The
prospect of the continuation of the Hellboy series
is one that's very exciting. Initially meant to be a sequel with Ron
Perlman still starring in the lead role, the lack of Guillermo Del
Toro's involvement in the films' production turned the concept into
the film that we have been presented with- a complete reboot starring
Stranger Things actor
David Harbour. Whilst this attempts to follow in the footsteps of the
previous installments and more recent 'adult' superhero films like
Deadpool, Hellboy is
overall a bit of a mess. There is a lot of spirit and fun, but also a
bunch of generic characters and lazy writing. What we have been
presented with is a film that turns Hellboy into a mindless action
film that is only really fun if you refuse to take it seriously in
any way.
The
films antagonist is Arthurian-era sorceress Nimue, soon to return
from the dead to unleash a deadly plague upon mankind. Hellboy, aided
by his adoptive father Professor Bruttenholm (Ian McShane), spirit
medium Alice Monaghan (Sasha Lane) and soldier Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae
Kim), must stop her from wiping out humanity. Whilst the story in
itself is very generic, that doesn't mean that David Harbour doesn't
do a great job in the lead role. In fact, Hellboy is the best written
character in the film and Harbour was the perfect choice to play him.
He has the perfect attitude for the character, portraying him as
gritty with a dry sense of wit and a reckless approach to his
drinking habits and reaction to danger. He and Ian McShane both do
wonderful jobs in their roles. McShane might be playing a type that
he has settled into in the last few years, but he nonetheless adds
some much needed gravitas to a film that is messy in many ways.
Luckily the tone is very tongue-in-cheek and it knows not to take
itself too seriously, something that the audience also has to do to
make this seem more fun than flop.
Hellboy
is ultimately let down by the
script. As previously mentioned, Hellboy and Bruttenholm are the best
written characters in the film, but the others are generally the
complete opposite. Alice and Ben are disappointing characters who are
poorly developed and quite stereotypical. There's the young girl who
has a personal connection to the hero and the guy who hates him but
learns to like him in the end. There are various attempts to make
these two more likable throughout the film, mostly poor one-liners
and extremely late-in-the-game exposition. By the end, they are
perhaps relatively personable, but only because of their cool dynamic
during fight scenes. They are however still very two dimensional and
have predictable character arcs.
This
film has a problem with storytelling in general. There is a lot of
explaining of past events done by characters and a reliance on
flashbacks. Whilst this backstory is needed, it is not conveyed well
or in an interesting way. The villain is also very generic and badly
scripted, and it seems that the writers knew how to perfectly write
the hero, but simply didn't know what to do with the antagonist. With
Nimue, they fell into the trope of plucking a mythical figure from
history and treating them as a ready-made villain. She has an
exceedingly simple end goal and her dialogue is stilted. Milla
Jovovich (of Resident Evil)
doesn't impress in the role, although she admittedly doesn't have
much to work with.
This
lack of a decent villain leaves the film relying on gratuitous bloody
violence.This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it really amps up the
films fight scenes, which are made even more spectacular by the
amazing soundtrack. Appropriately full of heavy guitars, it also
features some prominent songs such as 'Psycho' by Muse. When these
play during the set pieces, it really livens up the whole scene and
adds that sense of fun that the film needs in light of its lack of
good story. These action-packed, bloody fight scenes might be fun to
an extent, but what detracts from the film is the excessive amount of
gore. Some might not mind this (or even actively enjoy it) but as
someone who struggles to watch that amount of graphic violence
depicted on-screen it seems quite unnecessary and certainly
gratuitous. It doesn't add anything to the film and ultimately seems
like a distraction from the poorly written antagonist. Having said
this, there are moments where the unsettling nature of the films gore
works perfectly well with its characters. Demons such as Baba Yaga
are presented in a way that is so terrifying, horrific and uncanny
that they simply wouldn't be as effective without their grotesque
appearance.
There
are moments with Hellboy where
it's unclear if the film is so bad it's good, or simply just bad. The
writing of the plot and characters points to the latter, but the
performances of Harbour and McShane and the tongue-in-cheek fun
moments make this not entirely awful. It's definitely an action film
that shouldn't be taken seriously if you're looking to find the fun
in it.
