I really wish it wasn’t a movie I disliked that inspired me
to start writing again, after all I consider myself an optimist and try to find
the positives in films over the negatives; but considering I went on a 17 Tweet
rant complaining about this movie, I think it’s safe to say I have a few things
to talk about. It’s a shame because this year I’ve intentionally been avoiding
films that I think I would dislike or are generally received poorly, yet
despite the surplus of negative reviews and my general dissatisfaction with this
movie existing in general, I went in with hope that I’d find more to like than
expected, or at least, not dislike it as much as others. Yet here we are, a
film that the more time I have had to think about, the more I have to be upset with
to the point where simply tweeting about it is no longer enough. For the sake
of fairness, I’m going to split this film up into three parts to dissect: The
Film, The Story & The Remake, partly to show how I’m not just mad at the
film for it being a remake, but to emphasize the film fails completely on its own
accord.
*Spoiler Warning for all Hellboy movies*
Let’s begin with a quick summary of the film’s plot for context.
In the 6th century King Arthur and his men were able to defeat a witch
named Nimue The Blood Queen and imprison her after she’s betrayed by her fellow
witches. Cut to modern day where Hellboy is given a prophecy by a former agent
turned vampire that predicts Hellboy will end the world. Meanwhile a Hog monster named Gruagach who
seeks revenge against Hellboy receives information from a decrepit spirit named
Baba Yaga on how to resurrect Nimue. Hellboy is given orders to travel to
England to team up with the Orisis Club in hunting down a group of giants,
while there he learns of how his father discovered him which raises the
question of why he didn’t kill him and chose to raise him. Hellboy is betrayed
by the Orisis Club-believing he will bring about the end of the world, but they
are attacked by giants and Hellboy is the only survivor, he loses consciousness
and wakes up in the apartment of an old friend of his, Alice-a young woman he
saved while she was a baby and can communicate with the dead. Hellboy is found
by the B.P.R.D-the organisation he works for-and teams up with Ben Daimio a
local agent to hunt down Gruagach before he can resurrect Nimue.
BACKSTORY TIME! We learn that the reason Gruagach has a
grudge against Hellboy is because he tried to steal Alice as a baby, but was
stopped and injured by Hellboy in protecting her. Meanwhile Daimio discusses how
he was attacked by a Changling years ago which creates his dislike for monsters
including Hellboy, thus he has a special bullet made that would kill Hellboy
should he turn evil. This seems more likely as Hellboy questions his father over
the unfair treatment of monsters and is unhappy that his father has no solid reason
for letting him live rather than killing him as a baby. Hellboy is then
kidnapped by Baba Yaga who agrees to give him information on where Nimue is in
return for one of his eyes. Hellboy betrays her and runs away from her house with
the information.
It’s too late however as Gruagach has resurrected Nimue and
restored her to full power. Nimue poisons Alice but Hellboy is informed by one
of Nimue’s old allies that Merlin the wizard still lives and can save Alice.
Hellboy and the team travel there, Merlin resurrects Alice and offers Hellboy the
sword Excalibur, revealing he is a descendant of King Arthur, allowing him to wield
the sword, however Hellboy has a vision that using the sword will result in him
turning evil and causing the apocalypse. Hellboy refuses, Merlin dies and they
make their way to London where Nimue has already opening a portal to hell,
summoning demons that slaughter people all over town. In their final battle
against Gruagach, Daimio reveals he can transform into a giant Leopard due to
being attacked by the Changling, in the end Gruagach still defeats the two and
it’s not until he’s betrayed by Nimue that he is killed.
Nimue reveals her plan all along was to bring Hellboy to her
side and together they’ll be so powerful they’ll rule the world. Nimue kills
Hellboy’s father to motivate him into using Excalibur, which brings out his
full potential and his darkside. Daimio is ready to shoot Hellboy dead, but
Alice uses her powers to bring Hellboy’s father back to convince him to fight
for the side of good. Hellboy kills Nimue, closing the portal to hell and
saving the world. The End.
So let’s dive in….
The Film
To try and balance this analysis somewhat, let’s actually
start by listing some positives about the film, because it’s not without some. As
the titular Hellboy this time we have David Harbour who does a good job in the
role, granted he doesn’t add anything particularly fresh to the character but
at least I can say it never felt like he was phoning in his performance or didn’t
capture the gruff, aggressive and sometimes comedically clumsy aspects of the character
that made him a fine choice for a remake. I was also impressed with the large number
of practical effects and gorgeous sets used in the film, in particular the work
for Gruagach the Hog monster is noteworthy, at times I was never sure if I was
looking at very detailed practical effects or damn-convincing CGI, and the fact I
can’t tell shows just how well done they were. Unfortunately, that’s about it from
what I can say for the positives, the lead actor and the effects, and even then
the effects weren’t always that great, but they looked good more times than
not.
The other reason why I chose to look at this aspect first is
because they are the negative elements that anger me the least, most of them
can be passed off as nitpicks such as obvious ADR work or very fake English
accents, but then there are points that stick out far too clearly. There’s an
abundance of continuity issues and bad structural work within the script, most
of which can be explained within the Hellboy vs giants sequence, so lets break
it down piece by piece. Now supposedly the film is more faithful to the graphic
novel’s more macabre and horror tone, which I can’t confirm as I’ve only read
the first trade, if that is true, what it doesn’t capture is the use of panel
work to express actions. A fight scene in a comic often uses each panel to
highlight a particular angle or motion to emphasize an action. In the case of
this fight scene it chooses to attempt a one-shot fight, despite the fact it’s
almost entirely CG meaning the effort, planning and mistakes that go into making
a One-Shot affective isn’t present when the computer controls even the smallest
of details. It also can’t even commit to the One-Shot as it cuts several times
and just starts the One-Shot again for no reason. Then finally is the fact a
fight scene in one movement with two very differently sized fighters means the
camera remains neutral for the majority of the fight, struggling to fit both
Hellboy and Giant into the frame means the camera stays a fair distance back,
not allowing any kind of emphasis or action to stand out, which is possible to
do in a One-Shot, use movement to create different angles and generate
different reactions from your audience.
At the end of the fight Hellboy passes out just as a new character
Alice arrives, apparently paid several men with a van to drive her out here,
pick him up and take him to her flat. That one sentence raises multiple
questions: 1) How did she know where he was? 2) Did these random men not have
any reaction to coming across several giant corpses and a literal devil in a
field? 3) As we’ll later find out in the film, Hellboy’s only interaction with
Alice before was when she was a baby so they really shouldn’t have a
relationship, either that or they have more of a prior relationship that the
film didn’t show. And 4) The film will use this tactic several times of Hellboy
just waking up in a new place with new information because the film has no
sense of a flowing narrative, just knock Hellboy out and drop him off wherever
the plot needs him to be.
Finally there are some smaller aspects that annoy me, such
as characters who literally show up to give exposition and then disappear, the
most notable example being one Nimue’s witches who betray her in the beginning,
after she’s restored to full power, they arrive out of nowhere and exist just
to tell Hellboy to go find Merlin. Merlin then shows up to restore Alice but
his real purpose is to offer Hellboy Excalibur, even though it will turn
Hellboy evil…because reasons, and for some reason Merlin is convinced it’ll
save the world…because reasons. Baba Yaga gives Hellboy information because
reasons, Alice shows up to save him because reasons, everything either happens
around Hellboy or is given to him without any effort on his part, a compelling
narrative, that does not make. There’s a large number of character issues to be
found here, but we’ll dive into those in the next section.
The Story
Hellboy’s biggest problems don’t come from its structure, or
its continuity, or its effects, it comes from the films message. Hellboy is a
hateful film, it is a movie about terrible people being terrible to each other
while terrible events transpire on the screen that results in no one having a
good time, most of all the audience. Let’s look at Hellboy’s arc over the film,
early on Hellboy learns of his origins and questions why his father didn’t kill
him even though he is a monster killer, and demons are the worst of the worst.
Unsatisfied with his father’s answer just being he believed Hellboy had “Potential”
Hellboy begins to side with the monsters, which is only worsened after Nimue
offers him power and respect beyond measure, but in the end after a “Pep
Talk” from dear old dad, Hellboy kills Nimue and saves the day, even though he
really shouldn’t.
Here’s the thing, Hellboy may be an asshole, but it’s only
because everyone around him is an awful person. His father is clearly abusive
and distant, unable to give him the support or love he desires, even in his
final speech to him he treats him like a bad person, it basically equates to “Just
save the world already you piece of shit, god you’re so fucking useless, prove
you’re not a total waste of space”. Daimio is another example of people
disliking Hellboy without warrant, but it’s also an example of a failed arc.
Daimio has a bullet prepared to kill Hellboy if need be, in the climax, he sits
ready to shoot him dead, only lowering his weapon after Hellboy does the right
thing. At no point does Daimio trust Hellboy, nor does their relationship grow
beyond mutual distain (At best). Daimio hated Hellboy from beginning to end,
his father was unhelpful, rude and insulting from beginning to end, and really
Hellboy is shown to have very little affection or interest in the safety of
people, he seems to hate his job, hates the people around him and is sick of
having to hide in the shadows. The only reason he fights for the side of good
by the end is because the script tells him to. This is not a character arc,
this is an act is hypocrisy.
Now what I mean by saying it’s a film about hate I mean that
this film does not want you to enjoy it, it wants you to be grossed out, to be
uncomfortable. The abundance of gore exists only as shock value, no one ever
just dies, they have to be turned inside out, they have to have all of their
organs ripped out of their body, they have to have a river of blood pouring
from their corpses. It’s exploitative in all the wrong ways. The problem isn’t
with the use of gore, it’s with the lack of purpose. Evil Dead is gorey but
over the top and silly enough to be fun, Robocop is gorey to express the
dangers and commonly violent nature Detroit sees on a day to day, heck, even
Alien: Covenant is gorey to establish the threat of the Aliens and complete insanity
and dangers of David. This film uses gore to make its audience uneasy and
nothing more.
The only relationship that is built on people actually liking
each other is Hellboy and Alice, a relationship that doesn’t work as the only
history established between them is that Hellboy saved her as a baby, and
nothing is built after that, it’s illogical that they would have any kind of a connection.
The film doesn’t earn this relationship and it certainly doesn’t present it
well. Alice herself would go on to serve little purpose in the plot until the
ending when she brings back Papa Hellboy, which is another good example of the disgusting
nature of the film. Her powers are represented by a fleshy demon monster
shooting out of her mouth and creating the form of a person. Why is it represented
that way? To gross you out of course. Why is the way Hellboy makes a deal with
Baba Yaga sealed with a saliva ridden kiss? To gross you out of course.
I can’t remember the last time I saw a modern blockbuster that
lacked any kind of compassion throughout the whole film, not a single positive action
or emotion is brought out in any scene, in any character. It has such a fundamental
misunderstanding of the cinema going audiences today. In an age of films like
Shazam, Black Panther, Alita: Battle Angel; films dealing with mature, honest
and emotional subject matters, especially ones about broken families and father
figures, did anyone think this would work? Hell, even films like Venom still
tried to establish a protagonist with relationships and morals, even if it didn’t
always work they still tried, and they did it while also being a dark and grotesque.
This film doesn’t seem to know who it’s aimed at, it wants
to be a comic book blockbuster and a niche gorefest horror at the same time.
Dark can be a good thing, gore can be a good thing, wanting to upset your
audience can be a good thing. Films can create a spectrum of emotions, even
within the confines of a single story. A film leaving your audience upset or
depressed has worked plenty in the past, but when you exist solely to upset,
without leaving us with characters, themes or messages to learn and identify, your
movie is garbage, plain and simple.
Hellboy doesn’t function
on a multitude of levels, regardless of it as an adaptation, as a film, it is
hollow, it is heartless, it is incompetent, it is trashy, it is exploitative,
it is quite simply Bad.
So now let’s compare it to the original.
The Remake
One of Guillermo Del Toro’s running themes as a filmmaker is
finding beauty in the horrific. In some cases it’s told quite literally in
films such as The Shape of Water, but
in others it can be represented more through the theming such as Crimson Peak or by creating a contrast
with the human characters such as Pan’s
Labyrinth or The Devil’s Backbone.
His Hellboy films are no exception, a
theme that is simplified when your source material is all about a demon
destined to destroy the world fights to save it, the writing’s already on the
wall for you there.
Both the Del Toro’s Hellboys
and the 2019 remake share a lot of similarities on paper, they focus on Hellboy
having a troubled relationship with his father and teammates, while also trying
to find his reasoning for fighting on the side of good when it’s not his
natural place in the world. Hellboy himself-played by Ron Perlman-is somewhat
of an immature asshole, characterised more as a whiney teenager rather than a
drunken middle-aged man with anger issues like in the newer version. He’s much
more identifiable knowing his actions don’t come from a place of hostility, but
rebellion, and his estranged relationship with his father (Played by John Hurt)
is due to miscommunication and Hurt not being able to understand his son’s
needs but wanting to help. It’s also established Hurt’s reasoning for saving
him comes from a place of compassion, wanting to give a baby a chance rather than
believing he’s evil by nature. They also give Hellboy more of a built-in
relationship with his team, a broken relationship with Liz showing if he wants
to earn her back, he has to grow as a person. Perhaps the best scene in the
franchise-at least in my opinion-is Hellboy and Abe Sapien getting drunk and
discussing their problems, a scene of honesty and emotions where the two
actually are able to bond and strengthen their relationship.
Hellboy is still a bad person to a degree; he’s rude, has
anger issues, and also is a demon destined to destroy the world-the usual. However,
all of these issues are internal and he has a support system around him to
help, and he has to better himself in order to earn them. The struggle to fight
for the side of good when he’s a creature meant to destroy is a legitimate
battle when you see what he has to fight for. There’s also plenty of moments of
sympathy and struggle, such as in Hellboy
II: The Golden Army where he is forced to kill a monster who is the last of
its kind in order to rescue humans who are visibly disgusted and afraid of him,
showing the reasoning why the temptation would be there, but always landing on
the side of good. Because if your film is about a hero fighting for good, you
should probably at some point show good
things.
Both films have Hellboy’s father figure tragically murdered,
but one of these relationships is one built on empathy and love, while the
other is built on abuse and objectification. Hurt took Hellboy in because he
saw a creature that if raised with love he wouldn’t have to be the monster everyone
expects. While McShane saw him as a tool that could be raised into a weapon to
fight for them, regardless of his autonomy.
Part of me understands why the studio never went forward
with a third Hellboy film, as despite Del Toro’s talent and desires to complete
his trilogy, the first two films never made that much money. What I don’t
understand is why they would then proceed with an R-Rated remake, when if the
original would have come in with a built in fanbase and PG-13 rating that would
allow newer audiences to see it as well. I’d honestly be surprised if this film
made a profit, even more so if it got a sequel, but I don’t care, I’m done with
this disgrace of a film. As a movie, it’s awful, as a remake, it’s beyond redemption.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been thing angry at a film, and I can just
hope talking about it here is enough to get it out of my system so I can move
on with my life.
-Danny
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