Film Review: Hellboy

We’ve already seen what happens when you take away the artistry of Guillermo del Toro from a property that was once his with Pacific Rim: Uprising, and that didn’t turn out very well. So, I don’t envy the position that Neil Marshall has found himself in when he was tasked to helm the reboot of Hellboy. While I haven’t read the comics by Mike Mignola, I have heard that the previous films weren’t necessarily the most faithful adaptation, which I suppose gives the idea of rebooting the property some motivation. Plus, considering the people they got together for this, there was definitely potential. It’s just too bad that this is what we ended up with.

Well, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. I don’t think the new Hellboy is all bad. There’s quite a bit of fun to be had. It’s combination of convoluted mythology, corny jokes, gruesome violence hardly makes for a dull moment, even if it’s wonky pacing and unnecessarily long, two-hour runtime constantly risks sometimes takes away from the fun. There’s a pulpy quality to a lot of the tone and imagery, much of it leaning on Marshall’s roots in horror (here’s a reminder to check out The Descent and Dog Soldiers if you haven’t already).

David Harbour takes on the title role, which was previously done by Ron Perlman. Harbour is pretty good here. He manages to bring in some personality through all the prosthetics and makeup. His physicality works for creating a huge, imposing figure. And there are moments where he is able to bring some emotional nuance, many of which the film doesn’t really earn, but he’s simply a good enough actor to bring that pathos that the script by Andrew Cosby doesn’t work towards.

The supporting cast is also rock solid. Milla Jovovich is given the thankless task of playing another one of those mystical female villains you’ve seen in a million fantasy movies, but she plays the character, Numue, like Vampira by way of Evil Dead II, which keeps things fairly engaging. Daniel Dae Kim and Sasha Lane make for a good duo for Harbour to bounce off of, and Ian McShane is always a delight.

When we get to the actual story at hand, that’s when we start encountering problems. The film has a very episodic feel as we watch Hellboy go from one location to another, kicking ass and taking names. It’s not an inherent problem, but the connective tissue is very much lacking here. Things don’t seamlessly lead from one scene to the next, which causes the weird pacing. It’s all meant to be building to the big climax where Hellboy confronts Nimue, but it’s all just about done as quickly as it began, like any of the other action sequences that we previously saw. We even get glimpses of these giant monsters wreaking havoc in London, but our heroes never interact with them. I don’t know if it’s because of budget limitations or what, but it made things underwhelming, like not much was ultimately accomplished.

And while the touches of Marshall’s skills as a horror filmmaker are definitely appreciated, even those aren’t consistent (which could be a result of a troubled production if the recent article is to be taken at face value). Some scenes are very stylized, while others are bland and generic, sometimes there’s some striking, colorful imagery, and other times where it’s an ugly, gray CG-fest, sometimes there’s a funny gag, and other times, there’s a witless one liner. There’s not a lot of artistic cohesion, and the film really suffers because of it.

Despite all this, I wouldn’t say I had a terrible time with Hellboy overall. There’s just enough trashy fun to be had here, and David Harbour certainly gives it his all. There are some jokes that I found amusing, some action beats that were exciting, and the way it relishes in the ridiculousness of its premise is awesome. I especially loved the little bit of Lobster Johnson (Thomas Haden Church) that we see in the film. But at the end of the day, I do have a hard time imagining a movie this sloppy and inconsistent to win over an audience, especially one that still has some attachment to the old series, having hoped for a third installment, even if this is somehow “more faithful” to the original comics.