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Update: April 10, 2019
Dragonlord’s Review of HELLBOY (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: Flashes of glorious gory carnage can’t overcome the predictable rehashed plot, mind-numbing action and less-than-manly mannerisms of the new Hellboy.
The new Hellboy reboot had a lot going for it. It’s rated R and the director is Neil Marshall who has shown in past films that he knows how to take advantage of unrestricted action-packed mayhem with Doomsday and Centurion as well as conjure up bone-chilling terror with The Descent and Dog Soldiers.
So what went wrong? The fault lies mainly in the plot which felt like a rehash of the first Hellboy and a bunch of other supernatural end-of-the-world movies. An ancient, powerful sorceress is resurrected and seeks to destroy the modern world but standing in her way is an organization dedicated to destroying supernatural threats. The sorceress wants the male leading character to join her and unleash his full potential. It does sound like the plot for Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, doesn’t it.
David Harbour (Stranger Things) does a respectable job of playing Hellboy and the makeup and body suit look spectacular but there’s one aspect of his performance that bothers me and that’s the way he grunts whenever there’s some physical exertion involved like running or fighting. He just sounds like a wuss. Might as well call him Hellbitch.
The rest of the supporting cast was mostly just adequate. Ian McShane as Trevor Bruttenholm was like the actor playing himself and the direction he’s character took was formulaic. Sasha Lane was surprisingly adorable as Alice Monaghan. The foul-mouthed and vicious Grugach (voiced by Stephen Graham) was also enjoyable.
One odd thing though is Nimue the Blood Queen (Milla Jovovich) who claims to represent all the monsters and demons but all the while looks like a normal beautiful human female. At the very least get some ugly human like Toni Collette or something to play the part. Okay that was too harsh.
Most of the action gets repetitive and weren’t really well thought-out especially the Grugach fight scenes. The best part about the movie is the giant-hunting subplot which was really fun and more exciting than the main story. The R-rating is certainly well-deserved as bloods and gore are aplenty. Near the end as the apocalypse enters London, monstrous creatures from the stuff of nightmares come out and massacre the citizens in such a gruesome manner. Suffice to say I loved it. Unfortunately Hellboy didn’t get a chance to fight these monsters. Instead the big climax’s setting is small-scale taking place in a church with only Grugach and the Blood Queen as the adversaries.
This reboot makes you more appreciative of Guillermo del Toro and the artistry, the visual splendors, the world-building and the amazing fight choreography he brought to the first two Hellboy films. This Hellboy reboot is just generic as fuck, down to its predictable ending. They're so fucking lazy that they don't even bother to put a subtitle in this Hellboy title to separate it from del Toro's first film. There is a mid-credits scene that came across very awkward and felt like an improv.
RATING: 5.5/10
Link to previous thread:
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/hellboy-reboot-new-r-rated-sizzle-reel.3526469/page-34
Dragonlord’s Review of HELLBOY (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: Flashes of glorious gory carnage can’t overcome the predictable rehashed plot, mind-numbing action and less-than-manly mannerisms of the new Hellboy.
The new Hellboy reboot had a lot going for it. It’s rated R and the director is Neil Marshall who has shown in past films that he knows how to take advantage of unrestricted action-packed mayhem with Doomsday and Centurion as well as conjure up bone-chilling terror with The Descent and Dog Soldiers.
So what went wrong? The fault lies mainly in the plot which felt like a rehash of the first Hellboy and a bunch of other supernatural end-of-the-world movies. An ancient, powerful sorceress is resurrected and seeks to destroy the modern world but standing in her way is an organization dedicated to destroying supernatural threats. The sorceress wants the male leading character to join her and unleash his full potential. It does sound like the plot for Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, doesn’t it.
David Harbour (Stranger Things) does a respectable job of playing Hellboy and the makeup and body suit look spectacular but there’s one aspect of his performance that bothers me and that’s the way he grunts whenever there’s some physical exertion involved like running or fighting. He just sounds like a wuss. Might as well call him Hellbitch.
The rest of the supporting cast was mostly just adequate. Ian McShane as Trevor Bruttenholm was like the actor playing himself and the direction he’s character took was formulaic. Sasha Lane was surprisingly adorable as Alice Monaghan. The foul-mouthed and vicious Grugach (voiced by Stephen Graham) was also enjoyable.
One odd thing though is Nimue the Blood Queen (Milla Jovovich) who claims to represent all the monsters and demons but all the while looks like a normal beautiful human female. At the very least get some ugly human like Toni Collette or something to play the part. Okay that was too harsh.
Most of the action gets repetitive and weren’t really well thought-out especially the Grugach fight scenes. The best part about the movie is the giant-hunting subplot which was really fun and more exciting than the main story. The R-rating is certainly well-deserved as bloods and gore are aplenty. Near the end as the apocalypse enters London, monstrous creatures from the stuff of nightmares come out and massacre the citizens in such a gruesome manner. Suffice to say I loved it. Unfortunately Hellboy didn’t get a chance to fight these monsters. Instead the big climax’s setting is small-scale taking place in a church with only Grugach and the Blood Queen as the adversaries.
This reboot makes you more appreciative of Guillermo del Toro and the artistry, the visual splendors, the world-building and the amazing fight choreography he brought to the first two Hellboy films. This Hellboy reboot is just generic as fuck, down to its predictable ending. They're so fucking lazy that they don't even bother to put a subtitle in this Hellboy title to separate it from del Toro's first film. There is a mid-credits scene that came across very awkward and felt like an improv.
RATING: 5.5/10
Link to previous thread:
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/hellboy-reboot-new-r-rated-sizzle-reel.3526469/page-34
