Thanks to his [Ron Perlman] gruff, blue-collar charisma, a character who could easily have been just a big, scarlet special effect works like gangbusters.

...in Ron Perlman, it has found an actor who is not just playing a superhero, but enjoying it...

...witty moments help alleviate the film’s more unwieldy and banal machinations...

...a personal project full of dark, brooding imagery and cast as personally as any indie work.

It's easy to see what attracted Guillermo del Toro to Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic: its hopeful humanity.

It's no stretch to say that Perlman is the primary reason Hellboy works.

...Ron Perlman's performance is anything but heavy; he plays Hellboy with the airy, cynical shrug of a charming repairman.

Allt som allt, nästan lika bra som ”Spider-Man 2” men utan den filmens perfekt balanserade intrig.