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Hellboy (2019) -- a review


When they announced that they were doing a reboot of Hellboy, I started sharpening my knives in preparation of slicing this ‘turkey-to-be’ right up. The original Hellboy, directed by Guillermo del Toro, and released fifteen years ago, was an enchanting dark fantasy that starred Ron Perlman as the titular character, a demon turned superhero who battles the forces of evil for a government agency. In 2008, del Toro wound up making a sequel that was even better, and it hinted at a third film that would wrap up the series in a very dark fashion.

But instead of getting a trilogy of del Toro’s whimsical, imaginative take on Mike Mignola’s original comic book series, we got a Hellboy reboot in 2019. I have to admit that I was originally very happy to hear that the rebooted Hellboy bombed at the box office, and looked forward to seeing this on home video just so I could gleefully dissect it and explain why it sucked so badly and how wrong they were to even reboot this series when they could have given us a third film in del Toro’s saga. But, instead, something interesting happened.



When I saw the new Hellboy, I really liked it.

Directed by Neil Marshall (reportedly while dealing with some major behind the scenes drama), who helmed four extremely entertaining movies back to back (Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Doomsday, and Centurion), the 2019 Hellboy stars David Harbour (Stranger Things) as the crimson demon who battles the forces of evil, this time taking the form of Milla Jovoich (the Resident Evil movie series) as a powerful sorceress who rises to threaten the world once again after being originally defeated by none other than King Arthur himself. Harbour gives Hellboy a younger, less weary vibe than Perlman did, but he still comes across as a loveable dolt who would rather kick back with a beer.



Ian McShane gives his Professor Broom a harder edge than John Hurt did in the del Toro films, but McShane brings a welcome intensity to a man who raised his “son” with plenty of tough love in order to prepare him for the dangerous life he would lead. The new Hellboy, which is R-Rated, is far more darker than del Toro’s Hellboy films (which still managed to be dark for their PG-13 ratings), while still retaining a gritty sense of humor. When all is said and done, Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy movies are still the ones that I prefer, but I also still enjoyed the 2019 version because of its darker, gorier slant--which made it more of a straight on horror film than the del Toro entries.


If you’ve never seen the Hellboy movies, my advice to you would be to see the two del Toro films, first--because they're still the best versions of this story. Then, if you enjoy those, and wouldn’t mind a darker take on the material, you should check out the 2019 version. I liken the 2019 Hellboy to an alternate Earth version of the story, just like how the Star Trek characters visited a dark “mirror-universe”, so is this Hellboy a darker shade of the first two films. The 2019 Hellboy is a much grittier take on familiar material that deserves to exist right alongside its brethren. --SF



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