WatchSeeLookView - Hellboy (2019)

Ah, you can't really move for comic book adaptations these days. You also can’t move for reboots/remakes either. Let’s go with one that ticks both of those boxes.

Hellboy (2019)
Dir. Neil Marshall / Dur. 121 mins

In A Nutshell:- Time to dust off Hellboy again for something similar but different.

The Good:- If you’re a fan of the Hellboy comics then this movie has been squarely aimed at you. From the opening Mexican wrestling/vampire sequence to the closing scene teasing the return of a familiar character, almost every element of this film has its roots within the comic somewhere. The storyline itself largely mixes together a number of elements from The Wild Hunt and The Storm & The Fury comic arcs with some key changes.
David Harbour makes an enjoyable enough Hellboy - the spectre of Ron Perlamn still looms over the whole thing a little but Harbour does enough to make it feel like the same character without aping the previous performance. Stephen Graham as a Scouse pig monster turns in a fun vocal performance and Milla Jovovich takes her villainous role seriously without going too far over the top.
The character design and effect s work is impressive in places too with a suitably creepy way of movement for Baba Yaga being a highlight.

The Bad:- While it may be doing its best to include as much from the comics as possible, this has the unfortunate effect of making the whole thing feel overstuffed. There’s so much going and so many little back stories to set up (Hellboy, Alice, Captain Daimio, The Osiris Club, Nimue, The Grugach, Lobster Johnson, Baba Yaga) that it leaves a fair chunk of the film given over to exposition and flashbacks. It makes the whole film feel crowded and it could have done with a bit of breathing room from time to time.
I’m not opposed to blood and guts in films but it does feel unnecessarily violent at times and the uses of profanity feel adolescent and out of place at times. Ian McShane is basically playing the Ian McShane character that he now always plays and so, for me, I didn't buy him as Professor Bruttenholm. 
I’m also getting tired of films ending with a selection of epilogue scenes designed to set things up for a sequel. It would be nice to just have a film stand alone with the possibility of a sequel left unteased (because, let’s face it, based on box office, this film isn’t going to get one).

The Verdict:- While nowhere near the car crash that the reviews would have you believe, it’s definitely not as successful as the previous films and does suffer by comparison. In making a laudable attempt to represent some of the elements and characters not shown in the other films (and wisely keeping Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien out of this one to reduce the comparisons), it tries to bite off more than it can chew and ends up with a mouth full of half-chewed bits. If you’re a fan of Hellboy, it’s definitely worth a watch but don’t expect it to match up to the Guillermo Del Toro originals.