Short Attention Span Review - Hellboy (2019)

Short Attention Span Review - Hellboy (2019)

Could the new Hellboy really be as bad as everyone said it was?  The way I remember it, about thirty seconds after it got released, the entire universe had labeled it a colossal failure.  Many reviews seemed to portray the picture's greatest shortcoming as an inability to measure up to Guillermo del Toro's work with the character.  Honestly, (and I know this is blasphemy to some) I didn't dig those flicks all that much.  And you know what?  With that mind, I have to say . . . this Hellboy was pretty bad.  Uneven and sophomoric, the pieces just didn't fit together all that well, and the ending was a total letdown.  I had heard that the CGI was dodgy, but I didn't find that to be an issue, and I really liked a lot of the character and set designs.  Mostly, the issues that handicapped this reboot were related to plotting and a lack of restraint.  And that turd burglar of a finale.  However, while it surely missed the mark in a lot of ways, I did enjoy this Hellboy at times.  It had some fun bits, and while it may have been too crude in many places, the effort Neil Marshall and his crew put into scraping the bottom of the barrel did yield some obnoxious entertainment along the way.  I enjoyed David Harbour in the title role, and some of his line deliveries really worked for me.  While I wanted more from the lovely Milla Jovovich (who was splendid, but given far too little to do), there were some nasty baddies in the mix.  The gore quotient was high, and I think the hard R approach served the property well when they didn't go overboard with it.  It's just a shame that the script fell so short, and I'm not sure that everyone involved was on the same page so far as the tone of the movie is concerned.  Yes, the new Hellboy is a misfire.  However, it's like Hudson Hawk or Tango & Cash--it's one of those duds that still has some unmistakable appeal.  Is it good?  No.  Far from it.  Is it entertaining?  Yeah, somewhat.  

Final Grade: D+

Okay, the new Hellboy is a dud, but don't blame David Harbour.