein! I would love to see what Mignola could do with Haitian folklore. That'd definitely get my fascination to the upteen level!

I would highly recommend this for anyone who's a fan of the Hellboy movies, horror, or monsters. I actually got such an aura of inspiration reading this and makes me really excited to produce something of this caliber someday. It's definitely pumped me up for the upcoming 24 Hour Comic Challenge I posted earlier about. Also, once again, the art is just... magnificent. I really wish Marvel and DC books would put more art like this into their books. Artists like Mignola, Riley Rossmo, Irving, etc. These types of artists are what I find to be more appealing than the art we're seeing in the Big 2 books today. Now, I do enjoy a lot of the art there and the artists are extremely skillful and talented, but it's time we've had some change with the style of art, you know?

But anywho, Hellboy! I'm so gonna need to start buying the other trades of this book! So do you all!