An unnecessary reboot that made me wish both Ron Perlman and Guillermo del Toro came back for a third
In the world of comic book movies, this is often a very noisy, unfocused, and ridiculously violent movie that is devoid of originality.
David Harbour takes over as the new Hellboy and this version pretty much gets straight into a story that introduces the character instead of focusing on his origin story.
Just like in the original series, Hellboy is a large demon that was captured by a mysterious organization that trained him to be a force for good. Ian McShane costars as his adopted father.
Milla Jovovich plays the Blood Queen, an evil witch who was betrayed and dismembered by King Arthur and is rediscovered by a pig-like creature and now she wants world domination.
There is one entertaining sequence in the movie and that is when Hellboy journeys to England and has to fight three giants. The rest of the special effects in the movie are another textbook example of what happens when filmmakers are given tens of millions of dollars to creative visual worlds and yet don’t give us a story or characters we care about.
David Harbour does make a somewhat acceptable choice to take over the role, but he doesn’t really bring the likable quality that Perlman did. Instead, he’s saddled with a character that is bereft of humorous dialogue or wit.
The movie also has a visual flair that is ugly and depressing and lacks what del Toro brought to the original franchise. The creatures are just disgusting and nonsensical and they lack any kind of menace.
I think it’s appropriate that this is a Hellboy movie because it’ll make you feel like you’ve spent an eternity in Hell.
Grade: C-
(Rated R for strong bloody violence and gore throughout, and language.)
