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Date: 4/15/2019
What I’m watching: a really bad “Hellboy” movie
In theaters: Hellboy
So now we have week two of the unofficial Fanboy Month at the Movies. Last week, “Shazam” opened and received good reviews generally – especially from this writer – made a ton of dough and will apparently have a sequel.
Week two we have a movie that is as clumsy as “Shazam” was sure-footed: the reboot of the “Hellboy” franchise.
Full disclosure: I love the character, have a ton of the comics, think the character’s creator, Mike Mignola, is a true standout in his field and adore the first two movies starring Ron Perlman and directed by Guillermo del Toro.
I went to this movie with some reservations, but with an open mind. Director Neil Marshall helmed two outstanding horror films, “Dog Soldiers” and “The Descent,” the latter film being one that genuinely terrified me. He had struck me as a guy who understood horror, but also characterization.
For the uninitiated, the comics told the story of how a young psychic investigator, Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, helped defeat an effort by the Nazis in the waning days of WWII to bring a demon from Hell to use as weapon against the Allies. What came out of the open portal to the underworld was a baby, a baby demon.
Bruttenholm adopted him, dubbing him Hellboy, and raised him as a human. Reaching maturity, Hellboy became part of The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, led by his father.
Mignola’s comics are multi-leveled tales that are not just about a demon fighting supernatural monsters. The stories also explore the definition of humanity and whether or not someone such as Hellboy can escape the fate that destiny has cast for him.
Some of the Hellboy stories are raucous slugfests between the hero and unspeakable evil. Many others though are more introspective affairs with questioning his own actions and wondering what is his place in the human world. There is also plenty of humor in the comic book series.
This film wants to jettison many aspects of the comics – and the first two movies – to emphasize the idea that Hellboy is angry at his father and that he spends his time in this story getting beat up while killing monsters.
David Harbour’s Hellboy is more of a whiney teenager than an introspective demon who wonders if he wants to be human. This Hellboy has little charm to his personality.
The plot revolves around a supernatural entity seeking revenge on Hellboy by helping an immortal witch (played with vigor by Milla Jovovich) come back to bring the world into the end times. Hellboy’s role in the apocalypse is essential to her plans.
While there are scenes and images from Mignola’s comics, what is lacking is the humanity of the character. There is plenty of hard-R rated gore in the film, which I know will make some fans happy, but to me this is a cheap and easy approach.
Part of this reboot is a re-telling of Hellboy’s origin story, which includes giving Bruttenholm (played with one loud note by Ian McShane) some ability to lengthen his life, as the character should be in his 90s in this scenario. There is also a clumsy insertion of a character from the Hellboy universe, the crime fighter Lobster Johnson played by a miscast Thomas Haden Church.
Marshall did not retain the final cut of the film, so perhaps his version of the film was a little better. We may find out in the future when the film hits Blu-ray release.
Clearly, according to social media, there are some fans who like this gory and profane approach.
I’m not among them.