...Because I'm pretty sure they generally tell you that action stories need to have a climax.

So as Jen mentioned, we watched Hellboy last night. It was really kind of a strange movie, plot-wise. I mean, you have an over-the-top couple of heroes, Nazis trying to open a portal to Hell, Ian McKellen-look-alike as the wise, sage-like old man--it seems like you have all the components there for a silly, fun, summer movie--sort of Men in Black meets Indiana Jones or something. And the movie did have a couple of moments, I suppose (it probably would have been better on the big screen).

But sadly, whoever wrote the script sort of left out the climax. The climactic battle with the Great Big Hell Beast From Hell (which also owes something to the Alien movies, and quite a bit to MIB 1 and 2--I mean, come on, the monster bursts out of someone's chest, is huge and tentacley, and swallows the hero... you don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out where that came from) takes all of thirty seconds. What the heck?

Actually that's kind of the movie in a nutshell. It could have been amusing, but there was just too little of everything (possibly too many things, so no one thing got enough resources). Too little character development. Too few really good action sequences. Too little exposition. Too little climax. It just left me wondering why they apparently cut out the actual good parts of the movie.

Ah well. On to School of Rock! ;)