Hellboy

Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy was more fairytale-like (but still pretty creepy), both films had amazing production design, make-up effects and a distinctive creative imagination. Neil Marshall's vision relies heavily on gory visuals, is more brash and doesn't shy from swear words, in short, it's an R-rated film with all the trimmings, which in the end has its pros and cons. I was unfortunately not as amused by David Harbour's banter as I was by Ron Perlman’s, in fact I had somewhat of a problem sympathising with any of the characters as they all more or less got on my nerves. Besides, the connection with the Arthurian legend left me with rather mixed impressions. But not to cast aspersions, of the characters, I was most interested (i.e. least irritated) by the witch Nimue and liked the excursion to Baba Yaga's cottage on chicken legs. I'm sorry to see how the latest Hellboy movie turned out, because the potential here was great. I wanted to criticise the film for its mostly distracting visuals and not-so-nice visual effects, but given the $50 million budget, that's understandable. But still, what a shame! (23/04/2019)

In some aspects, Hellboy has pretty decent balls. Unfortunately, not even the exploited to the marrow R-rating and the good jokes here and there can alter the fact that it looks uglier than shit. Really, it’s been a long time since I last saw an audiovisual work that looked so terribly unaesthetic. An awful, overelaborated digital mess; the cancer of modern filmmaking and, in this case, in the terminal stage. (11/04/2019)

The new Hellboy flopped at the box office and with critics, and I'm not too happy either. Neil Marshall may have made the solid The Descent and the perfect post-apocalyptic B-movie Doomsday, but Hellboy won't rank among the highlights of his career. There's no story, which is to be expected, but the weird nonsensical jumping from scene to scene felt annoying to the point of artificiality. David Harbour isn't downright bad, but the humour is so dry that I didn't laugh once, which I take as a huge minus. When it comes to the action, it's pretty good to watch, it's very substantial in terms of gore – I can't remember the last time I saw such carnage in the cinema – but it's a great shame things usually end up when they are at their best. Praise should be given to the scene with the giants (which could have been longer), Baba Yaga who had eerily perfect make up, and the finale, which is again too short and doesn't live up to its full potential. It's a shame that outside of the action, the film is rather boring and has nothing to surprise and impress. Thanks to the decent serving of gore and a fair amount of monsters of all kinds, the film is watchable, but I was expecting a more entertaining ride. 60% (15/04/2019)

Though it stays closer to the source material, it is still not a good adaptation. It does not automatically create a film for fans when you combine multiple plotlines from multiple comic books, and I would give anything to have seen Guillermo del Toro's planned conclusion to the trilogy instead of this cluttered outcome. Even though Daniel Dae Kim is appropriately cast as Hellboy in this world of blood, betrayal, and endless fighting, excessive cheesiness or intentional B-movie qualities are not an advantage in this case, but instead a painful burden. From the very beginning, the screenplay relies on necessary shortcuts, thus undermining itself right from the start when it launches three storylines simultaneously and fails to completely extricate itself from this unfavorable starting position until the end. It is a shame about the strangely artificial masks and occasionally bizarre special effects, which often border on the ridiculous. And last but not least, there is the disgraceful and increasingly common posture of using not only blood but also profanity at any cost to achieve a stricter rating. In the second half, it became so childish that I almost grimaced, even though I am always in favor of boldly subverting an overly tense atmosphere. I feel sad about the resulting dead end, as Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen could and should have been an example of how to navigate the path of slightly smaller adaptations of famous comics, instead of closing the door on many potential wonders. (07/07/2019)

Harbour’s good, with all the right catchphrases. The gigantic outcasts from hell in the climax might be the most impressive ever. The casting of Milla Jovovich appropriately defines the target audience composed of fans of bloody, B-level monster freak-shows. Neil Marshall’s imagination knows no bounds, nor does his courage (or lack of common sense?) to flush such a huge budget down the drain. His Hellboy amuses with its stupidity, excess and craziness, but watching it in a cinema seemed extremely out of place, even bizarre. With the right crew at home, beer and popcorn, I might be inclined to give it three stars. (18/04/2019)