Hellboy

I'm already forgetting this movie which is not a good sign. It's not a terrible movie, but I'm not going to buy the DVD. Maybe if I had come to this film with some appreciation of the Dark Horse Comics character, Hellboy, I might have had some greater empathy for this tale of a demon child raised by a loving human father to battle paranormal evil. Of course, the director can't make this a requirement for the audience.

The storyline is almost too simple, but Ron Pearlman does a good job with the cigar-smoking, tough-talking hero. However, some of the tired elements tended to make me yawn rather than engage my interest:

• Nazi characters plotting to harness supernatural powers (a la Raiders of the Lost Ark)
• demon dogs (very a la Ghost Busters in appearance, with a touch of Predator dreadlocks)
• gelatenous explosions of evil creatures (a la Men in Black).

All of this is done well, but (yawn) it's been done before. There should be a good dose of originality (or close to it) with this kind of big-budget movie, and it's mostly missing here.

Finally, there is just no chemistry between the leading lady (played by Selma Blair) and . . . anybody; despite efforts to make this happen.

To be fair, 77% of the mainstream critics at rottentomatoes.com gave this movie a good review. You may like it a lot more than me.