Tag Archives: Hellboy

Hellboy: Sword of Storms Review

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Hellboy is back with an animated adventure! Now this is a film that I had not seen before so that made it extra fresh. The movie is not particularly long so everything has to happen at double speed here. I liked the really frantic pacing and there was a lot of action to be had. If you’re a big fan of the supporting cast then this may not rank quite as highly for you though as it is very much a Hellboy only adventure. The other characters just don’t get to do nearly as much.

The film starts off with a pretty fun action scene as Hellboy gets to be thrown around for a while before launching his comeback. Liz and Abe also run in to help a bit but I hope you enjoyed their scene a lot because after this they are thrown into a meaningless subplot never to do much more from there. It’s too bad because in this version Liz seems to be a lot more fun than in the main film. She is very sarcastic and more confident in herself. Her flame abilities may not be 100% mastered but she has pretty decent control over them. Also they seem stronger, or maybe Hellboy’s just a bit weaker since he doesn’t seem to have complete immunity against the flames anymore.

The real plot starts here though. Sakai sloppily allows himself to be controlled by an ancient spirit so Hellboy and the gang are called in. He is assisted by Kate and Russell on this one but Hellboy is quickly taken into another dimension thanks to he mythical sword. He has to find a way out and these spirits sure like talking. Hellboy will have to get past all of them but can he pull this off?

One thing you will notice right away is how done with the whole situation Hellboy is. He’s quite sarcastic and has a fun sense of humor with how jaded he is. That’s the biggest strength of the film in general. The characters all have a lot of great lines and the banter is particularly fun here. Hellboy’s incredibly deadpan and why not right? He’s been around for a very long time and so nothing particularly surprises him anymore. Spirits of lightning and thunder? Ghost possessions? Giant monsters? Yeah he’s seen all of that before so that is why he is able to stay extremely calm the whole time. I can respect that.

The first thing I do have to admit is that I didn’t really care about the ghost substory here. yeah it was all tragic and everything but (and this is an issue the sequel has as well) I just want to stick to the present here. Anytime we have to learn more about what happened with the sword, it’s just a bit dull. Not super dull since like I mentioned the pacing is pretty fast, but it’s still not as good as the present. I want to see Hellboy and the others running around. Maybe use the extra time to extend the fight Liz and Abe had with the water creature and actually give us a decisive victory. It did make for a fun gag near the end of the film but they could have probably deserved a bit more here.

The fight scenes were pretty good all around. The animation was very colorful and bright although I thought it was a bit rough at times. I was really surprised to learn that it was an actual anime company behind this. Maybe they were told to rough up the edges a bit to look more like an American production That sounds a little crazy but hey you never know right? It was still good on the whole though and in animation you can have a little more fun with the fights than in live action. It’s why everyone looks stronger here.

Yes, technically Hellboy spends more time being thrown around in this version but he does get up after every hit so you have to give him that one. While Kate and Russell never end up being the most interesting characters, I do appreciate the fil trying to give the organization more to do. After all this is apparently an organization with a lot of members who have connections across the planet. It would make sense that Hellboy would be paired up with different members from time to time as opposed to the same 3 in every adventure.

So my only complaint would be to make the lore a bit more interesting. Specifically I’m talking about the flashback that sets up the ghost with unfinished business since I really enjoy the modern day lore. Maybe just use a different setting? The feudal times are almost always going to be inherently less interesting than the present. Maybe have the villains come from the underworld or something. That would catch your attention right away. Or you could just hint at some kind of past and be as dismissive about it as Hellboy is dismissive of the characters. Could be a good parallel but ultimately it’s not like there is much concrete advice to give here. Either a backstory will be interesting or it won’t be. Since this film succeeded and was a lot of fun anyway, perhaps it wasn’t too much of a big deal.

Overall, This was a pretty fun film. I would have liked it to have been a bit longer since it could have given us more fight scenes and such but it still accomplishes all of the main goals. It works perfectly well as a stand alone adventure and honestly as a kid I could totally picture it being a sequel to the live action film. There are some obvious continuity issues but as a kid I would probably overlook them while enjoying the adventure. It does serve as further evidence that the Hellboy verse is one that can absolutely fit a lot of stories into it. You could do so many adventures of Hellboy fighting different supernatural threats. So far none of the reboots seem to work but hopefully one day it becomes a big hit.

Overall 7/10

Hellboy Review

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It’s definitely been a long while since I’ve seen his one. The original Hellboy film was definitely a fun one and it’s the kind of random superhero film that you don’t see too much of. It kind of just throws you into a pretty big universe of characters and demons running around without trying to smooth it over with the general audience. You either like what they are going for right away or you don’t. There isn’t a whole lot of in between there and that works for me.

The film starts off during World War II with the Nazis trying to open some kind of portal to summon demons. The heroes stop them but find that a small demon has already gone through. He seems harmless enough and so they take him in. The demon is dubbed Hellboy and many years later, has become one of the best fighters in the BPRD. He is essentially immortal or at least has a long life as well as natural super strength and defenses. It’s good to have him on the side of the heroes although there are skeptics that think he should not be there. Some just don’t trust demons.

Well, that is where John comes in. He’s been transferred to help out at this unit as well as be Hellboy’s sidekick. Hellboy isn’t thrilled about this and gets even more upset when Tom appears to begin getting a crush on Liz, the girl that Hellboy likes. Now we have a bit of a rivalry when there isn’t time for one. The Nazi who fell into the portal has been revived along with his main two associates. They intend to continue their plans and Hellboy may be the only person on the planet who can stop them. Is he up to the task?

Now the subplot with Hellboy being upset at John is probably meant in part to be a bit irrational but I actually found myself being on his side. John did see to be trying to make a play while Liz was distracted by her never ending grief and so it was good that Hellboy was there to (literally) throw a rock into those plans. Ultimately it did mean he was away from the base when the villains arrived, but I’m not confident that he would have arrived in time anyway.

Hellboy is a solid lead, someone who is always ready for danger. He definitely doesn’t fear any kind of a threat of challenge and has a lot of confidence in his abilities. Perhaps his confidence does actually outweigh his abilities at times but I will always take that over being underconfident. Hellboy is one of those old school fighters who does a lot of solid posturing while winning the fight. He even has a giant gun that is useless 99% of the time but he still brings it to every mission to fire off a few shots.

Liz is a character who is rather tragic because her flame abilities are incredibly powerful but she has next to no mastery over them. They can go off at any point and often destroy tons of civilians when these outbursts happen. I give the film props for not shying away from that. There’s no quick mention about how everyone evacuated at the last second. No, she’s brought whole buildings down and lots of people have died which is why she is worried now. Definitely very valid.

In a way it does feel like the agency could have handled the situation a lot better instead of just leaving her to her own devices. Ah well, I look forward to seeing her in a more confident state in the sequel. We also have Abe helping the others as the resident mental specialist of the group. Unfortunately he really can’t fight very well so any action scene inevitably leads to him getting absolutely crushed. He was really not prepared for these fighters. Seems like a nice enough guy but you could basically write him out of the film.

As for John, he’s okay. The guy isn’t the most helpful but he does try his best. I do think he was fishy around Liz but other than that he is a decent member to the group. He doesn’t act completely shocked about every little twist which I’m glad about since some humans really overplay their hand in these films. Even if you never knew that demons existed for example, as an FBI agent you should be able to bluff pretty well.

The villains were surprisingly solid here. Kroenen is an experienced assassin who fights with a short blade at all times. He takes out quite a number of fighters in this film and what makes him scary is how he essentially cannot die. He is functionally immortal and will just keep on getting back up over and over again. A super soldier who does not tire, yes that is a fantastic premise for a villain.

Then we have the Sammael creature which also has a hard time dying. It gives Hellboy a really tough fight here. Technically Hellboy tends to always be the underdog in these fights but his endurance keeps him alive long enough to mount a comeback. I liked the design for the creature. Rasputin is a little more on the generic side. Nothing particularly wrong with him but he really has a hard time standing out. He also didn’t plan things out well in the end to put it mildly. The girl who was helping him never really got a role either.

That leads us to the best character in the film, Tom. Tom is one of those guys who just can’t stand demons. There are no exceptions for him and of course that means he doesn’t like Hellboy either. He takes a lot of shots at the demon and makes his voice known. Although this does result in Tom having to run away with his tail between his legs on multiple occasions. He can talk as tough as he wants after all but at the end of the day he is still just a human. He ends up burying the hatchet with Hellboy later on though.

The effects for the film have aged well and I also enjoyed the fights. They could be rather lengthy at times and the pacing is always quick. The film has the characters dealing a lot of damage to each other but never goes too far or feels particularly graphic. For the most part it’s your standard action film kind of action right here.

Overall, Hellboy is a fun film. It’s the kind of movie that ends before you really know it. It has no concrete weaknesses and keeps on moving forward with a very balanced approach. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a fun action film and the universe around it is fun enough where you may even be tempted to pick up a few of the comics. The romance can be a bit on the weaker side as there isn’t much time to develop it, but we’ll see how the sequel handles that. It’ll be difficult for the next villains to pass this group.

Overall 7/10

Hellboy: The Science of Evil Review

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It’s time to jump into the world of Hellboy! This is one of those games that I sort of forgot existed but it’s a pretty fun beat em up. The gameplay is solid and there are a good amount of cutscenes in here. So while there aren’t a lot of frills around the game, it does really do the job of being a fun title that keeps you entertained all the way through. The combos are tight and while you will be spamming a lot, it’s just fun.

The story is kind of all over the place since you keep jumping from the past to the present. There’s an evil witch who is causing trouble so you have to destroy her in the past and then in the present you’re dealing with an evil scientist who is probably trying to take over the world. You feel like Hellboy himself is probably overwhelmed too because it feels like every level involves him getting beat up and thrown around over and over again. Like he seriously can’t catch a break and he’s fed up at this point. Fortunately he does have super durability so he can handle himself.

Hellboy’s a fun lead because he has a very sarcastic air about him. No matter what happens, he’s got to have the last word on it and I can respect that. The guy is also a total tank with how he can just keep taking shots and walking them off. It doesn’t always translate into full attack power which his opponents take advantage of but he wins in the end which is what counts. The gameplay is mainly beat em up style so you go around crushing enemies with your fists or using your gun. For 99% of the game I recommend sticking to your fists but one world has a light gun which one shots all opponent so I definitely recommend using that one.

There is no level up system or any kind of power ups so what that means is you should only fight the enemies that you have to. I would just keep on running until a barrier stopped me and then I would fight the enemies. After all, why fight when there’s no benefit right? Occasionally there are a few puzzles that you have to solve like moving a lever or breaking something but the game keeps them fairly simple so I wouldn’t worry about that too much. You’ll typically be able to notice that the object or wall look a bit different.

One mechanic that makes the game a whole lot easier is that you are able to absorb health from enemies. This attack is petty much broken to be honest. You just grab the enemy and thrown him in the air for a slam. Do this and you get half of your health back. You also have high speed health regeneration if you can dodge attacks for around 5 seconds. So with very few exceptions, you should not typically be in any danger. It is possible to get overwhelmed if you let your guard down though. Also, the final boss did finish me off the first time. The laser basically covers the screen and is tough to deal with. I very nearly lost a second time but hung on with the last bit of my health. That seems to happen to me in a lot of games to be honest.

The game has constant checkpoints which is a great quality of life feature. As I mentioned the gameplay is also just fun because it’s nice and flashy all the way through. You may be using the same moves over and over but they’re still fun because of this. The platforming is a bit clunky but there are only a few sections in the game where you have to jump so this tends to be rare. The graphics are also fairly decent. It’s not a high end PS3 game but it is still PS3 level and so you have full cinematics and a lot of different backgrounds. I felt like the game had a reasonable budget. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side.

There isn’t a ton of replay value to be had here. You can try to find all of the collectibles scattered throughout the game but aside from barely charging the power up meter that you never use anyway, I’m not sure if there is much of a point to it. The main playthrough here will really be for the story all the way through and that works for me. It’s short but there’s enough levels here. The ending also leaves room for that hype sequel even if you know that it’s just not going to happen at this point. We did get an unrelated Hellboy game recently though so it’ll be fun to compare that one at some point.

Overall, Hellboy is a pretty fun game. It brings you back to the simpler days of movie-tie ins where they had basic gameplay styles and just took you through the events. Some would be about the same as the movie and some would diverge immediately but you didn’t have to worry about advanced mechanics or anything like that. This is a very simple plug and play that I think works really well. I’m not going to call it a great game but it was never trying for that. It’s a game that you can get for cheap and will last you for a few hours so there’s no real downside to that right? I’d say to pick this one up as long as you like the beat em up genre.

Overall 7/10

Hellboy vs Dragon Man

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Suggested by Anonymous Dragon Man is a pretty powerful robot. He may be rather large but he can move at high speeds and has some pretty intense abilities. His fire breath will be negated here since that doesn’t really hurt Hellboy. It then comes down to physical power and speed. Dragon Man seems to surpass Hellboy in both of these areas. Hellboy’s sword will deal a lot of damage if he can get close but I don’t believe he will be able to get in range to do this. Dragon Man’s speed will prevent this in combat and he is durable enough to take a few stray hits while they come to blows. Dragon Man wins.

Hellboy vs Bucky

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Suggested by Anonymous Hellboy is a powerful fighter but one who is definitely not ready to tangle with Bucky. Bucky would be completely overwhelmed in a close quarters fight. His right arm would be a decent match for Hellboy but it’s not as powerful. Where Bucky has the edge here is with his various weapons. He can snipe someone from outer space and he has weapons that can injure Ronan and Red Hulk. He would be able to pepper Hellboy with these blasts and eventually he’ll go down for the count. Hellboy won’t be able to catch BUcky easily enough to press his advantage. Bucky wins.

Hellboy vs Taskmaster

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Suggested by Anonymous Taskmaster is an expert at copying abilities to the point where he was even able to increase his speed which is pretty crazy when you think about it. Hellboy’s got a lot of durability and power at his disposal but less technique than Taskmaster. The real question here will be whether he can endure Taskmaster’s more powerful weapons such as the sword. Hellboy has his larger demon form which enhances his strength even further. It’s a pretty close fight but one that Taskmaster is well equipped to win. Taskmaster wins.

Dean Winchester vs Hellboy

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Suggested by Anonymous Dean’s match with Hellboy goes pretty similarly to how the Sam battle went. Hellboy’s got enough durability to tank Dean’s hits and then land some of his own. Dean can heal injuries to an extent so he can drag this out but ultimately you won’t beat Hellboy that way. His stats are high enough where he can keep Dean on the defensive the whole time and the hits will wear him down. Dean will eventually concede defeat and just needs a little something extra if he wants to beat a high ranking demon like Hellboy. Hellboy wins.

Hellboy vs Shocker

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Suggested by Anonymous Shocker has always been one of the most underrated Spiderman villains of all time. The guy has a great costume and a pretty versatile ability. Despite all of this he is typically treated as more of a D rank villain. I dunno, the guy needs some more hype. That said, he still won’t be able to beat Hellboy. I don’t think his cannons would do a whole lot of damage except perhaps at their maximum setting which typically damages Shocker in the feedback. Hellboy’s fast enough where he won’t just take this and so I expect him to quickly go on the offensive and end this. Shocker would need a good power up to keep up here. Hellboy wins.

Sam Winchester vs Hellboy

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Suggested by Anonymous Sam has made it his business to go around taking out a bunch of demons like Hellboy over the years. He has obtained many supernatural abilities so it’s fair to say that he would give Hellboy a good fight. I just don’t see him being able to come out on top though. His fire abilities will be rendered useless here and even with his physical augmentations, Hellboy is stronger than Sam. This really puts Sam in a bind and it’s not one that I expect he will be able to get out of. I could see this being a close fight though and one that Hellboy would lose if he were to underestimate Sam. Hellboy wins.

Medusa (FF) vs Hellboy

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Suggested by Anonymous It’s time for Hellboy to return in a battle against one of the most well known Inhumans. Medusa’s hair is quite useful since it can move at high speeds and deal a lot of damage. It’s not an amazing matchup against a fire user though. While her hair is as strong as steel and all, that’s still not great against a user of hellfire like this guy. Hellboy’s got enough strength and durability to stay in this fight long enough to take her down. Hellboy wins.