The 2019 American superhero film Hellboy is based on the comic books of the same name published by Dark Horse Comics.
The film directed by Neil Marshall, it stars David Harbour in the title role, alongside Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, and Thomas Haden Church.
Hellboy Movies Review
Hellboy was directed by Neil Marshall and stars David Harbor as Hellboy himself. This is a reboot.
This is not a sequel to Hellboy one or two, despite the fact that Ron Perlman and Germany Del Toro were trying to make a third one for a long time, and a lot of people wanted to see that at third film. We’re getting a reboot instead.
And here Hellboy battles a lot of monsters and demons and an ancient sorceress Hellbent on revenge. Despite being a big fan of the first two Hellboy films, I held no grudge against these filmmakers and actors for making a reboot. Why would I?
I was of course curious to see what they could do with it. And having seen it, I do wish that Del Toro had just made the third one eventually with Ron Perlman in it, because I can pretty much guarantee it would have been a better movie.
This film is not as bad as the outrage clickbaity machine the internet has become might have led you to think, but it does, unfortunately, feel like a film that’s been botched in the editing room and changed considerably.
And if reports are to be believed, it was a difficult set to work on because there were clashing creative minds.
And whenever that happens on a set, especially when some people feel very prideful, that’s a terrible scenario to be in as a creative person.
I have a lot of love for Neil Marshall’s films. The Descent is an excellent monster movie filled with amazing performances in a claustrophobic setting.
Dog Soldiers is a highly unseen and extremely violent werewolf movie that I’ve always really liked. So when I heard that he was going to be doing Hellboy, I was honestly really pumped. And the fact that it’s a rated R film too really lends to a lot of great possibilities.
Unfortunately, similar to the Diehard franchise, when the fourth film was PG 13 and the fifth one was rated R or the AVP franchise when the first was PG 13 and Requiem was rated R, making Hellboy rated R has done it in no favors.
It’s just got blood in it, which is cool. Some of the violence and action sequences are really awesome, actually.
There’s a great one with three Giants, and there’s a cool scene in the middle where he’s fighting this creature that sometimes turns around and walks like a lobster.
The action scenes can be really entertaining and fun, and the violence is very gory, but at the same time it just feels at the expense of a story that isn’t really there.
It doesn’t feel like there’s a reason for this reboot to exist once you see the film from beginning to end. The bases it covers are similar bases that the first two Hellboy films did, and it doesn’t cover them as well as those films either.
Even some of the special effects don’t look as good as those earlier films. The special effects here can feel like they’re reaching a little bit just beyond the budget they have to try to create something amazing, and it’s just not quite there yet.
Still, there’s some great makeup work, especially David Harbor as Hellboy, which let’s talk about him. He’s terrific. He’s my favorite part of this movie by far.
Still love Ron Perlman as Hellboy, but David Harbor is really good, very funny, extremely likable, and in the scenes that require him to really lash out about his past, especially the relationship with his father, played by Ian McShane.
He’s excellent in those scenes as well, but as far as performances go, he’s definitely the strongest, and most of the cast doesn’t come off that great.
There’s a lot of very wooden and hammy performances here that just don’t fit in. But easily my biggest issue with the film is, unfortunately, the script. It doesn’t really feel like there is one.
You can tell that it’s been changed a lot or shifted around in the editing room or onset. Nothing feels like it flows.
Characters go from place to place, and they try to make it be as fast-moving as possible by having every single scene build to the next one.
But once you get to the new scene, you almost forget where you were before because it just felt so throw away. With tons and tons of needless exposition and voiceover, this movie definitely talks down to the audience. It makes you feel like you’re an idiot sometimes.
With the way everything is explained in explicit detail constantly, as if you needed to know everything and couldn’t just understand it if you saw it.
The song choices, too, for the film felt out of left field, almost like they were just choosing various songs to lighten the mood and make you feel like you were having a good time. Even though what you’re looking at doesn’t seem to accompany the music you’re hearing.
They’re just trying to create a tone through good song choices, and that didn’t work for me either.
If the reports are to be believed, I wish that Neil Marshall was just given complete creative freedom on this movie and allowed to make the choices that he wanted to make because he’s a fantastic filmmaker and I can’t wait to see what else he does.
David Harbor as Good as Hellboy But this is nowhere near as good as the previous Hellboy films, which I would highly recommend you guys check out if you’ve never seen them.
I’m going to give Hellboy 2019 a 2.5/5.
But let me know what you thought of Hellboy if you guys did see it, because I’m curious to see what other people think.
Guys thank you so much as always for reading the review of Hellboy 2019 film. See you next time.
Hellboy Movies Trailer
Check out the trailer of Hellboy, to take an idea about this movie.
