Hellboy (2019)

Directed by: Neil Marshall | 116 minutes | action, adventure | Actors: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Daniel Dae Kim, Penelope Mitchell, Sasha Lane, Brian Gleeson, Mark Stanley, Mario de la Rosa, Sophie Okonedo, Markos Rounthwaite, Thomas Haden Church,

It’s hard to admit it, but there’s no getting around it: everything you’ve heard is true: the Hellboy remake has become a superfluous, downright lousy movie. About the only positive thing about it is that it immediately makes you want to watch and appreciate Guillermo del Toro’s infinitely better Hellboy films from 2004 and 2008. For the creative creatures, the smooth script, the striking dialogues, and the memorable central characters. With, of course, Ron Perlman as the title character as the shining centerpiece. How different it is in Neil Marshall’s version, who barely manages to generate excitement or suspense or make Hellboy an interesting character.

Neil Marshall, who with ‘Dog Soldiers’ and ‘The Descent’ managed to deliver solid, sometimes even chilling, genre films – and with ‘Doomsday’ a nice pulpy B-movie in the style of Mad Max – doesn’t seem to know what he has to do with his actors and gives them lame one-liners and little interesting to do. Milla Jovovich is not at all threatening as the supreme witch who wants to take over the world with an army of monsters, but this also has to do with her flawed acting skills. Hardly a single word comes out of her mouth believably.

But if, as a director, you manage to barely get even an actor like Ian McShane to create a fun scene or interaction, something is seriously wrong. Yes, he’s the most worthy of the peep out of everyone, and he may bring a little smile to the viewer here and there, but that’s about it. He does his best, but the simplistic, funny dialogue is just not good enough.

Marshall runs flashback after flash in the hopes that it will give depth to the characters and give the story more body, but it backfires. You are always waiting for the story to continue. Furthermore, the special effects are usually very poorly executed, especially when it comes to CGI. Lots of nasty effects, blood and gore, that’s for sure, but this doesn’t really shock, except maybe for the ending.

The biggest disappointment is Hellboy itself. After all, this character has to carry the film, so everything stands or falls with his interpretation and (literal and figurative) design. Now David Harbor is a fine actor in his own right and he undoubtedly portrays the character as Marshall intended him, but the average viewer will have little enthusiasm for him. Most of his jokes don’t get through and in battles he can barely beat his opponents. Add to that his disinterested demeanor – his trademark which, when executed well, can be very funny – and you’ve got a character who usually comes across as dull, sluggish, dull and incompetent. Not like the dry, joking anti-hero who physically wipes the floor with monsters and verbally with smart people around him.

This Hellboy immediately gets hit in the first scene, which isn’t that tough of course. A bigger problem is that the Hellboy as played by Ron Perlman let it slide off and became very macho and humorous the situation (and his opponent) mastered. Harbor walks around with an open mouth half the time. Whether he does this because he feels intimidated, surprised or fearful – or has jaw fatigue – is not always clear, but it doesn’t make him a kick-ass character.

Perhaps Marshall deliberately tried to turn it into a more vulnerable, human anti-hero, and that’s to be commended. But unfortunately he doesn’t give us enough emotions or scenes with interesting development to build a bond with him. Yes, the meaning of his existence, the relationship with his (foster) father, and his inner doubts are repeatedly discussed – and come on, they sometimes arouse quite a bit of compassion – but whether Harbor is hindered by the make-up (much expression , except for a stupid look, he doesn’t), the bad effects or mediocre dialogue… it doesn’t come out enough.

All this results in a messy film with varying special effects (which are usually mostly distasteful), too many flashbacks and unnecessary trips, mediocre acting, some successful action scenes (a game of mats with a few giants is fun) and some monsters here and there. that look quite interesting. In short, far too little to spend almost two hours of your time on.