A new Hellboy movie that has both a new actor portraying Big Red (Jack Kesy takes on the role this time) and a new director at the helm (Brian Taylor, he of the fun Neveldine/Taylor film-making duo), I was prepared to seriously dislike this. I have enjoyed previous Hellboy movies, but they had directors and stars I was more interested in. This seemed to be destined to disappoint me, considering the lack of major names and what looked to be, from the trailer anyway, a restrictively low budget.
I ended up not being disappointed.
To boil the story down to the core of the premise, Hellboy and Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph) end up in a remote area where they discover someone in need of their help. Tom Ferrell (Jefferson White) has been put in a very difficult position, which makes him a target for a witch (Leah McNamara), and also has him apparently owing a debt to the titular crooked man (Martin Bassindale).
With Mike Mignola helping to adapt his own comic book, joined by Taylor and Christopher Golden, this is a decent little slice of supernatural action that, as I have been assured by fans of the Hellboy comics, actually feels more in line with the source material than previous live-action films. I still have a soft spot for Perlman in the role, and the fact that his Hellboy was surrounded by the gorgeousness of Guillermo del Toro world-building, but there's actually nothing here to be overly critical of.
Yes, this cast and crew seem to be working with more limited resources, but that doesn't stop them from presenting a nicely-constructed number of set-pieces that allow Hellboy to face off against supernatural beings with his usual mix of brute strength and an inability to be too fazed by anything. The opening sequence, involving a speeding train and a troublingly large spider, may not inspire the most confidence, but things improve once we then move to the start of the main storyline.
Kesy is alright in the main role, and perhaps his performance only seems slightly lacking due to my own bias. He certainly does well with what he's given, and the character has the right weight and attitude for almost every minute of his screentime. Rudolph often feels like she's just around to be placed in danger, but the same could be said of others who have shared the screen with Big Red in past adventures. White is enjoyably shaky, even as he tries to stop showing how worried and tortured he is, and both McNamara and Bassindale are a lot of fun as two of the main entities causing trouble for our leads. Hannah Margetson and Joseph Marcell also do well, playing two people caught up in the unfolding events in different ways that could lead to them sharing a very similar fate.
I started to happily recommend this to like-minded friends as soon as I'd seen it. That doesn't mean that I think it's great, but I definitely think it is better than many (including myself) would expect it to be. I keep describing it as being akin to a one-shot comic, which makes sense when you consider the source material, and I suspect that fans of the main character will end up as pleasantly surprised as I was.
7/10
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A lot of hate for this movie, which is hard to understand. I thought it was good. It's the first Hellboy film I've seen which is more like a horror film rather than a superhero action movie.
ReplyDeleteYou also a fan of the original comics?
DeleteNah, can't say I've ever read any Hellboy but my understanding is that they're horror oriented comics, not superhero. I have seen Mike Mignola's artwork on other stuff though and it is superb.
ReplyDelete