Hellboy (2019) | Film Review

With both Captain Marvel and Shazam still occupying space at the local cineplexes, leave it to Hollywood to find the time and screens to squeeze one more superhero into the mix, just two short weeks before Avengers: Endgame shows up to raze the box office landscape and put a cap on two months that comic book aficionados will certainly look back on as a pinnacle moment in celluloid, superhero(ine) derring-doery.

As a comic book lover who did the majority of his growing up from the late 70’s through to the early 90’s, I can certainly attest that this is a wondrous time for our kind to now be witness too. Looking back, there was nowhere near the quantity and quality of masked and/or caped super-doers gracing the big screen. Sure, we occasionally got Chris Reeve making us believe a man could fly or Tim Burton surprising everyone by turning Mr. Mom into the Dark Knight, but those glorious trips to the theater were few and far between. There were certainly other attempts during that time to bring spandex wearers to fleshy life – do you remember Cannon studio’s Captain America? – but while noble in effort, a lot of those deserve to not only be lost in the sands of time, but also buried deep beneath them.

Moving into the late 90’s and the new millennium, things really started to pick up. Studios started to loosen the purse strings and give comic book adaptations the money they needed to truly come to life, and technology was right there next to them with the tools to make it all believable. And in 2008, when a battered Tony Stark blasted his way out of captivity in a makeshift Iron Man suit, things really took off, and we haven’t looked back since. Really, why would we need to look back? At this point, we’re getting blasted full in the face by a new superhero flick every other month. To tell the truth, it’s getting kind of exhausting.

But let’s leave the Marvel talk for what’s just around the corner and roll time back to a few years before Robert Downey Jr. had his epiphany in that terrorist cave, when, in 2004, another hero from the inky pages made his leap to the big screen.

The first cinematic Hellboy – adapted from the comic of the same name created by Mike Mignola – was conjured up by director Guillermo Del Toro with Ron Perlman donning the sawed-off horns and bright red makeup. By most critic and audience accounts, it was a rousing success. The story of an orphaned hell spawn spat up from the Stygian depths and taken in by humans to fight against evil was a fun, fantasy adventure with an endearing hero battling for the love of his life while fending off Lovecraftian beasties and a resurrected Rasputin.

While the fires of Hell didn’t exactly set the box office aflame, the movie garnered enough of a following on the home market to warrant a sequel, 2008’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army. All of the previous players returned for this outing, and Hellboy’s second time out of the gates garnered even more love this time around. However, like before, the box office returns (while more substantial) didn’t exactly reach the high hopes of its backers. Del Toro and Perlman struggled to get a third movie made over the years, but constant behind the scenes head-butting eventually saw everyone step away, and the hopes of a trilogy went with them. Frustrated fans were only left with dreams of what could have been.

That is, until now.

That’s right, folks. Hellboy is back. It’s been a long eleven years since we last saw him, but Big Red is once again all riled up and ready to lay the ultimate smack down on whatever the underworld has to throw at him with that big ole’ right hand of doom of his.  The big question now is – with all new faces both in front of and behind the camera – does the new Hellboy signal a return akin to the glory days of Del Toro and Perlman, or are we heading off in a new direction here? And if the latter, is that a good or bad thing? Well, that’s where things get a little complicated. Let’s dive in.

The story starts way, way back in the good ol’ medieval days when an evil sorceress named Nimue aka the Blood Queen aka actress Milla Jovovich, tries to bring about Hell on Earth but is stopped just short by the forces of good. To make sure she doesn’t try again, her body is cut up into many pieces and sent off to different corners of the realm. Of course, centuries later, some idiot decides to dig her up and sew her back together, so once again the world finds itself at Hell’s door, and it’s up to Hellboy and his friends at the B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) to hit the road and put a stop, once and for all, to her apocalyptic shenanigans. And it’s a bloody trip indeed.

Whereas Ron Perlman portrayed the character as an adolescent man-child with girl problems, a yearning to fit into the human world, and a subtle, sarcastic sense of humor, new Hellboy (David Harbour, Stranger Things) is a foul-mouthed, world-weary, wise-cracking brute who couldn’t care less – for the most part – about how he’s seen. Was that a wrong move? I don’t think so. For me, I was seeing the same Hellboy, but at two very different times in their lives. Sure, Perlman’s take was almost childlike, but he was portrayed as just starting out in many ways.

Harbour’s Hellboy on the other hand, has been around the block – and a few circles of Hell – since then. He’s seen and done some nasty stuff. And you see this transition not just in their personalities. Perlman was smooth-skinned and unmarked. He looked almost like a newborn. Harbour is scarred, wrinkled, and hairy. He’s been through the wringer, and then some. While we will certainly have our own ideas about who did it best, I think it would be unfair to put down Harbour’s performance just because he didn’t do it the Perlman way. This is his character now, and Hellboy is in a different time and place. Harbour does a damn good job bringing the character to life, and is certainly the part of this movie to be most praised. I enjoyed his performance a lot, and I’d be more than happy to see him continue on in the role.

While I was sad to see that beloved characters like Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, and Johann Kraus weren’t returning, that wasn’t really a bother. After all, we were getting a couple of other favourites from the comics in their place. Daniel Dae Kim of Lost plays Major Ben Daimio, a hardened veteran of many a supernatural battle who has a hard time suppressing certain “animal” instincts, and is very wary of his hulking, crimson partner. Kim delivers a solid performance with his stern, no-nonsense approach and next to Hellboy himself, is probably one of the most faithful representations of the comic book characters here. He really does look the part and acts how I would expect Daimio to act. Good job.

Rounding out Team Red is Sasha Lane as Alice Monaghan, a psychic and former fairy abductee – who Hellboy rescued as a child – who has the ability to allow the dead to speak through her and can hit you so hard, she can literally punch your soul out. After Hellboy, she was probably my favourite character here. I liked her laid-back attitude and sense of humor. Both in size and personality, she was a good counter-balance to the big guy.

One character I did have a bit of a problem with was Ian McShane as Professor Broom, Hellboy’s boss and adoptive father. This is more a personal quibble than a critique of McShane’s performance. Honestly, if you’re not familiar with the comics or the previous movies, you probably won’t have any issues with him. I mean, it’s Ian McShane, and he gives one hell of an Ian McShane performance here. In other words, he’s cool, suave, brusque, and…. well, Ian McShane. I think you know what I’m getting at. I much prefer the original Broom; small, slight, scholarly, and quiet. It was a much better version of the character that created a stronger and more satisfying bond between father and son.

On the evil side of things, Milla Jovovich does an okay job as the Blood Queen. Honestly, she doesn’t do a whole lot besides stand around looking menacing. But if you’re being forced to watch someone do that, you can do a lot worse than Milla Jovovich. I just wish she had been allowed to do more with her part. I enjoyed her henchman, Gruagach the pig-thing, much, much more. The CGI used to bring him to life was splendid and the voice acting was a perfect fit. He is definitely the stand-out amongst the baddies and actually had a motivation I could understand. Any scenes where he cuts loose are a joy, and much better than watching Jovovich glare from the sidelines.

Like Gruagach, the same goes for the witch Bab Yaga. Great design and execution. I have no idea how much was real performer and how much was computer generated. Whichever way it was done, good job. That was one creepy ass witch. I wish we could have gotten more of her and her backstory.

If you’re hoping that director Neil Marshall (The Descent, Game of Thrones) is going to follow Guillermo Del Toro’s lead, you couldn’t be more wrong. This Hellboy is about as far from the first two movies as you can get in many ways. The originals were fantasy movies that managed to make even the most dark and dismal places look beautiful. The action was fast and furious, but nothing that a child wouldn’t be enthralled by. There is certainly a lot of fantasy in Marshall’s take, but he very often steers his camera into the darker, more horrific corners of Hellboy’s world, and it’s a pretty scary place. The violence here is extremely graphic and very, very juicy. Del Toro’s movies inspired sweet dreams. Marshall’s will cause nightmares, so I wouldn’t recommend showing this version to any young kids.

I’ve seen many critics complain that the level of violence was too much. While the amount of red stuff was certainly excessive at times, it didn’t really bother me. I mean, these are hell spawn we’re dealing with here; creatures of pure and perverse evil. They aren’t going to go about their business in a clean and orderly fashion. They’re going to tear into you, rip you apart, chew you up, and spit you back out. That’s what the denizens of Hell do, and they love doing it. As a lover of horror, I think the extreme bloodletting was warranted and in line with the tone Marshall was aiming for.

As graphic as the violence is, there are some pretty fun action sequences and set pieces here. Hellboy’s battle with the giants, Baba Yaga’s chicken leg house, and Hell erupting up through the streets of London are a few of the standouts. Marshall is no stranger to staging blood-pumping action scenes, and he does an admirable job throughout a lot of this. While Del Toro often created grand action scenes that were meticulously choreographed, and almost dance-like or theatrical in their execution, Marshall really gets down in the dirt for lots of bone-crushing physical destruction. It gets pretty brutal, blood does flow, and heads and just about every other body part are rolling or flying left, right, and center.

The special effects – a huge factor in a production such as this – ran the gamut. There were some great aforementioned ones, there were some so-so ones (a lot of the creatures), and at least one atrocious one (whatever the hell comes out of Alice’s mouth whenever she’s channeling the dead). The budget on this was quite low for a big Hollywood production, and it definitely showed sometimes with the effects. Overall, though, I was satisfied. Except for that mouth-ghost thing. Yeesh!

I do think the F-bombs and cursing were a bit overdone. I’m no prude, but it just felt out of place at times. A prime example of that was during Broom’s narration during the opening scene where there was one awkwardly placed “f**k”. It really did take me out of the movie for a few seconds. The movie already had plenty to establish its edge that it didn’t need an overabundance of colorful expletives.

So, let’s see. Where do I stand right now? Hmmm. Good things first. David Harbour nailed the role, the supporting cast was solid except for one whose plunging neckline demanded more attention than her performance, the creature effects were good overall, the action was bloody (but in a good way) and exciting, and the production design caught the eye. Bad things? There were some dodgy effects shots, underwritten characters, and a few too many f**ks.

Well, that doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Not at all, but I’m not quite finished yet.

Sadly, the structure and flow of Hellboy is a mess. When I watch a movie, I want the story, characters, and relationships to develop smoothly. Every scene should flow into the next revealing what we need to know through dialogue and actions that keep the plot moving. Watching Hellboy often felt like maneuvering through rush hour traffic. There’s a lot going on, but we aren’t getting anywhere fast, and there’s a lot of starting and stopping. While the action scenes were certainly fun, they often didn’t move the story any great distance. And just when things do get moving, we have to stop again for another bloody punch-up or to tell someone’s origin story. A lot of these things are necessary, but rather than being woven naturally into the story and used sparingly but effectively, they were just scattered all over the place, often in too great abundance. There are times when something will be happening, and you forget or don’t know how it connects to what came before – that’s not good. This movie needed a lot of paring down and streamlining. Looking back, I can remember a lot of moments from the movie, but not how they tied together.

Neil Marshall is a great director, and I’m a big fan his previous films – especially Dog Soldiers and The Descent – and his work on Game of Thrones is considered some of the series’ best. While I certainly saw some of that greatness on display, I feel he was ultimately let down by a choppy script – or one that had been overly tampered with – and bad editing. And if recent reports are to be believed, there may have been even more forces at work that ended up damaging his original vision.

If you’re looking to park your brain for a while and enjoy the gruesome spectacle of humans and supernatural creatures beating the tar out of each other for two hours, I reckon you’ll have a lot of fun with Hellboy. If you want a well told, coherent story with characters you care a lot about on top of that, you’re probably going to be disappointed.

Hellboy had a lot of great punches, but overall, the fight left a lot to be desired.

Hellboy is now playing in theaters nationwide
Starring David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, and Ian McShane 
Screenplay by Andrew Cosby
Directed by Neil Marshall