hellboy (blu-ray)

THE FLICK: As Hollywood digs further in the pantheon of comic-book heroes mining for cinematic success, Hellboy seem the most unlikely of choices. Not for lack of creativity, mind you. The eccentrically inventive story combines Nazis, demons, secret government agencies and doomed love triangles to great effect. But it’s precisely this hodge-podge of ingredients that should have made any adaptation of Mike Mignola’s witty sardonic hero nigh impossible. Should have. But I don’t think anyone was counting on director Guillermo Del Toro’s masterful balancing act of humor, horror, action and actual character development...especially when your character is a 9-foot tall red-skinned devil-child with sawed off horns and a pointed tail. When all is said and done, Hellboy makes for an invigorating experience – unpredictable, unusual and all the more exceptional because none of this cult comic book BS should work on the big screen...but it does. Kicking off during WWII with a raid on demon-conjuring Nazis, Hellboy is raised from an infant by a scientist father-figure (John Hurt) who surrounds his surrogate son with other gifted “freaks of nature” enrolled in a clandestine government agency formed to protect society from otherworldly menaces. Hellboy (played by Ron Perlman under very impressive make-up) has the hots for Liz (Selma Blair), one of his pyrotechnically charged teammates. While Abe Sapian (voiced by David Hyde Pierce) is the empathetic psychic fish-man of the group. Of course, what would a team of super powered freaks be without some bad guys to fight? And this time it’s Rasputin (yes, that Rasputin) back from the dead to unlock an interdimensional gate and release some Lovecraftian tentacled monsters, triggering the final apocalypse. All this likely sounds more than a little ridiculous from the outside looking in. But Del Toro has such an enthusiasm for the material it’s rabidly infectious. Starting with the production design - a blend of vacuum-tube technology and middle age mysticism – the film shares a quirky clockwork fascination with Del Toro’s debut feature, Cronos, and his Academy Award winning foreign language film Pan’s Labyrinth. But incorporates the best elements of the director’s earlier action scenes from Blade 2. However you spin it, Hellboy has story to spare. And it’s this well-rounded mythology that provides enough tantalizing plot elements and character flaws for a few sequels to come. THE FEATURES: Sony’s Blu-ray release of Hellboy stacks up with some of the best transfers on the hi-def format, with brilliantly enhanced colors and dark shadows that best any previous incarnation of the film. It’s so good, there are plenty of opportunities to look for chinks in the film’s armor (make-up, effects, etc.) and it’s to Del Toro and his crews’ credit that you will find very few of them. Although nowhere near as comprehensive as the standard-def “Director’s Cut,” Hellboy on Blu-ray still features the 2 1/2 hour documentary The Seeds of Creation that covers every possible aspect of the film with an eye for detail. Almost completely bereft of marketing hoopla and filler material, Del Toro makes better use of the DVD medium than perhaps any other director besides Peter Jackson. If you can’t find out what you need to know about Hellboy in this doc, then your next step is the Director’s Commentary, which fills in some gaps and expresses Del Toro’s enthusiasm for the sequel which is on-track for 2008. Scott McCloud’s Guide to Understanding Comics is a general discussion featurette about the medium. Then there are a series of deleted scenes, visual effect how-to’s, and a Make-Up and Lighting Tests featurette also with Del Toro commentary.