Hellboy reviews round-up: The first dud of the year has arrived
'It's the kind of reboot that makes reboots look bad'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The reviews of Hellboy are in – and they’re not pretty.
For those wanting a graphic novel adaptation similar to Guillermo del Toro’s, it seems they’ll be forced to look elsewhere. Director Neil Marshall has taken over the reins for this reboot with Stranger Things star David Harbour in the role played by Ron Perlman in 2004 and again in 2008 for the sequel The Golden Army (he stepped down when del Toro’s third film was shelved)
Based on Mike Mignola’s source material, this R-rated film follows the character as he battles an ancient sorceress (Milla Jovovich) bent on revenge after becoming caught between the worlds of the supernatural and human.
While Harbour’s performance is receiving praise, the reviews are calling the reboot of the Hellboy franchise a mess of the tallest order. It seems we have the year’s first dud.
Read a roundup below.
British director Neil Marshall’s reboot of the Hellboy franchise is a lurid, confusing mess, only partially redeemed by its tongue-in-cheek humour and fitfully impressive visual effects.
It’s lunging to be a badass hard-R epic, but it’s basically a pile of origin-story gobbledygook, frenetic and undercooked, full of limb-hacking, eye-gouging monster battles as well as an atmosphere of apocalyptic grunge that signifies next to nothing.
For all the badass attitude and the CGI mini-apocalypses he has to stride through, this Hellboy is lacking, more of a Heckboy: a banal action-movie figure, without much of the unexpected likability and indeed the romantic interest that Selma Blair once gave him. Now he just has a series of ho-hum subordinate characters, to be revived, or not, depending on whether the numbers justify more films in this vein.
So, Hellboy’s a mess. That’s not to say that it’s complicated, or unclear, exactly; no story filled with this many clichés can really be too confusing. But the latest adaptation of Mike Mignola’s cult comics — an attempt to reboot the successful, if short-lived, film franchise Guillermo del Toro started back in 2004 — throws so many tired plot points and revelations at us that it all feels like an exhausting blur.
Hellboy is the kind of reboot that makes reboots look bad.
Scroll through the below gallery to see 35 great films that bombed at the box office.
Hellboy is in cinemas tomorrow (12 April)
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments