Nearly an hour into the new Hellboy film and audience has learned very little about the evil Blood Queen, played by Resident Evil star Milla Jovovich, so it’s not surprising fans may lose interest.
David Harbour (Hopper on Stranger Things) stars titular demon, who kicks off the thrill ride with a trip to Mexico to discover a missing colleague has been turned into a vampire. The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) has learned that a monster called Gruagach (Stephen Graham) has been stealing the queen’s body parts so she can return and end all human life.
Hellboy is believed to somehow contribute to Gruagach’s scheme, which causes several of his would-be colleagues to turn on him. He ultimately teams with Alice (Sasha Lane) and the B.P.R.D.’s Major Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim) for a final showdown.
There is no reason to discuss the King Arthur theme which is horribly threaded into the Hellboy universe. Only die hard fans will appreciate the post-credit scenes and setup for Koshchei The Deathless to be the key villain in a sequel which will never happen.
There is no director Guillermo del Toro, who directed the two films which starred Ron Perlman. Neil Marshall is behind the camera and appears interested in creating a gory horror film with little else invested in the characters or story.
Ian McShane is wasted as Hellboy’s adoptive father Trevor Bruttenholm with bland and uninteresting dialogue. The biggest failure of the film is the Blood Queen, a character void of menace, becoming a temptress to Hellboy, who must wrestle with being a demon in the human world.
Some more blood splatters and the film ends with a yawn.
Hellboy will now need another reboot, an injustice to Harbour who proved to be more than capable in the role, after being a bomb at the box office.
Fans of the comic book may find some elements enjoyable as Marshall does tap into various story elements from the source material, but just can’t fully make an impact on the big screen.
The film is perfect fodder for SyFy and FX, playing regularly on weekends to consume some time for a mindless, plotless adventure thrill with a ton of blood and some gore.
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