Hellboy (2004)

A demon, brought forth by occult forces whose gods are intent on the destruction of the universe, a harbinger of the end times, is among us. He enjoys candy, and has a soft spot for kittens. He's also working with a covert branch of the FBI to battle the things deemed too weird to deal with officially. So goes the setup for Mike Mignola's quietly successful comic series, as well as this Guillermo Del Toro film adaption. It's hard to knock if for originality; in two hours you get ancient gods, extra-dimensional conspiracy, a telepathic fish man, and a Nazi assassin who bleeds dust. If you can get past how utterly bizarre most of it is, it spins a decent yarn, too. The story is served with extra pulp, but in that framework live some surprisingly well-developed characters, a few interesting twists, and enough funny one-liners to fill something that would typically be full of funny one-liners. Where it falls short mostly have to do in the lacking explanations of what exactly is going on—the gist of it is present, but as utterly bizarre as some of this gets it would be nice to get the full monty. Assuming you don't mind just going with it, none of that should pose much of a problem. Ultimately, it's far from perfect, but what it may lack in craft it more than makes up for in sheer concept.

8 out of 10.

Note: If you have the choice, go with the director's cut. The extra scenes put a dent or two in the pacing of the film, but in trade you get more great character moments, as well as better explanation into the world and its concepts.