Movie Review: Hellboy (2019)

Hellboy (2019) directed by Neil Marshall

Hellboy (David Harbour), after a bad time in Mexico, goes to England to help the Osiris Club deal with three giants. The Club really wants to kill Hellboy but that doesn't work out. While in England, Hellboy meets an old friend, Alice (Sasha Lane). They wind up at the British version of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) and find out about a plot to restore Nimue (Milla Jovovich), the Blood Queen. Nimue was defeated in 517 by King Arthur. Since she is unkillable, Arthur chopped her into pieces and had the bits taken to the farthest reaches of the kingdom. Someone has been collecting her parts and putting her back together, surely a bad sign for all involved. Hellboy, Alice, and Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim), a British agent, fight the bad guys.

The movie had a lot of potential, almost all of it squandered. A whole bunch of stories were written about Hellboy in Mexico and could have made a great movie on their own. The filmmakers took the best story but rushed through it to get to the main story. Ben Daimio's backstory is also very interesting but given a quick recap just to explain why he has supernatural powers. Another popular character in the Hellboy books, Baba Yaga, shows up a couple of times in the movie. Her interesting and complicated relationship with Hellboy is hinted at without any real understanding or explanation. The post-credits scene gives her a role for a potential sequel. Seeing her house walking around on chicken legs (which is from the Russian folklore about Baba Yaga) was cool. Lobster Johnson, a World War II-era pulp action hero, also has two cameos that work fairly well. Again, he's a character that could have his own story or movie. The storytelling is a bit choppy and unsatisfying.

The movie also fails in the special effects department. A lot of the visual effects shots look cheap and rushed. The gore level is very high in the film, with lots of eyes poked out, heads decapitated, and limbs torn or cut off, with showers of blood in each situation. The gore is unconvincing and unnecessary. The Hellboy comics have a lot of horror in them with the horror based on atmosphere and storytelling, not organs and bodily fluids going everywhere. Harbour's makeup is okay though it is surprising that it doesn't look better than Ron Perlman's from the films over a decade ago. A couple of the CG characters have lip-syncing problems that also make the film look slapdash. Again, if they had stuck to one of the story lines mentioned above, they could have concentrated their creativity and budget.

The movie is disappointing just as a movie. If you are a Hellboy fan, the movie is even worse, because you know all of the potential that was wasted.

Not Recommended, especially for Hellboy fans.