HELLBOY – “Somewhere between ‘hell yeah’ and ‘oh hell no’ status”

Hellboy

RATING

DIRECTOR

David F. Sandberg  (The Descent – 2005)

STARRING

SYNOPSIS

Is based on the Dark Horse Comics character of the same name. This is also a hard R reboot of the Hellboy film series (2004-2008) and is the third live-action Hellboy film.

The legendary half-demon superhero, Hellboy, is called to the English countryside to battle a trio of rampaging giants. There he discovers The Blood Queen, Nimue, a resurrected ancient sorceress thirsting to avenge a past betrayal. Suddenly caught in a clash between the supernatural and the human, Hellboy is now hell-bent on stopping Nimue without triggering the end of the world.

REVIEW SUMMARY

Hellboy is perhaps the definition of a cinematic mixed bag, falling somewhere between "hell yeah" and "oh hell no" status. Right off the bat, you’ll notice that this remake is much more bombastic than the DelToro directed originals. And in such, deserves credit for carving out something different from what we've already seen before. The sprawling “mumbo jumbo Armageddon” plot is a lot to take in though, and never leaves any real doubt as to how it will all end up. The R-rated gore fest, while fun at times, was excessive and unnecessary at others. The special effects were also quite mixed, with some fantastic looking visuals filling the screen one instance, and then some downright shoddy CGI the next. The good news is that Hellboy remains an interesting character, and is played rather nicely by Harbour (sorry Ron Perlman fans, he did a great job). The other characters? Well, not so much - the less I say about the loud-mouthed warthog fairy monster the better. Perhaps the movie's biggest issue though is its terrible pacing and overall disjointedness. The mix of flashbacks and side stories take so much away from the momentum of the driving plot. So in the end, Hellboy will surely deliver flashes of devilish action entertainment, but will likely make viewers see red for all the wrong reasons.

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