Hellboy opens in a graveyard on a remote island during the later stages of World War II. A special forces group of United States soldiers are led into their mission by paranormal researcher Professor Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm, played wonderfully by John Hurt. It seems as if Nazi Germany is making an effort to engage Black Magic Arts and open up a portal between space and time to allow the enlistment of other-world forces. After the ensuing battle, Professor Broom and his group of ragtag soldiers discover a small, childlike creature that more resembles something out of X-Men than it does anything of this world. With the help of a Baby Ruth candy bar, Professor Broom befriends the small child and ends up raising him as his own son.

All throughout the opening sequences, we see illustrations of evil versus good. As a backdrop in the cemetery, we see gravesites decorated with crosses, including an overpowering cross with Christ being crucified. We know from the early scenes that the battle that will rage throughout the duration of the movie will involve references to God and Christ as well as Hell and the devil. We hear interesting dialogue and prayer sequences that also bring this aspect of the movie to our attention. Professor Broom is seldom seen without his Prayer Rosary, and another character - along with Hellboy (played by one of my favorite actors, Ron Perlman) - seldom goes into battle without a “Christian” or religious relic.

There are interesting aspects of the movie that come out only in the later scenes. Hellboy himself, for example, seems to be a demonic angel who is confused by the fact that he has been raised to combat evil. We are never quite certain if he is a demon from hell or an angel from heaven. He is marked similarly to Night Crawler of X-2 fame. He buffs down his horns to avoid appearing like a devil and chooses instead to be as human as possible. Perhaps this is the truth that the moviemakers would have us identify with: the reality that we all choose between good and evil by our actions and behaviors. While this cigar-smoking demon chooses to be more human than divine, we see him constantly struggle with human emotions. He loves and cares, yet seeks to be independent. He is aware of his strengths and recognizes, sometimes too late, his own struggles with how and when to use those strengths.

Hellboy in many ways becomes an image of all of humanity, which is one of the beauties of comic book characters: they often exhibit superhuman strengths that we would all like to possess. In this case, those strengths are a super-strong body, resistant to heat, and a hand that is as powerful as a jackhammer. What Hellboy lacks in intelligence he makes up for in strength. While his demeanor is strong and forceful, we see a tender, caring, loving side of him too. This is the side that drives him and is the side that the audience can relate to. We know what it is like to love, yet not be loved, to care, and yet be misunderstood. Despite the heavy makeup by makeup artist, Rick Baker, Perlman as Hellboy is able to communicate his emotions in a way that we understand and appreciate.

Along the way we see an interesting group of characters that, again, resembles characters from X-Men more than they do anything else. There is Kroenen who resembles the creature from Creature From the Black Lagoon, except Kroenen has the ability to speak and has an uncanny ability to see into one's past, present and future. Then there is Liz Sherman, who is having some issues with the fact that she spontaneously and uncontrollably bursts into blazing flame. She too is a caring individual and is unhappy about all the people who have died because she has not always been able to contain her special ability; she is also the love interest of Hellboy. Of course, there are also evil characters that are of interest and help the story along.

Unfortunately, while there are numerous interesting characters to help the story along, there is little plot to help the characters along. That weakness, plus the failure to develop the ample opportunities for spiritual components, causes the movie to be lacking. Lines like “Without Light, Darkness will prevail” could have been used to allude to the fact that it is critical that Christians be light in a dark world. There were valuable lessons and objectives that could have had a tremendous purpose. Instead, all we see are constant battles between demon monsters, which resemble the beast out of Alien, and Hellboy - with a sword-wielding character, who can’t die, continually killing people. One would think that with all this action you would not get bored. On the contrary, this could be the longest 2 hours and 12 minutes I have spent in a movie theater in some time. Not since Godzilla has a comic book character been so disappointing on screen. That is unfortunate because with this ensemble cast the movie could have been much better.

That is not to say that the questions asked by this movie aren’t important - they are! Do we have the potential to choose evil over good? How do we respond to those we love - are we obedient? Do we accept the consequences for our actions when we are disobedient? Do we realize that our actions oftentimes have an effect on others? In addition, are we truly willing to sacrifice for those we love? All of those themes are addressed in a brief but intentional way in Hellboy. It just would have been nice to see more of a story to hold our interest, and more character development to cause us to know and care more about the characters.

On a scale of 1-10 a rather disappointing, ho-hum 4.