Skip to main content

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



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Explorer From Another World

It’s Friday night during the summer in Beutter county, an idyllic farming community in Indiana, and the good folks are settling in for what should be another humdinger of an evening. Until their plans are shattered by the arrival of an Explorer From Another World! This turns out to be an alien (Gemma Sterling) who starts savagely killing people from the moment it disembarks from its flying saucer. Local kids Eddie (Colin McCorquodale), Marybeth (Sage Marchand) and Culpepper (Nolan Gay) are planning on seeing a movie, but it looks like they’ll be battling for the very survival of the human race instead! Explorer From Another World is a wonderfully done throwback to the B-movies of the 1950s and 1960s. Ably directed by Woody Edwards (who gives himself a small cameo as Hank in the sheriff’s jail cell), the film is forty five minutes long, but manages to tell its torrid but funny story very effectively in the time allotted. And the short running time tracks when you...
Post a Comment
Read more

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice -- a review

Despite coming out thirty six years after the first film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice , once again directed by Tim Burton, wound up being vastly entertaining, adding lots of pleasant surprises, like the use of stop-motion animation. The sequel takes place within the same real-life time frame, with Lydia Deetz, played with wry humor by Winona Ryder, now the host of a ghost hunting show. She’s also the mother of Astrid, a teenager played by Jenna Ortega. They live with Delia Deetz (the always great Catherine O'Hara), Lydia’s step-mother and Astrid’s step-grandmother. After the death of Charles--Delia’s husband and Lydia’s father--during a bird-watching accident involving sharks, the Deetz ladies must go back up to the creepy house in Winter River, Connecticut for his funeral. This is the same place where Lydia first encountered Beetlejuice all those years ago, and she is understandably reluctant to even mention his name, lest she accidentally calls forth Beet...
Post a Comment
Read more

Batman: The Return of the Caped Crusaders -- a review

Holy animation,, Batman! Batman: The Return of the Caped Crusaders is a loving tribute to the 1960s TV series that manages to feel like the second 1960s-era Batman movie, thanks to the voice-casting of original Batman and Robin stars Adam West and Burt Ward, along with Julie Newmar, who reprises her role as Catwoman. Taking place in the same time period as the series, the film is filled with the social mores of the time, such as having Catwoman demurely step to the side whenever Batman and Robin battle the villainous henchmen (complete with the customary BIFF! BAM! and POW! word balloons the original series always flashed during the fight scenes). Catwoman is a part of a fearsome foursome of rogues that includes the Joker, Penguin and the Riddler as they set out to work together to wreak havoc on Gotham City. The fact that these villains team up, along with their use of a penguin-themed zeppelin later in the film, is a nice nod to the original 1966 Batman movie that was relea...
Post a Comment
Read more