To start simple, the best thing about the movie is music and the worst possible thing is …well… Hellboy. Music was very well timed, atmospheric and moody. I guess it will also make a nice soundtrack CD. Hellboy was terrible. It’s design wasn’t finished, he had terrible words to say through out the movie, and the whole acting thing was totally somewhere else. The only time he shined was when he almost opened the gates of hell, when he had his horns grown back and a cool looking light coming out of his mouth.
There were a lot of other effects. In general, I enjoyed the special effects – they were almost non-stop and nicely done. But the story lacked a lot, so it was getting boring at times to watch just the CG. Scenery was very simplistic too. Three places that should have been shown better were Scotland at the beginning of the film, Moldova almost immidiately after, and, of course, Russia, in the second half of the film. All three were faceless without any real symbols or any decorations what-so-ever. Just a subtitle telling the audience where the action is taking place. Big mistake.
Overall, I’ll give this film a firm 6 out of 10 and I would suggest that you watch it in the cinema. There is nothing there for a small TV.