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We saw Hellboy (2019) and it's a mess
Apr. 17th, 2019 03:10 pmInstead of the long-awaited third installment in the original Hellboy franchise (Guillermo del Toro, Ron Perlman) we get this semi-retread, semi-reboot helmed at least nominally by Neil Marshall, though lots of written rumor stuff says that the producers interfered heavily. The movie is not better for it. (2/5 stars, watch with a beer or other intoxicant of choice)
Hellboy has always been a challenging character. The comic has a small but devoted fan base but in the era of mega-sized superhero productions from Marvel and DC the movie needs a wide appeal and this just isn't going to do it. Credits to the cast for trying. Mila Jovovich is enchanting, Ian McShane is plugging away as best he can being a flawed person with no good answers to the questions he's being asked, and both Sasha Lane and Daniel Dae Kim serve in the "new sidekick" roles with appropriate levels of gusto, snark, and angst. David Harbour works at being a worthy successor to Perlman despite being hampered by prosthetics that seem designed to make him awkward and expressionless. I like the actors' work enough that I'd be willing to see what this cast does with a good script and I raised it from one to two stars based largely on their efforts. But this film wastes almost all of it.
There are also some SFX fails, but the script is the downfall of this film. It's ponderous, ridiculously expository, and full of frankly unnecessary bits. Nobody actually faces the camera and says "As you know, Amanda..." but they might as well. The film starts off with backstory exposition that would've gone better as a flashback for Jovovich's Nimue character and includes a tie-in exposition that links the secondary villain with one of the sidekicks. Why? Because... reasons. Worst of all, there's an entire cul-de-sac that involves Hellboy fighting some giants (you see a bit of this in the trailer) and frankly the ENTIRE thing is disposable. Like, irrelevant. A distraction. If you took it out you'd have precisely the same movie. I can't fathom why it's in there.
It also has stupid unnecessary splatter-gore bits that just... why?
Hellboy has always been a challenging character. The comic has a small but devoted fan base but in the era of mega-sized superhero productions from Marvel and DC the movie needs a wide appeal and this just isn't going to do it. Credits to the cast for trying. Mila Jovovich is enchanting, Ian McShane is plugging away as best he can being a flawed person with no good answers to the questions he's being asked, and both Sasha Lane and Daniel Dae Kim serve in the "new sidekick" roles with appropriate levels of gusto, snark, and angst. David Harbour works at being a worthy successor to Perlman despite being hampered by prosthetics that seem designed to make him awkward and expressionless. I like the actors' work enough that I'd be willing to see what this cast does with a good script and I raised it from one to two stars based largely on their efforts. But this film wastes almost all of it.
There are also some SFX fails, but the script is the downfall of this film. It's ponderous, ridiculously expository, and full of frankly unnecessary bits. Nobody actually faces the camera and says "As you know, Amanda..." but they might as well. The film starts off with backstory exposition that would've gone better as a flashback for Jovovich's Nimue character and includes a tie-in exposition that links the secondary villain with one of the sidekicks. Why? Because... reasons. Worst of all, there's an entire cul-de-sac that involves Hellboy fighting some giants (you see a bit of this in the trailer) and frankly the ENTIRE thing is disposable. Like, irrelevant. A distraction. If you took it out you'd have precisely the same movie. I can't fathom why it's in there.
It also has stupid unnecessary splatter-gore bits that just... why?
