Name: Movie Review: Hellboy 2019
Item: Hellboy
Author: @chekohler

Hey Spawn of Satan

As we continue down the path of Hollywood remakes and comic book adaptations it was only a matter of time before someone thought, hey let's make another Hellboy right?

One of the few comic book movies not based on a Marvel or DC property that faired pretty well at the box office in its previous attempt under Director Guillermo Del Toro.

While his 2 part movie franchise had some hickups it was pretty well received and I thought this movie should have been a final episode to that trilogy but alas, they've tried to reboot it. We're going to see a few non-Marvel/DC comic book movies launching soon, we already had Polar, pretty sure Bloodshot and Harbinger are on the way too.

Anyway, that's beside the point, let's get back to our favourite little son of Satans latest escapade shall we?

What is Hellboy about?

Based on the graphic novels by Mike Mignola sees the legendary half-demon superhero is called to the English countryside to battle a trio of rampaging giants but later discovers that The Blood Queen, Nimue a resurrected ancient sorceress thirsting to avenge a past betrayal.

Suddenly caught in a clash between the supernatural and the human, Hellboy is now hell-bent on stopping Nimue without triggering the end of the world while he has to battle through a series of supernatural challenges.

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Poster for Hellboy - Image source: - za.ign.com

What I thought Hellboy about?

The source material for Hellboy SO rich, but they only skimmed the surface of it, focusing on broad ideas so much that I couldn't really care about any of the characters or even the fate of humanity.

The writing is bad and feels like they simply couldn't find the words to explain in full all the fantastic concepts that have all been done before, it's as if they just had to put down 10 000 words on a page and get it done.

There's a lot of explaining about past events and scene setup that should come from situations and dialogue but instead is given to us in an "Oh yeah, forgot to tell you..." type of delivery which can work for many movies but not for this one.

The editing of this film felt like a YouTuber did it, the scenes were mish-mashed together to tell the story loosely. I'm not an editor, but I even noticed scenes that would have been better left out or rearranged in a different order.

This extremely ugly shot cosplay version of Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic does not even attempt to tell a coherent story. Unlike Del Toro's films, there is no way of feeling any sympathy for the one-dimensional characters.

The movie is filled with silly one-liners and aimless quips make you realize that these annoyingly unpleasant characters have nothing to tell us over the course of two excruciating hours.

And where Guillermo Del Toro created a tactile world with a balanced combination of practical effects work and sparingly used CGI, we are now saddled with special effects that look like the deleted scenes from a Playstation 3 game.

It's incomprehensible that Mignola believes that this soulless version is closer to the comics. I think the claim that the fan of the source material would be at peace with this terrible movie is an insult.

There are too many moving pieces to that story, too many callbacks to previous stories, and truthfully its way too big a scope to try and cram into one story, even if the script and director were up to the challenge. And unfortunately, they were not.

As for replacing Ron Pearlman, David Harbour really does a great job in making Hellboy his own take on the character and injecting his own brand of humour into the character, but the script does him no favours in giving him very little room to work.

If they ever make another, I do hope they bring him back because it's clear how much he cares about the character, but please give the man something to work with next time.

Trailer for Hellboy

My rating for Hellboy

I loved the 2004 version with Ron Perlman and I was expecting they would reboot the franchise because they had some new ideas. Doesn't seem like that was their motivation and the result is that the 2019 version is a mess.

If you like the Hellboy story or want to see a decent film adaptation of the character I suggest you watch the previous two films instead and give this one a complete miss.

This movie is barely passable as a comic book adaptation and I'm being kind by handing it 4 fists up the arse out of a possible 10

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More movie reviews by me

As promised, I finally did watch the movie. I must begin by stating that I don't think I watched the first two movies before this one, at least in their entirety, nor did I read the comics. Take that for what it is worth.

I vaguely remember giving it a try and I want to say it was Ron Pearlman who ruined it for me. I liked David Harbour as Hellboy. I thought the first hour was good and it seemed like they knew what they wanted to do with it and then it hit a hiccup halfway through and they turned what felt like could have just been a fun 75 minute movie into two hours worth with a forced story.

As the story unfolded, it did make sense to have included the story and making the movie into something more deep, but it felt a little forced. Still, I found myself mostly content. I was never jumping out of my seat in excitement, but I found myself mostly satisfied with it being so unique.

One complaint is I think they could have casted someone better than the Korean fellow from Lost. It never felt like he jived with the movie and I also felt his role as the Cheetah, while cool, never seemed to add much in the way of damage or intimidation. His one scene in which he turned into the monster provided nothing other than a mere distraction for Hellboy. They could have done a lot more there. Only in the final scene did they utilize him as Cheetah in a fearful manner.

It's evident there will be another installment of Hellboy and I do believe I will watch it. It seems like a lot of people disliked this movie, yet I would give it a respectable 6.9. There was/is a lot of potential for the movie/franchise. I think there were chunks in which the movie shined. I thought when the Giant hunters attempted to assassinate Hellboy was a very good scene, for example. It could have been better overall, but in a way, just having that potential and being able to see the potential as a viewer - even if the potential is not reached - I think is an achievement in a way. The movie/series knows its identity as a slightly cheesy, gory intrigue and I am okay with that.

Sorry for writing so damn much

Movie Review: Hellboy 2019

What is Hellboy about?

What I thought Hellboy about?

My rating for Hellboy

Have your say

Let's connect

More movie reviews by me

Comments · 11

Hi @chekohler!

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