A bright red Catholic monster
Will Heaven on Hellboy II
15 August 2008

Hellboy, played by Ron Perlman, arrived on Earth through a portal built by Rasputin

The past few years have been good for the middle-aged, pot-bellied comic book aficionado. Superman has returned, we've had two equally tedious versions of The Hulk, plus a whimpering Spiderman and Batman (rated 12A, of course).

Now, Guillermo del Toro brings us another comic turned film in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Get up to the attic, Dad, it's time to fetch your figurine collection.

Any 40-year-old who claims to have enjoyed Hellboy as a young teenager, though, is lying. The character first began to appear in 1993 in Dark Horse Comics, meaning that its older fans should probably have left home by then.

The story is typically intricate, but the first Hellboy film (2004) started at the end of World War II. Grigori Rasputin (who didn't die in 1916) was working with the Nazis on an isolated island off the coast of Scotland. They were trying to build a dimensional portal in order to awake the Seven Gods of Chaos. Sensibly, the Nazis realised the Seven Gods of Chaos might make useful weapons - mythical WMDs, if you like.

Essentially, things then started to go wrong. Rasputin, who was never going to be a loyal servant, tried to destroy the entire world. An American team, under one Professor Broom, was sent in to stop him (and his few Nazi allies) and they succeeded, killing Rasputin and closing the portal.

In the midst of the rubble surrounding the destroyed portal was a small bright red devil-child with a right hand made of stone, long horns and a tail. He was nicknamed, appropriately, "Hellboy" by Broom.

Sixty years later, and Hellboy is working for the Bureau of Paranormal Research & Defence, a secret organisation closely linked to the FBI. There are other monsters, including Abe Sapien, a fish-like creature with psychic abilities and Liz Sherman, a pyrokinetic - she can turn herself into a ball of fire, in other words.

That, as well as a romance between Liz and Hellboy (and another Rasputin resurrection with antics) is about all you need to know if you get stuck in a lift with a Hellboy fan.

So, could Hellboy be a Catholic? Bizarrely, yes. The demon is raised by a traditional Catholic (Prof Broom) and he carries a rosary with him, tying it around his wrist before entering battle.

This has a lot to do with Mike Mignola, the Catholic graphic artist who originally created Hellboy.

But it must also have something to do with Guillermo del Toro, the film's director. Del Toro was raised in Mexico by his grandmother, and it shows. He described Pan's Labyrinth, his last film which scooped three Oscars, as "a truly profane film, a layman's riff on Catholic dogma". But others described it, less paradoxically, as being simply Catholic.

It's difficult to know if Hellboy is as Catholic. The American bishops have pointed out: "The film contains premarital cohabitation and pregnancy, moderate fantasy violence, a suicide, some crass language, a few mild oaths and an instance of sexual humour." But the film is undoubtedly milder in content than the latest Batman film, The Dark Knight.

The film does have a "del Toro" feel to it. There are his customary creatures with eyes in their hands, and a plethora of oddly shaped animals that belong to the paintings of Goya and Dali (including "tooth fairies" which eat people's teeth). But it's difficult not to notice scattered religious imagery - even the odd neon crosses stick out.

The film follows an epic plot: Hellboy must once again save the world. This time it is because an ancient truce between humankind and the "original sons of the earth" (easily mistaken for Lord of the Rings elves) is broken. The anarchical Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) decides that mankind, with its parking lots and shopping malls, must be destroyed. It's pleasing that he doesn't choose to attack humans for their wars or global warming. No, they must be killed for building in concrete.

Ron Perlman plays the horned hero with a laid-back attitude that harks back to 1970s cop drama. But it works - after all, Hellboy likes Australian beer and Cuban cigars. Selma Blair (Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions) plays a frustrated Liz Sherman and her fiery (no apologies for the pun) relationship with Hellboy makes for some light relief.

Del Toro's speciality is his ability to make almost every frame richly dynamic. The troll market, for instance, makes Harry Potter look like a dated episode of Dr Who - clearly the film's budget, reportedly $72 million, must have helped.

Despite this, the film remains unashamedly geeky and does, on occasion, lack inspiration. There are better catchphrases than "aaw crap" - and why must superheroes always rescue babies? Crowd-pleasers. Comic book enthusiasts will no doubt enjoy it. It's not a serious film and is often entertaining. At its worst moments, though, it's difficult not to think: Hellboy is, in essence, an angry red Shrek.