Hellboy

Mike Mignola's demonic superhero Hellboy was first summoned to the big screen by Guillermo Del Toro's 2004 film and its 2008 sequel, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, both starring Ron Perlman as the titular jerk with a heart of gold. Unfortunately, a third film with Del Toro and Perlman never arose. The franchise starts again with Neil Marshall (The Descent) directing David Harbour as Hellboy. Let's read about it.

1944. An Allied Strike Team thwarts a Nazi ceremony, with assistance by Rasputin, to unleash Hell on Earth. A demonic infant appears and Professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm (Ian McShane) raises the hell-spawn as his son, Hellboy. Of course, Hellboy doesn't learn this tidbit until...

Present Day. Hellboy works under Professor Broom in the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. Guess what it does?

Anyway, Hellboy's latest assignment is to stop Nimue the Blood Queen (Mila Jovovich) from unleashing Hell on Earth. King Arthur ("Yes, that King Arthur." as Broom's narration bluntly states.) cut her up and scattered her still living body across the English countryside. But the pig monster Grugach (Body by Douglas Tait, voice by Stephen Graham) put her back together. Hellboy is assisted by the psychic Alice Monaghan (Sasha Lane) and the were-jaguar Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae-Kim). It gets complicated when Nimue goads Hellboy into fulfilling his prophesied role as Harbinger of the Apocalypse.

I did my best to sum up the story. It's a simple story jumbled in knots. A major subplot is that Hellboy doubts that fighting demons is right and that demons are victims. But it takes a trip to the infamous Baba Yaga's chicken-legged hut to find out that demons are evil. But Grugach's backstory as a Changeling makes him legitimately sympathetic. In short: demons aren't evil, then they are; OK, maybe some.

The film runs 121 minutes, but the plot is slower than that. Hellboy is summoned to England, not to deal with Nimue, but to help the snobbish Osiris Club hunt giants. It's actually a protracted trap. We only find out later they had the last of Nimue's pieces. But again, later. We do get other story points told here, though.

The worst offense to the story is Hellboy and Professor Broom's relationship. They spend most of the movie arguing like a rebellious teen and their parents. It's funny but not really endearing. When Nimue eventually kills Broom, a potentially tragic moment falls flat. Especially when it segues into more of the apocalyptic finale already in progress. Wish we saw more of Broom's Heart of Gold a little earlier than that.

Harbour as Hellboy, at least, tries to save the film. His first scene has him deal with a vampirized BPRD agent. We can understand his hesitation from here. If only the story was more understandable. Still, his sarcastic attitude is entertaining and his over-joyous reaction to meeting pulp hero Lobster Johnson (Thomas Hayden Church) in the mid-credits scene is infectious. Joel Harlow deserves whatever praise he gets for designing Hellboy's appearance and those of the other demons.

Lorenzo Senatore's cinematography is another technical highlight. Sure, the fight scenes frequently jump from cut to cut. But when the shots stay still, and especially when they're stitched into one singular shot, they're impressive. Grugach is a mix of a practical monster suit and a CGI head. The CGI is obvious but it helps make Grugach more pitiable. Benjamin Wallfisch's score admirably sets the film's edgy mood. But the numerous rock songs are more noticeable.

And how can we forget Hellboy's R-Rating? It shows it off like a badge of honor. Hellboy's visit to Baba Yaga is the film's most disturbing scene. And I don't just mean Baba Yaga's withered visage. The apocalyptic finale is the second most disturbing scene. We'll leave it at that. Some of the violence loses its luster, especially by the third or fourth beheading. At least we get a groan-worthy pun when Hellboy dispatches Nimue.

I said a lot, so I'll make the summary quick. Hellboy isn't for the faint of heart. It might satisfy those who felt the first films needed more blood. Its overemphasis of blood left me little to care about the characters. But the few positives I found made it tolerable. Let's not imagine how it could've gotten worse.