No pun intended. What the hell?
There’s a saying that goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But darn it, they tried it anyway. Reboots are a risky business. Especially when the original material is well liked. Guillermo Del Toro’s first two adaptations of Hellboy are celebrated by fans and critics alike. For a long time, fans went crazy asking for a third installment from Del Toro and starring original Hellboy, Ron Perlman. But the project never happened. Skip to present day 2019, and we got a new Hellboy. It’s a little more bitter than sweet. While the movie maintains more loyalty to the source material, there are many issues.
Stranger Things‘ David Harbour took on the challenge of portraying the smart-mouthed hell spawn turned hero. And honestly, the character’s not poorly portrayed at all. All the insults and witty characteristics of Hellboy are there. But you can only go so far. This rendition of Hellboy serves as a grittier answer to the Del Toro films. It’s by far one of the goriest hero flicks, and that is its every intention. It was good for the shock value, but nothing more beyond that.
Running at 2 hours and 1 minute, Hellboy finds a way to feel longer than it is. This is one of the prettiest messes to be released in theaters this year. While it had great fight sequences and decent CGI, everything else was bad specifically many moments in the movie that don’t have much to add to the story. They were all supposed to connect the dots. But instead, the film feels scattered, with so many subplots and lead-ups that it leaves the audience exhausted. One minute he’s in Mexico fighting a rogue agent, which does nothing to serve the plot and next he’s fighting giants in a forest. Ironically, that was one of the best scenes in the movie.
The movie struggled in getting to the point. There is just too much oozing out of this plot, than just the tons of blood every other scene. But I’ll admit, even with all of the problems that this rendition of Hellboy carries there are some tremendous thought-provoking images in the movie that make it fun at times. The villains carry with them good weight and motivation for their actions. We also get introduced to other characters from the comics that had yet to make an appearance on the big screen.
Where Hellboy fails is that it attempts to replace the charm of the original two films with more blood and gore it can muster. It has tons of action, but no real place in which to direct it. While this version of Hellboy maintained more loyalty to the comics, it just came off sloppy. If you enjoy the hack and slash genre, then sure, knock yourself out and give the movie a shot. But if you’re looking for a well thought-provoking plot, you should skip the film.
Hellboy had the recipe for what could have been a great watch. But its messy story overshadows anything good that it may have had to offer, and it doesn’t maintain the firepower to keep its viewers invested. At least not for two hours. If the sequel’s going to be any better, as the ending alludes to, then the studio’s going to have to get more organized.
