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By Nathan Hurlbut
You may be asking yourself, why would anyone think rebooting the “Hellboy” movie franchise was a good idea? Well, if you’re a fan of tedious dialogue, unnecessary gore, and the most generous definition of the word “story”, then this is the movie you’ve been waiting for.
It was back in 2004 that director Guillermo del Toro used his extensive visual imagination to first bring the comic book hero to life on the big screen in the original “Hellboy”. This is, by the way, the same director whose sublime “The Shape of Water” won the 2017 Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as earning del Toro a Best Director Oscar. So you know you’re in good hands there.
Del Toro also managed the implausible feat of actually improving upon the first film with “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army” in 2008. This sequel’s powerful combination of jaw-dropping imagination and fantastic visuals even made it a superior movie to its predecessor. It left fans wondering how far the immensely talented director could take the franchise.
The logical conclusion would be to provide Del Toro with the opportunity to direct a third film. It turns out Del Toro had actually written a script, nominally called “Hellboy III”, that was all ready to go. It just needed the green light from the studio to move forward.
Alas, it was not to be. “Hellboy” creator Mike Mignola took charge of the new project himself, concocting a story with screenwriter Andrew Cosby, and deciding that a reboot was in order. Perhaps it was because del Toro and original actor Ron Perlman both declined to be involved in this new project that forced their hand in this decision. Or maybe it was the fact that a decade had passed since the last “Hellboy” movie had been released, translating to a lifetime in Hollywood years.
Whatever the case, a new version of “Hellboy” has now appeared in theaters, and we are all suffering the consequences.
Hellboy’s wisecracking demeanor is certainly a crucial part of his charm. It is a personality trait that Perlman and del Toro both exploited to entertaining effect in the original films. Here, Hellboy’s comments are unfortunately reduced to stale jokes and tiresome catchphrases that are more likely to elicit groans rather than laughs. Or more likely, no reaction at all.
Series creator Mignola did promise the reboot would tread into much darker territory in an effort to recapture the violent tone of the comic books, and the movie is certainly true to his word. However, this horror-film atmosphere delivers fistfuls of bloodshed for seemingly no discernable purpose, other than to amp up the film’s gross-out potential and secure an R-rating.
The best thing you can say about the movie is that the acting, well, works well enough. Only Ian McShane, as Hellboy’s father Trevor Bruttenholm, stands out in the film’s most memorable performance. He attempts to provide a father-son emotional depth that the script itself fails to deliver.
Instead, the screenplay mostly features one fight scene followed by another, with only the thinnest of narrative holding it all together. At the same time, it also packs enough dramatic explanation of these events to make your head spin, possibly the result of translating no less than four separate comic book stories into a single movie.
I’m guessing the filmmakers were hoping to sell this movie on its high level of pure visual spectacle. They were probably hoping the computer generated effects and gruesome carnage would overcome the lack of more typical movie qualities such as interesting characters or a compelling story. The result is that once the movie finally reaches its conclusion, you’ll find a serious case of exhaustion has set in. Who would have guessed that a film featuring a superhero supposedly birthed from Hell would have so little soul?