Hellboy

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Guillermo del Toro's pair of Hellboy movies were always pretty acclaimed by both critics and audience. So, if a reboot was in the works, it had to be way different from the originals or, at least, capable of separating itself from them. Neil Marshall's film is definitely distinct, but not in a good way. Sadly, this is one of the worst movies of the year, so far. David Harbour tries super hard to bring this story to safe haven, but his outstanding performance can't fight back all of the painfully long and repetitive exposition dumps, an editing worthy of a Razzie Award (if they had such a category), and cringe-worthy comedy bits.

The trio of writers failed in almost...

Despite the less than stellar ratings this movie has received I have to say that I quite liked it actually. It is a much more violent, gory and adult movie than the previous Hellboy movies and this is probably contributing a lot to my appreciation of it. I so dislike when they dumb down a story or character just because the bean counters think they can get more kids to watch it and thus make more money. Or worse, because they want to cater to the easily offended whiners.

This movie starts off already in the first scene where the language make it clear the easily offended should have stayed home. It continues in the same manner. It is indeed a quite violent movie with a lot of gory effects. At least for a movie based on a regular US comic...

I don't really get the intense vitriol directed at the 2019 Hellboy. I mean it's not especially good, it's certainly worse than both del Toro movies, but the absolute dogpiling it got doesn't seem 100% warranted to me. There does seem to be a lot of mismatches in the developmental process that are very apparent in the final product though.

Final rating:½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didnt quite work as a whole.

I may not be a big fan of Guillermo Del Toro (talented filmmaker but I don't stand at attention with his every project), yet his visual flair was on display with 2004's Hellboy, something that was sorely lacking in this reboot. Also lacking was Ron Perlman's stellar charm, something David Harbour, fine actor and all, didn't possess underneath the comic-accurate make-up and prosthetics. But beyond all that, this was an ugly movie with no creativity and, quite frankly, outright dull at times even during the action scenes. It was only two hours but felt so much longer, happy to see it flopped at the box office.

If Guillermo del Toros version of Hellboy is the imaginative grand symphony, this version is the discordant heavy metal little brother. Based on The Wild Hunt and The Storm and the Fury storylines in the comics doesnt save it, either.

Lacking the Del Toros vision, the character and monster designs are pedantic at best. David Harbour plays the titular infernal hero and while at first the costume design seems grittier than Ron Perlmans Hellboy, it becomes clear very quickly that, while Perlman became the character and almost seemed to meld with his costume, Harbour seems to be fighting his costume. Its like watching one of the most uncomfortable and anxiety-ridden wrestling matches one can imagine. I kind of felt sorry for Harbour as hes a...

I went into this movie with low expectations. Ron Perlman was my perfect Hellboy. David Harbour was so good I hardly noticed a difference which is saying a lot. I think David put in a lot of research and work into trying to be a little bit like Ron but he also made this part very much his own. I actually found myself liking his version so much better because it felt more solid. It captured the spirit of what hellboy is supposed to be. I truly did enjoy this movie from start to finish. Beautiful visuals, story was very decent, the lore was very interesting... I would recommend this movie for anybody who liked the previous Hellboy movies even if you like Ron as Hellboy please consider giving David a chance because he kills it in so many good ways.

Horrible.

"If humans didn't kill monsters, maybe monsters wouldn't be that bad."

I guess, maybe, the good thing I can say about this movie is that, if you are part of the "everything has to be political all the time," crowd...it injects the obligatory The Last Jedi woke politics...just to make sure everyone won't complain that there wasn't a political injection in a super hero movie.

But then, that's kind of a trope of all bad movies lately.

Really though, from the start it makes a point to bore the audience to death with not one, but fiver separate introductions that drag on for far to long and introduce us to concepts and characters that have, well, absolutely nothing to do with the movie.

And then to rush it's way through ...

Where do I start? Not since Derek Jarman at his most outlandish, have I seen so many people leave a screening mid-film. With Jarman that was almost certainly because his style of film-making and storytelling had a profoundly polarising effect; not so here - it was purely, and simply, because the film is terrible. I have always struggled to quite get why Ian McShane (a bit like Clive Owen) gets film roles - he always comes across as "Lovejoy" what ever the part is. Harbour and Javovich bring nothing to the party, either. I think this is my turkey of the year (and possibly last year, too). It would have to be an exceedingly long flight before I would recommend anyone go near this dross - and make sure you drink the bar dry, first!