3. The Series Is Unique Compared To Its Contemporaries
The two films in the Hellboy series were released at interesting times. The first film came out during the genre boom of the early/mid 2000s in the wake of X-Men and Spider-Man, when studios were eagerly cashing in on superhero properties for better or worse. As many of those studios still tried to play it safe and not take any big risks even as they chased Spider-Man money, Hellboy dared to dream a little different, diving headfirst into its dark, gothic and creepy concepts without shame. By 2008, the wave of the superhero film seemed to be crashing down after the release films like Spider-Man 3, Ghost Rider and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, only to miraculously be rejuvenated after the one-two punch of The Dark Knight and Iron Man showed that taking chances and the material seriously is what audiences were looking for in their superhero movies. Hellboy II came out that same year, changing up its entire identity to embrace fantasy concepts without ever feeling out of step tonally with its predecessor. The Dark Knight and Iron Man reshaped the landscape of the superhero film, making it "cool" for bigger mainstream films to go big, take creative risks and not be ashamed of their comic roots. Since then, Marvel Studios' films have taken the lighter approach, making big, fun films that people continue to enjoy, while DC seems to be steering their future toward a darker, more "adult" response to the lighter Marvel fair. Although the Hellboy series had been taking risks at a time when studios were quite risk-averse, now that the gates are open and audiences have proven that they enjoy films that mine from the source, a third Hellboy could make quite the splash, particularly for how it stands out against Marvel's and DC's films. It's a series unafraid to go dark, go fantasy and even go absurdly humorous while embracing the power of practical effects and actual visual style without feeling like an assembly line product or something run through countless focus groups. In a world where members of the Avengers or the Justice League are considered freaks in their own films, it's time for Hellboy and the gang to make a return and show them what freaky really means.
Writer, film enthusiast, part-time gamer and watcher of (mostly) good television located on the fringe of Los Angeles, who now has his own website at www.highdefgeoff.com!
