Hellboy
2 stars
Director: Neil Marshall
Starring: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim
Duration: 120 mins
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

Hellboy is not your typical super-hero – tall, physically imposing and utterly menacing to look at, his skin a flamey red, and sawn-off horns the defining feature of his face – yet within is a half-man, half-demon out to do right in a world of evil. Created by Mike Mignola in the eponymous comic books, Hellboy first made his way on to the big screen in 2004 with Hellboy, followed by a sequel in 2008 sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

These are two films that sit proudly on Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro’s filmography. The director has long infused his work with an eerie and poetic mix of fairy tale and horror, including his work on the Hellboy films, which together with actor Ron Perlman’s first-rate approach to the character firmly cemented the movies in fantasy film lore.

The success of the character and the plethora of superhero movies that have been made since have made an eventual ‘re-imagining’ of the Hellboy character inevitable; yet diehard fans are in for a hellish ride as they reconnect with the character in this rendition – and I don’t mean that in a good way.

Played here by David Harbour (of TV’s Stranger Things), Hellboy is sent to England by the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence, ostensibly to battle a trio of rampaging giants. Yet on first discovering he was sent there under false pretences, Hellboy also learns that the Blood Queen, Nimue (Milla Jovovich), killed and decapitated centuries before, is back to avenge her death. And she is very angry. With old friend Alice Monaghan (Sasha Lane) and BPRD officer Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim) by his side, Hellboy sets about to do what he does best – prevent the end of the world.

Hellboy’s opening scenes look promising. An irreverent voice-over takes us to AD 512 when Nimue clashes with King Arthur (yes, that King Arthur) and ends up at the wrong end of Excalibur. With Nimue resting in pieces, we then segue to modern-day Mexico in the middle of a typical Mexican wrestling match, and the dramatic change of scene is intriguingly incongruous.

New director Neil Marshall’s approach is vastly different from Del Toro’s. There is nothing wrong in and of itself in that. After all, with the direction of episodes of Game of Thrones and Westworld and horror film The Descent on his CV, it was obvious that Marshall would stamp his own seal on the film.

Yet, it soon becomes alarmingly evident that he is way too invested in the parade of demonic characters that are unleashed on screen from the outset, allowing them to run roughshod over anything resembling plot or character development. And despite the buckets of blood and the gallons of gore that are spilled whenever they clash with Hellboy – which is all the time – so relentless, noisy and chaotic is the action that it is not long before creature fatigue sets in.

That is compounded by the uneven plotting and the constant shift of tone that barely allows the audience to really grasp what is going on and feel any suspense or thrills, let alone terror. This makes the task of audience connection with the characters practically impossible.

Harbour is by far the best thing here, and actually emerges from the chaos with his dignity intact. His take on the character does justice to Perlman, whose shoes must have been pretty hard to fill. Under the character’s heavy make-up, Harbour effortlessly projects the character’s larger-than-life personality – his droll humour, his innate physical and moral strength and his many flaws and vulnerabilities, not least his all-too-acute awareness that he is a freak among men. As for the rest of the cast, Jovovich is saddled with a hissy-villain type role that gives her little of anything to do.

Meanwhile, the few scenes between Hellboy and his adoptive father, Professor Bloom (played with relish by Ian McShane), and their constant bickering provide some of the film’s better moments.

In the meantime, like pretty much everything else, the chemistry between Harbour and his sidekicks Lane and Dae-Kim never really ignites... failing spectacularly to live up to the film’s promise that “Hellboy is back, and this time he’s on fire!”

Wonder Park is set in a magical amusement park run by a group of animals.Wonder Park is set in a magical amusement park run by a group of animals.

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