A demon, raised
from infancy after being conjured by and rescued from the Nazis, grows
up to become a defender against the forces of darkness. Courtesy of
IMDb.
CRITIQUE
While I did enjoy
Guillermo Del Toro’s film adaptation of Hellboy, I find that
his director’s cut to be completely arbitrary. Del Toro’s cut brings
nothing new to the table that the theatrical cut didn’t already have
plenty of. There are a few more character moments (such as the car
ride that sets off the Liz/Myers possible romance, a brief subplot
involving Rasputin’s missing eyes, and a little more of John Hurt’s
Professor Broom) but not much else. The scenes added are so
unremarkable that, if you compared the two films, they would seem
almost identical. Now, I still find the film enjoyable; I just wish
that this director’s cut actually added something to the film other
than running time.
THE VIDEO
The Hellboy
transfer is the same transfer as in the theatrical release. The colors
are vibrant, crisp, and well-saturated. Color balance and black
levels looks real good.
THE AUDIO
Hellboy is presented in
5.1 Dolby Digital Surround. Dialogue is always clear and easy to
understand and the sound effects come across loud and clear. Overall
this a very nice surround sound experience.
THE EXTRAS
Disc One:
-Commentary by
Guillermo Del Toro: Del Toro talks about his influences more than he
talks about the film. This commentary track is okay, but nothing
special.
- Commentary by
composer Marco Beltrami: The composer’s track is nice to listen to,
but is only worthwhile for those who are heavily into the music of the
film.
-DVD Comics/“Right
Hand of Doom” set visits and facts: The same stuff featured on the
original release
-Storyboard Track:
Only interesting to watch if you like to watch storyboards.
Disc Two:
This is the same
disc that was in the theatrical 2 Disc release.
Disc Three:
-Video Commentary
with the Cast: This is the same commentary that you saw on the
theatrical cut, except this time you can see the cast talk.
- Visual Effects:
Three featurettes looking different visual effects of the film.
- Make-up/Lighting
Tests: Del Toro talk about the how they chose to light Hellboy, as we
see the preliminary light/make-up tests.
- Comic-con 2002
Q&A: The Q&A panel that Del Toro, Perlman, and Mignola hosted at
2002’s Comic-con.
- A quick guide to
understanding comics with Scott McCloud: Not exactly a “quick” guide,
but a nice explanation of the validity of comics as art and/or
literature.
- Mike Mignola
Pre-Production art/Photo Galleries/Concept Art/Comic book artists
Pin-ups: A variety of art/photo galleries.
FINAL THOUGHTS
While the film
is fun and entertaining, this DVD set is incredibly lame. The
director’s cut fails in adding anything to the story and the new
extras are mediocre (or redundant if you’ve seen/bought the theatrical
cut.) This set is just another case of something falling short of its
hype.
