Maybe it's his avalanche baritone, or his strange, almost Neanderthal appearance, but something about actor Ron Perlman seems not quite human. Consequently, the refined, well-spoken New Yorker has proven marvelously useful playing not-quite-human characters, from a prehistoric caveman in ‘‘Quest For Fire’’ to Linda Hamilton's subterranean boyfriend in the CBS serial ‘‘Beauty and the Beast.’’

Later, Perlman played a Sean Hannity-esque conservative TV commentator in ‘‘The Last Supper,’’ which lifted him to a whole new plateau in this regard.

In Guillermo del Toro's ‘‘Hellboy,’’ Perlman stuffs his burly frame into a role that seems built explicitly for him: A lovesick, cigar-chomping satanic orphan who works for the U.S. government as a paranormal investigator.

Based on the series of Dark Horse comics from writer/ illustrator Mike Mignola, the movie is something of a disappointment — flooded with non-essential characters and repetitive, perfunctory action scenes — but Perlman is delightful, giving a sensitive, sly performance that burns with heroic angst.

Without a doubt, Hellboy himself is the single most compelling element in this special effects-laden actioner. Summoned as an infant from the depths of hell (depicted in outer space, strangely) by Nazi occultists, then liberated by U.S. Army commandos (who gave him his name), Hellboy has spent the last 60 years growing up into a strapping red-skinned stud under the watchful eye of Professor Broom (John Hurt), the kindly, wizened director of the government's super-secret Department of Paranormal Research and Defense. Essentially, writer-director del Toro (‘‘Mimic,’’ ‘‘Blade II’’) imagines Hellboy as a delinquent, 60-year-old teenager.

Defying Broom's parental guidelines, Hellboy occasionally sneaks out of his room at night — giving rise to Bigfoot- like urban legends — and spends his days listening to rock music and binging on junk food. Like a lovesick teenager, he pines for Liz (Selma Blair from ‘‘Cruel Intentions’’), a pyro-kinetic young woman who used to live in the same research facility as Hellboy until the government furloughed her to a mental hospital.

Uneasy with his demonic heritage, Hellboy files the long, ram-like horns that extend from his forehead down to stumps, suggesting some sort of race assimilation metaphor, like the hair straightening tonics used by Jim Crow-era American blacks, or eye-rounding cosmetic surgery sometimes performed in the Far East.

Hellboy is neurotic, all right — but also a hell of a fighter, equipped with a giant right hand so powerful that it can stop a speeding SUV in its tracks. His abilities make him invaluable to the government, which dispatches him to the sites of paranormal disturbances to do battle with his demonic cousins. A cynical person might call him a supernatural Uncle Tom.

Sounds interesting, doesn't it? Well, it is — until the go-nowhere plot kicks in, something to do with the reincarnated Russian mystic Rasputin (Karel Roden) and his scheme to plunge the world into chaos.

Squandering its initial promise, the movie plunges into a cycle of fight scenes where Hellboy tangles with the same squid-headed hellhounds and gasmask-wearing kung fu assassin. Del Toro saves the biggest foe for last, but it feels obligatory, almost Playstationy.

‘‘Larry Sanders’’ alum Jeffrey Tambor is amusing as a feckless, meddling FBI bigwig, but British newcomer Rupert Evans is a complete waste of oxygen as Hellboy's fresh-faced FBI protege, who enters the story early on and does absolutely nothing of consequence the rest of the way, except look lost, spineless and ineffectual. Honestly, I can't think of a character in recent memory who so damaged a movie. The love story, the paternal themes, the rising hell stuff — it all would have clicked together so much more smoothly with this guy out of the way.

It's as if del Toro — who gave Perlman work in ‘‘Blade II’’ and ‘‘Chronos’’ and steadfastly championed him for this role — suddenly decided the actor couldn't carry the movie by himself and needed a young, dimple-faced co-star to help bear the load. If so, he figured wrong. Perlman could have shouldered this mother all by himself, and looked better doing it.

‘Hellboy’
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor
Playing: Opens Friday at theaters Valleywide
Rating: PG-13 (sci-fi action, violence, frightening images)
Running time: 114 min.
Grade: C+