Del Toro moves his story along with unrelenting energy and wit while introducing the opposing parties with admirable efficiency.

A perfect fit in the category of instant classic, and, not incidentally, fits the profile of super-profitability. Bursting the bonds of its genre, Hellboy fills the screen with gorgeous imagery, vertiginous action and a surprising depth of feeling.

Surprisingly smart, graphically faithful live-action adaptation of the Mike Mignola series

One of the most poetic comic-book adaptations to come along in years, yet it never loses its sense of lightness and fun -- del Toro gives it just enough screwball nuttiness to keep it from bogging down.

Guillermo del Toro is in a class with Peter Jackson as a fan-boy who gets it--a brilliant filmmaker who has a kind of metabolic connection to horror and sci-fi that helps him transform secondhand genre material into something deep and nourishing. Del Toro reaches into himself and finds the Wagnerian grandeur in schlock.

Hellboy just might end up being one of the best movies you see this year.

One of those rare movies that's not only based on a comic book, but also feels like a comic book. It's vibrating with energy, and you can sense the zeal and joy in its making.

The movie's got a heart as warm as hellfire.

Played by Ron Perlman, he's the most magnetic action hero I've come across in a long while.

One of the sturdier superhero movies of the last couple of years, with monsters and effects and diabolical baddies to spare, a heart as big as a house and a love story that actually gets its hooks in you.

Mr. del Toro lets loose with an all-American, vaudevillian rambunctiousness that makes the movie daffy, loose and lovable.

Hellboy is on fire with scares and laughs and del Toro's visionary dazzle. It's the tenderness that comes as an unexpected bonus.

The film - despite being a half-hour too long - is a rocking, rolling supernatural spectacle.

The screenplay has flashes of real wit, and Perlman is perfect in the title role.