Hellboy

Rated PG-13

Catholic-ometer: 4 of 5

Enjoyability: 4 of 5

I know what you're going to say.  "What?  A serious, committed, deeply-religious reviewer like you, watching a movie called 'Hellboy?!'  What the heck is wrong with you?!"

Well, to be honest, I was talked into it by an article that I saw in a paper a while back.  A fellow reviewed the available Hellboy movies, commenting on their "strong, Catholic elements," and this thread has been floating through my mind ever since then, wondering just what it was about the films that was so Catholic or religious.

Well, as it turns out, there's not much.

A Catholic exorcist accompanies a commando unit at the start of this film to try to put an end to an evil ritual, designed to summon alien demons to Earth and bring about the end of the world, and as it turns out, the ritual is a success...  Sorta.

A little baby demon is hiding out in the wreckage of the ritual grounds, is adopted by the exorcist, named "Hellboy," and from then on, takes to fighting evildoing monsters and other demons who've gone astray.

The movie is reminiscent of "Van Helsing" in some respects, except that the main villain is less of a ham (a major improvement.)  The main character is essentially a demon exorcist with a kind of "lone wolf" mentality in his battles with other demons.  He's a gruff, easily-upset sort of fellow, but when you get down to it, he doesn't really want people getting hurt.

However, Van Helsing at least left the door open that its main character might be a virtuous warrior as well.  Hellboy definitely is not.

Don't get me wrong.  He's clearly the lesser of two evils.  The bad guys he's fighting are big, nasty eldridge abominations from planet X for the most part, but even Hellboy himself is shown stealing, destroying public property, using a necromantic spell, and killing at least one person.  The fact that he does all of this, while also saving the world from being devoured by ferocious, bloodthirsty tentacled creatures from beyond is a separate issue.

Like Van Helsing, the reliability of things like crucifixes in performing exorcisms is ratified in this film, and it's heavily implied that the Vatican carries on one of the few serious studies of these dangerous, supernatural beings.

Don't think I'm not grateful for the tip of the hat; making the good guys look like good guys for once.

Still, I'd be more grateful if some element of clear morality had shone through in the process, and it just doesn't here.  As far as I can tell, the deepest moral lesson in this film is basically "don't use your demonic powers to destroy the world," and you can only get so much mileage out of that.  When all is said and done, this is basically just a pretty decent action movie with a crucifix hung on it, and while it's better with it than without it, I was sort of hoping for more.