Hellboy (2019 Review)
Hellboy is the Devil’s Dumpster Fire for Better or for Worse.
I know that we’re all disappointed that Guillermo del Toro isn’t returning to do a third Hellboy and that Ron Pealman is no longer playing the heroic demon on the big screen anymore. Now that’s been said, we can move forward and examine this new reboot for what it is, a bloody and, at times awe-inspiring, but essentially pointless romp. It’s filled with disturbing imagery, cheesy one-liners, and an utter disregard for what’s at the heart of the character. It’s far from a good movie, but it’s the kind of film that’s easy to enjoy for what it is, fan service to a very particular group of comic book geeks.
Stranger Things star David Harbour takes over for Pearlman in the role of the titular Hellboy, a demon from hell raised by an occult professor (Ian McShane) to be a weapon against evil rather than the harbinger of the apocalypse. Harbour is actually pretty in the role as the paranormal hero with daddy issue, especially since the films hard R-rating allows him to tackle the role without restraint. His portrayal of the character is much menacing than what fans of the previous films might have been used to, but even under all that makeup, he brings the same charisma to the role that he does to Sheriff Hopper in Stranger Things. He’s a gruff reluctant hero who seems like he’s only fighting the good fight because it’s his job. However, he’s not a hero that gets a chance to experience any real growth, which is just a small indicator of the many issues Hellboy has overall.
Bring a demon from hell, Hellboy is used to fight off paranormal threats to mankind and the film packs a ton of them in there. The movie starts with Hellboy taking on a vampiric monster in Mexico before moving on to giants, secret societies, a pig monster, Baba Yaga, and eventually an evil witch (Milla Jovovich). Needless to say, Hellboy is packed to the brim even with a two hour run time and it becomes clear that the gaggle of producers (there are EIGHT of them) wanted to try to jam as much as they could into the film. Because of this, there’s never a chance to really digest what’s happening before it’s off to the next supernatural threat. Hellboy moves at a breakneck pace, but that might be for the best. Since the audience never gets a chance to really think, there’s not much of a chance to realize just how shallow the film is overall.
I’ll admit that Hellboy has a lot of really cool aspects to it. Director Neil Marshall and writer Andrew Cosby take full advantage of the R-rating. That means there’s plenty of blood, guts, and profanity to go around. Many of the creatures featured are truly grotesque in strangely beautiful ways (all be it a bit over-designed at certain parts). However, there are so many over the course of the movie that it’s hard for any of them to really stand out by the end of it. Still, this is probably exactly what die-hard fans of the comics wanted to see and I found myself fascinated with a lot of the production design over the course of the film. This just goes to show that Hellboy might be a trash fire, but it’s hard not to be mesmerized watching the flames dance as they devour everything.
Fans of the comics will enjoy a number of characters getting a chance to make their big screen debut. Most notably is Daniel Dae Kim Major Ben Daimio, a military man who happens to be a were-jaguar, Thomas Haden Church as Lobster Johnson, a Nazi hunter from WWII, and Sasha Lane as Alice, a psychic with a heavy right hook. They round out a pretty impressive cast, which for the most part do justice to their colorful characters and add to the strange world Hellboy inhabits. As interesting as they might seem from a distance though, Hellboy doesn’t do much with everything at its disposal. Instead, it’s very much like a child showing you their favorite toys. It rushes forward to display each one before dropping it on the ground and staggering off to find another.
Hellboy is a movie for fans of the comics, because of that a lot of audience members might find themselves lost when it comes to a lot of what’s happening on screen. I know more than the average bear when it comes to the series, but even I had trouble at times knowing who was who and what was what. Hellboy invests wholeheartedly in being over the top and doesn’t make any effort to have any real substance to back up the blood and monsters. In a lot of ways, its an absolute mess at times, but it has enough redeeming qualities to justify the price of a ticket for those who have been really looking forward to seeing it.
