Why The HELLBOY Reboot Was So Bad | Cynical Reviews
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- čas přidán 5. 12. 2019
- 2019’s HELLBOY, the latest adaptation of Mike Mignola’s iconic comic book series, and a reboot of the film franchise as established by Guillermo Del Toro, with David Harbour replacing Ron Perlman in the lead role, and with Neil Marshall stepping in for Del Toro, was a major disappointment. Disliked by critics and divisive for the IP’s fanbase, it suffers from a great many problems with its writing, characterisation, tone, and overall vision. It would have been better off left in development hell.
I’m going to take a long look at why.
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It somehow kills me _more_ knowing that amazing Make A Wish Thing is what inspired Del Toro's almost-third-movie. Because I mean, a 62 year old man spending _hours_ in a makeup chair becoming a demon to meet a Make A Wish kid is something that _should_ cause a movie to be made.
Facts
Isnt there a petition or something to bring back original HellBoy?
@@alexaraya2018 it didn't go anywhere and got shut down hard by both Del Toro and Ron P so it isnt going to be picked back up. Disappointing but they both had understandable reasoning for the hard no.
Hours in a make up chairs sounds horrible just for a kid i would never do that
@@alecpowers8591 at least the kid don't have to see the new one.
using Twitter to find him makes sense since its a hellhole
Yeah, but notice this 'reboot' was supposed to occur _before_ the other 2 happened??
Twitter didn't exist!! These companies want _our_ money, _while_ they destroy our beloved franchise(s). I say fuck them! No more!! Keep your money & pirate the shit first. If it's worth seeing, only then pay money for a job well done. That'll teach them to politicise what we love.
This is by far the best comment here
complete with demons, monsters, and the possessed.
LOL.
Good One
It's so fucked up that a man's good-hearted effort to make a dying child smile through tragedy... Would end up leading to THIS cinematic tragedy.
If that kid was still alive when this dumpster fire came out i can guarantee he wasn't smiling anymore .
I don't see why everyone's so butt-hurt over this movie. I mean, if you've got a hard-on for Ron Perlman I could understand, but the movie isn't as bad as you like to think it is. I get it, it's fun to be part of something, and if hating on something makes you feel like you fit in, who's to say?
The original opening also shows how Hellboy is accepted as a baby boy even though he was summoned by Nazis. He was a literal demon and was still seen as a sentient being by one person showing kindness towards him.
I just remember that picture of Hellboy with the American soldiers.
I would rather have seen Del Toro's third installment.
I wish it was a finished trilogy
What were they gonna name the twins? The people need an answer!
Everyone wishes this.
You do know that at a end of a movie the fire girl i forgot here name sade that she is pregnent with twins we could of have Dante and Virgil atleast some alternet wersion of them
@@charmandyorton006 same here
"Cats, cigars and candy bars" has such a nice ring to it. Adult-oriented but not edgy.
yeah. And it shows a soft side to Hellboy.
Well-rounded and realistic. No real-life adult ever goes around only caring about "grown-up stuff" like smoking, stocks, and politics.
Aliteration
@@juanarocha8629 Alliteration?
@@hamsnub the "c" sound is alliteration. "Cats, cigars, and candy bars. "
Hell boy's design is awesome in the originals, it conveys the fact that he clearly isn't human biologically, but he still acts and does human things, it also matches perfectly with his personality of being tough, but also somewhat casual. All without going full-on uncanny valley.
The reboot, on the other hand, makes him look like a raging alcoholic who crawled into a red wine factory and came out covered in said alcohol and with two giant corks stuck in his head.
And he looks fucking amazing
theyre more like pepperonis tbh
If the Hellboy in the originals was more reserved, less snarky and was mentally a grown up instead of a teenager, it would have been perfect for a reboot that is more faithfull to the comics
Yeah I remember seeing the original promo for this movie and thinking like ew he looks absolutely disgusting I don't even want to watch this it looks so bad -😬Mind you I love Gore movies so when I say disgusting I mean trashy and mongoloid like
Imagine an underworld demon granting the wish of a six year-old boy. That’s part of why Ron Perlman is a legend.
So Mike Magnolia broke up with Del Toro because the script he made didn't fit with his vision. So he pushed forward a reboot that didn't fit with his, Del Toro or even the director's vision instead. Great job, Mike.
Exactly, the script is the biggest problem. It doomed the rest of the creative process.
Exactly!
Well, most HB stories Mignola has written introduce a threat and Hellboy punches that threat until it blows up. He's a great, amazing, moody creative mind, but not the best writer or artist.
@@electrojones hes literally one of the best and most unique artists lol. The best I've seen when it comes to panelling and use of negative space.
And no man, punching things in hellboy barely ever works, given that he is up against eldritch abominations and mythological creatures.
It didnt work in cavendish hall(liz' fire of creation did) it didnt work against hecate(hellboys refusal to be a destroyer of worlds did) it didnt work against the worm(rogers ablity to store and conduct energy did), it didnt work against the sea witch(the mermaid and ultimatly her fathers spear did), it didnt work in the island, it didnt work against the dragon(nemues last remaining bit of humanity did), it actually did work in hell (even then it was more about hellboy accepting the destiny he forged for himself) and it didn't work at the end of the world.
@@electrojones I dont want to be rude but have you actually read mignolas hellboy? Like did you more than a couple of issues? Because theres really very few comic books that are as far removed from "punching things until they blow up" barely any fight has more than a couple of panels, and when they do the insanity of whats going on is far beyond punching thing.
Most of the story is about hellboy finding himself. With themes like what it means to be human, fate, freedom and destiny. All told through a mix between mythology, golden age superheroe stories and cosmic horror.
Most of the story is like either a dream or a nightmare. And Im not saying this to suck hellboy or mignola off but because hellboy is notoriously abstract. Are you thinking of the BDPD comics? Because then yeah I 100% agree. I like them but it is more often than not just zapping a threat until it explodes. They still have its more abstract character moments but its nothing compared to the degree hellboy does it.
Bro del toro is one of the only people who won't sell his soul and keeps getting screwed over in big movies
Good man.
I know lots of people who haven't sold their souls.
I'm a big Lord of the Rings nerd, and I can't tell you how excited I was to hear Guillermo del Toro was going to direct The Hobbit films. It still stings to think about what happened to him on that project. The studios would have you believe him leaving The Hobbit was a "mutual" decision, but you can see interview footage where del Toro compares the loss of the project as akin to being widowed, and he tears up just talking about it. That tells me all I need to know about the soulless corporate hacks in Hollywood that control the money and decide what gets made by whom.
@@choronos I didn't even know he was gonna direct the hobbit. I get so depressed thinking how good so many movies would be if they weren't totally controlled by "soulless corporate hacks." playing it safe, strict adherence to lazy dumbed down entertainment and whatever was successful the years before. Never pushing boundaries. All good art pushes boundaries. I can't stand corporate control freaks entirely ruining the film medium. 95% of "films" in theaters suck so much ass. Robert eggers and ari aster have been such a blessing, especially for the horror film genre itself.
@@danieldent2035 it's such a tragedy that Silent Hills got cancelled. Junji Ito, Guillermo del Toro, and hideo Kojima? It could have been the goddamn Messiah of horror games
At first I was so angry about Abe not being in it I hadn't realized how bad it was
Abe got to be spared this. It feels like Del Toro got him in the divorce.
The first two movies took so much away from Abe, mainly it was him that killed Rasputin, and he and Liz were together
@@lissaquon607😂😂😂😂😂 YALL FUNNY ASF
Spoilers, but when Abe's hand showed up in the final shot of the movie, that was the only thing that made me excited in the whole movie, I absolutely did not care for the other two characters in the movie.
I just saw the movie and thorougjly enjoyed it, I have no idea why yall are saying its so bad
Del Toro, despite being known as a horror director, tends to add a lot of levity to his films to not make them traumatizing or edgy. His films at their very best acknowledge the beauty of the grotesque without getting edgy or violent. Hellboy did this very well. The character in the original two films had the mentality of a teenager and only acted tough as a means of masking his real feelings. He could also be snarky but with redeemable traits too, like his love for kittens.
yes! 💯% agree
Have you not seen Pans labyrinth? Thats very definition of edgy and traumatizing.
Something the reboot does poorly is making the villains interesting. Seriously, that nazi sand-bag guy was fucking terrifying.
Not to mention really cool and unique, I've still yet to see anything like it in another movie, and it was really effective at making him feel threatening especially because he didn't or couldn't? talk at all.
I totally forgot about his villain. Don't even remember the villain in that movie at all. This means it wasn't a good villain.
Malaria did kro mean thing scare the shot our of you as kid
@@zacharyjochumsen9677 Absolutely
haha YES I remeber watching it with my friend when we were like fourteen, and he refused to watch it again because of the nazi sand-bag dude!
I feel bad because I get the sense the actors were really trying their best but the failures were coming from above
yea david harbour is a really good actor its sad that they made him portray the writers version of hellboy
sigh...studio executives, am I right?
Yeah, I agree. I imagine he must have been trying really hard.
So this movie is the equivalent of working at Fred Meyers?
I agree with your comment but I downvoted your get it back to 666 for obvious reasons
Not to mention most of the exposition in Hellboy 1 & 2 was done by John Hurt. That man could read me my grocery list and I would feel like I was about to climb Mount Doom. RIP.
As a beginner reader of the comics, and having watched the first movie recently while the second one a long time ago, what I love about Hellboy is that he's "lame cool".
Like, his backstory is geniunely cool, and so are his powers and design, but whenever he chooses to quip or try to sound badass, it comes out as lame or goofy, and I fucking *adore* that. It makes him sound more human and loveable. He also doesn't curse much for being... you know..., which is refreshing.
2019 Hellboy, on the other hand, is basically the opposite. No hate to Harbor or anything, it was the script's fault tbh
Yeah, you can perform garbage beautifully, but in the end, it's still garbage
the thing is, while the comics are dark, they completely misinterpreted it. Hellboy as a comic is essentially like a noir. its generally not intended to be overtly comedic 99% of the time
"Its darker huh? So we make the movie say fuck a lot and add a lot of blood!"
They marvelfied it
@@alternateaccount3898 could be used to describe almost every adult cartoon
It's the reboot of Devil May Cry all over again. They think being dark and mature means having blood and swearing every 10 seconds.
That was the same problem with Batman. Sure, Christian Bale and the others played good characters, but he isnt supposed to be an undefeatable superhero like a marvel character. He was supposed to be a broken down man trying to restore justice with what he had. Batman was never meant to be a PG or even a PG-13 character. He was always meant to be an R character with very dark settings. I think Hollywood just assumes that children are the main audience for everything, so naturally that meant dematurazing HellBoy but readding R elements to bring in the "adults". We havent had a good R movie in years that isnt a horror film or Deadpool. Everything else with the big red R either has weird sex scenes or just too much cussing and gore. Blade Runner 2049 is another good example of an R movie that knows its boundaries.
Small mistake- not all monsters are allergic to metal, just fairies. And since pig boy is a changling fairy, it hurt him. The iron box trick would only work against a small percentage of monsters
I think it’s just iron, anyway.
Cold forged iron specifically.
@@brontsmoth671 I always took the cold iron thing to be along the lines of a taste of cold steel.
I think you're just overthinking it
@@brontsmoth671 cold forged iron is just a word... like HOt lead. iron is the classic anti FAE stuff. also loadstones( the hint is magmatism)
So many problems with this movie are due to the fact that they picked pieces from the comics without completely adapting them to be cohesive or comprehensive.
A small example is the flashback scene with Gruagach impersonating baby Alice, he escapes by the chimney because in the comics, the family lives in a very rustic home in the countryside. So they changed the setting but kept the chimney escape, regardless that it didn't make sense anymore.
Also, the BPRD isn't trying to hide Hellboy in the comics because he's well known by the general public, enough so that he's been granted honorary human status by the UN but you'd have no way of knowing this if you hadn't read the comics, which is another fail considering the larger audience who might watch this movie are more likely to be familiar with Hellboy only through the Del Toro movies...
Hellboy is also much more mild mannered in the comics and there's very little expletives and gore in them... Anyway, I don't want to make an exhaustive list. This is already long enough and I'm not saying anything new...
"A small example is the flashback scene with Gruagach impersonating baby Alice, he escapes by the chimney because in the comics, the family lives in a very rustic home in the countryside. So they changed the setting but kept the chimney escape, regardless that it didn't make sense anymore."
Once again more folk with no idea. You seem to suggesting blocks of flats DON'T have chimneys? Well sorry to break it to you but most of teh onesi;ve been in here in teh UK (where the film primarily takes places) DO have chimneys. So it DOES make sense...
Your second point isn't even worth worrying about. We as the audience dont' actually need to see that. We just see that folk arn't shocked by him and get on with it. Its enough. You don't NEED to explain EVEYRTHING in a film. if you do you make it an "american film".
@@kudosbudo This is a poor defense for the first bit and the second bit is a lie; Also, the jab at American films is actually ironic because the joke with most American films is that they don't explain enough. The only one who seems to have no idea is YOU.
Neil got interviewed by Critical Drinker, he confirmed the rumors the studios was in control on the film.
He even said he didn't see the script until after he signed on and couldn't change anything due to the studio.
WOAH seriously??
I remember loving the originals when I was a little girl so much because Ron Pearlman made the the character so endearing and sympathetic without feeling campy or awkward. There was also the perfect balance of exposition enough to keep 8 year old me entertained
Same. Del Toro's two Hellboy movies where among my favourite movies growing up. The characters and the universe they live in is both perfectly fantastical but also relatable and compelling. The remake made me extremely dissapointed, and sad thinking of what could have been.
I love reading people's feelings towards the older movies. I didn't see them until I was a teen, well after their theatrical release, but I wish I could've seen them at a younger age.
Still some of the most fun I've had with a comic movie
From what I’m reading, Pearlman’s portrayal was pretty comic accurate. Either that or it inspired Hellboy performances after it.
He was awful lol... he's completely unlikeable and hes terrible at his job. Harbor isn't any better, all the movies are trash
@@idiot_city5244 yep, Harbor looked better though. Perlman was garbage all round, but both were not great.
Mignola's Hellboy in the comic: Quiet, thoughtful, beleaguered by his past and his destiny, painfully aware of his temper and tries to curb it. A good, interesting character you can sympathise with
Perlman's Hellboy: basically a teenager in a massive, powerful body but with all the insecurities that make him act out against the restrictions the BPRD place upon him and his friends. Conflicted between who he is and what he is, from what he knows. Uses humour to cover his sadness and confusion. Impulsive but quick thinking with it and shows the same encyclopedic knowledge of Fae creatures as his comic counterpart. A good, interesting character you can sympathise with.
2019 Hellboy: um......big, red, dumb, strong but has the finesse of a thrown brick. Half the time he doesn't want to do anything but get drunk, apparently. Doesn't seem to have any knowledge of ANY creatures in this world, his place in amongst them, or anything at all! Can't sympathise with him, can't really care about him, can't really call him Hellboy!
Damn, have a like and a smile 😐
Great summary!
Wow that's the best classification of the adaptions I've read. Do you write?
@@MrHarrystank that was a lot to read but I absolutely agree with you man.
On that have you seen the two animated movies?
I loved the fact that Pearlman’s Hellboy loved cats! Not that I am a big cat lover; I just thought it was an interesting detail!
Critical Drinker recently did an interview with the director of the Hellboy reboot. The director said he wasn’t in charge with the movie. He was told he was and would be able to make a horror Hellboy but they switched up and then a producer kept stepping in and messing with shit in post
Almost all the issues with movies nowadays in studio oversight. They are completely out of touch with the average audience
You watch critical drinker?
Opinion discarded
@@Gmthekiller lmfao
@@Gmthekiller mate what he wrote was literally a fact of what happened, not an opinion. cry all you like but if something happened with literal footage, you discarding his"opinion" makes you look like a child covering his ears having a tantrum about not getting his way
the way this version of hellboy looks compared to Perlman's version is like when the bad guy in "The Mask" wears the mask versus when Jim Carry wore it.
thats a fuckin spicy reference mate
@@TheExoticDarkness SMOKIN'!
I guess there aren't many people out there that remember those scenes, because this is fucking exactly what it looks like.
Omg the comparison is fucking good
@@nurse425 omfg you just dragged up an ancient memory of that movie for me 😂
The last time I was this early, Ron Perlman was still a big red demon starring in an incredible film series helmed by a visionary genius.
@carlos Rivas The comics are excellent, this movie takes the comics and omits what works and keeps what doesn't.
@carlos Rivas the comics are good but this movie basically did the equivalent of rebooting the avengers and shoving every avergeners movie into one single rushed piece of shite
Hellboy 2 sucked.
@@WaRLoKWYATT i liked it the elf bad guy wasnt super good but the monsters the golden army and that most epic form of the grim reaper plud the coll new character i came to love just as much the gas guy
why im so pissed we didn't get third movie i wanted to see Hell boys kids already
As soon as Ron and Del Toro left, it was doomed for failure. Del Toro had the vision and Ron gave hellboy life people liked.
"How big can it be?" still gets me chuckling all these years later and I think that's all that needs to be said about how good that films writing is
I honestly did not know that they rebooted Hellboy. And I still wish that I didn't know
You and me both.
@@CynicalReviews on the one hand i hate you for bringing it to my attention on the other hand i am gratefull to you because now i am prepared and won't watch it when comes around a corner (in form of a recommendation).
Yeah this was news to me too. Something else that has been ruined by the sounds of things
it was suppose to be third movie, but director backed away because higher ups were pissing him off, so Perelman didn't want to do it when director dropped out.
Same
The Agent Ruiz death made me so furious. It was based on a throw-away bit in the BPRD comics where they mention that, when Hellboy ran away from the organization, he spent a few years in Mexico hunting down vampires with a trio of Luchador brothers, all of whom succumbed to vampirism themselves. That's a whole gosh darn movie right there, and they wrote it off with the piece of garbage that was the 'opening' scene here.
That'd be cool.
Even sadder was that was the emotional highlight of the film. Seeing him come back and his frustration in seeing his name etched into the wall of the fallen said wonders and then the film is just a dumb splatter comedy from that point.
Imagine a movie where we got to meet and grow to care for the three brothers only at the end having them being the final climactic battle, Hellboy having to break his own heart to do what's right, killing people who he's come to care for as brothers. Better than "I threw a bat dude onto a wooden wrestling ring pole"
@@antonymilne1346 for sure. They royally fucked this reboot up
So the fact that he killed Esteban the exact same way he did in Hellboy in Mexico means nothing?
Or the fact that he spent a lot of time drunk in Mexico after the fact?
A second reboot of the film series, titled Hellboy: The Crooked Man, completed filming in May 2023.
The original makes the professor and the general to be overall good guys since they collectively agree to not kill him because he's just a kid, sure the general doesn't like hellboy in the future but it can simply explained as a disgruntled uncle and rowdy nephew dynamic
I LOVE the original two Hellboy films.
Also, how Hellboy manages to get his enormous right hand through his coat sleeve is beyond me.
I´ve always asked myself the same thing...
maybe with the magic of velcro :'o
As some say velcro. Or magnets. My friend makes casual clothing for disabled people who have trouble getting dressed...he used magnets, buttons and various other items to make it easier to dress
I guess it's a matter of taste. Hellboy 2 is easily one of the worst popular films I can think of off the top of my head. Hellboy 1 was bad but at least it was fun. I can say as much for this new version. Hellboy 2 however was really awful
@@joaorebochooaw6321 uhh the old hell boy? I enjoyed it....I liked how sweet hell boy was and how he adored kitty's and when he pat them he'd wag his tail
Pearlman's Hellboy had yellow eyes, but his pupils were round, and when you looked into his face you could see a soft, caring soul.
Harbor's Hellboy's eyes are demonic, and cat-like; he was designed to look ugly on purpose and the lack of a human aspect to the character hurt this aspect rather than help it
I mean he's already a 7 foot tall bright red demon. How alien do you need him to look. Why in God's name would you make your central character even harder to read and connect with?
I think it could have worked if you had someone who could work makeup like Doug Jones under there but that’s a very specific skill and I felt like Harbor couldn’t get through it all
also apparently he can't be with a human.
@Drown the Socialists why are you bringing in politics?
@Drown the Socialists what does his politics gotta do with it? You're the kind of person that just- get antagonized about everything, don't cha.
Cats, candy bars, and the like make him relatable. Its hard to relate or support an alcoholic unless there is a good redemption arc.
Basically, because Hellboy is a stoic gunslinging paranormal detective.
And this movie had him pegged as an angry child.
His arm looks extremely foamy at times. I never got the vibe that Perlman's arm was made of anything but stone, yet it too was made of foam.
I didn’t even realize Perlman’s fist was made of foam!
Are you serious? That wasn't his real arm? The hell you say.
I think it also to do with how the actor wields it. I know with some prosthetics they add weight to the arm/leg etc then put digital affects over it after, to give it a more realistic feel.
Perlman's hellboy performance was so perfect that he is routinely called in to coach actors on how to act while wearing extreme prosthetics.
@@colinmartin9797 *"Perlman's hellboy performance was so perfect that he is routinely called in to coach actors on how to act while wearing extreme prosthetics."*
But interestingly, not the guy who's doing the new Hellboy performance.
I was severely depressed when Del Torro didn't make his third Hellboy movie
And it would've had Bruce Campbell as Lobster Johnson
@@victorm152 Bruce Campbell? Del Toro? Hellboy?
Stop, I can only get so erect.
Not me. Hellboy 2 was garbage.
no shit, i wanted trilogy already, plus i wanted to see Hellboy kids
@@jacemachine 2 was great movie, better then first visuals and story, just to bad not enough people went and saw it
As far as Hellboy not doing anything to hide is identity and nobody really noticing him (except for the cop who shot him), that was actually one of the few comic accurate parts of the movie. In one of the early Hellboy and the BPRD comics, after a successful mission, the American government publicly grants him human status.
Bad movie all around, but that part they kinda got right.
Honestly, it's a problem of when it was created, this may not have been a big deal and you could probably skim it, if it weren't for the previous movies that did the opposite and is more popular than the comics. If it weren't for Del Toro films, they wouldn't have the need to explain it.
34:12
Is nobody gonna talk about the business guy just calmly walking across the street while a fucking demon is coming up from a massive whole in the ground right next to him?
"Then all the monsters get sucked back into the sewer. I mean, underworld."
That. Stupid. Scene.
Yeah
I enjoy the movie, and will usually defend it, but that rewind was horrible
Or the same 6 actors that die like 25 times throughout the movie and is especially more noticeable during the demon rampage scenes.
I keep seeing the argument "They're making it to be more like the comics." when the tone of this film is nothing like the comics.
EDIT: I can't reply to all of you, but I said TONE. Show me in the comics where they were filled with gore and profanity? The comics are methodical; atmospheric. They're a slow burn punctuated by Hellboy's cynicism and sense of humor.
You were clearly paying attention to the wrong narrative. This movie is exactly what I took away from the comics. The fact you don't see it can't be helped however I highly encourage you to do a re-read.
@@gyphryphobia speedreader detected
@@gyphryphobia Lmao you obviously didn't read well enough yourself
Really?
The Wild Hunt was positively Apocalyptic, sure there were some changes, but the movie was fairly close, not only to that but also Hellboy in Mexico and several other issues they drew inspiration
Sure they streamlined a couple of characters and outright changed a couple others involvement
I'm curious as to how you didn't see it, having read the comics and all
@@gyphryphobia right?
Especially the set up for the hunt itself, and when they betrayed Hellboy
I was first year in uni when this hit the cinemas and I remember being extremely hyped to go see it since I loved the first two as a kid. Then one of my classmates who already watched it on the premiere told me not to see it for anything because it's so awful I'm just better off pretending it ain't exist and just preserve the memories I have of the origials the way they are.
I haven't watched it since, but saw a few scenes and even from those tiny snippets I could instantly feel something's just really off.
My girlfriend noticed when Hellboy gets knocked on the ground from one of the giants, his armored hand is somehow on his left hand for the rest of the scene lol then instantly swaps back.
I really hated how most of the people defending this movie took the "BuT ItS FaIThFuL To ThE CoMiC!!!" stance. No it wasn't, just because it took like 10 storylines and made all of them a disservice! Hellboy swearing like an edgy teen and the gratuitous gore doesn't even come CLOSE to the comic!! And don't get me started on the Lobser Johnson cameo... that fucking sucked.
@Owen Buckner Also, film is a different medium in so many ways to a book/comic. It requires a very different structure, presentation, pacing, etc and stubbornly neglecting this in order to be 'true' to the book/movie just makes for a poorly constructed movie.
I couldn’t even finish the movie, that’s how bad I found it
I’ve never read the comics, but actually like this movie
I just liked the movie because it was fun to watch and i watched the first two movies and read the comics
At first, I actually didn't know Del Toro and Magnolia used actual stories from the actual comics for their movie(s). Reason being when I saw The Lobster in the reboot, I thought it was a joke.
I really wish Del Toro would have been given the chance to make a third Hellboy....oh well, I'm satisfied with the first two. This new one is non-existent to me.
I also would've loved it if he got to do his Pacific Rim sequel
the troll market scene... from Del toros run looked.. so.... cool.
@@comfortsuites4465 That it did
Why, the giant fight was almost panel for panel comic book accurate
@@ComicBookGuy420 so your telling us the comic book is shite
29:50 "... the British army never used M-16's". In fact the British SAS has used M16 variants for decades, though the variant shown may not be an accurate portrayal of the exact model variants used.
The portrayal of Hellboy just felt like an immature teenager that was crying about dumb shit. Where as Ron Perlman's version was a more laid back character just kind of going through the motions of his job. Felt more fun that way. Like "this is what we do, lets get to work."
Pearlman version:
Ackward, but charming.
Reboot version:
Always looks like he's sitting in a chair about to fall asleep, even when standing.
He was falling asleep while sending the demons back to hell?
@@ComicBookGuy420 Somehow, yeah
@@deadjuice1880 somehow that doesn't explain what you meant
He was way too whiny. I prefer the Del Toro ones, to be honest.
@Mark Ledgerwood I love David but this movie was not his movie tbh.
I feel the story should have been done in more than one movie because it was many interesting story (in the comics at least) but they didn't take the time to develop them completely
is a director cut coming?
Noone going to mention that hellboy looks like he got smacked with a frying Pan a few to many times? Like who the hell thought it looked cool
IKR
I saw the first poster where he was shirtless, holding the sword and surrounded by red fire and his face looked awesome. What happened between the making of that poster and the actual filming?
No one
@@DefinitelyNotMichael19 No one
I actually like the makeup. Like, the original Hellboy isn’t comic accurate but it’s better than the reboot in every way. But I legit think that the makeup in the remake is better. Ron Perlman’s just looked too smooth to me; IMO Hellboy is supposed to be ugly and I think that the Harbour makeup captures that.
Damn I didn’t realize they were close to making a third with toro and pearl man but it fell through. That would have been sick! I love the first two.😭
Me too
I think the issue with new movies is that the director's think they're so smart bro look at good movies and just follow the steps
liked this review. would be cool to see you read the comics (i havnt done so myself) and see how it stacks ups
Hellboy (2019) is easily one of the worst films I saw in 2019 with an uninspired and generic storyline, boring and uninteresting characters, some terrible CGI effects, an awful villain and a humor that don't land at all. The only two positive things I can give this movie was David Harbor as Hellboy even though he wasn't nearly as great as Ron Perlman was from the two previous Guillermo Del Toro's Hellboy films and the Baba Yaga scene. Otherwise this film is a complete misfire. The fact that we got this pointless and bad Reboot instead of Guillermo Del Toro's Hellboy 3 with Ron Perlman is really depressing.
Amen.
I watched this film for the first time today and it was not worth the time I spent on it. I agree with you 100% that the film had 2 redeeming qualities in David Harbour and the Baba Yaga. Maybe the scene at the end with the demons killing people but it was such a short scene.
He was not a good hell boy at all he only appears to be because the rest of the cast is trash he wins by a technicality not by actual merit he’s the worst choice they could’ve picked honestly would’ve been done better by the rock (I hate the rocks acting) that’s how bad of a choice he is being uninterested and having a deep voice and big frame isn’t enough to be hell boy his characteristics go beyond that
I'll actually go one further and say that David Harbour was fucking terrible in this movie. I had no idea what he and the writers were going for with this version of Hellboy; one minute he's a wise detective who knows exactly how to deal with every type of monster imaginable, the next he's a loping buffoon who sounds and acts like he can barely read let alone strategise and investigate. And the SHOUTING. Throughout the film Harbour is just yelling for no reason. It's so more annoying because you know they all thought people would find it hilarious.
The only redeeming qualities were Ian McShane playing Ian McShane and, surprisingly, Milla Jovovich. Everyone else bordered on monotone to completely indecipherable.
Hellboy (2019) is by far the worst movie i've seen this year
Finally somebody actually said it!!! When I heard the "british" accent it just took me straight out of the film. If only there was a country filled with people with that accent....
That would be so convenient! If only...
Even if that country existes I doubt it would have any good actors
@@pockmock11 Good thing that wasn't a requirement for the movie, what with the end result.
I'm ashamed that I thought the shifter dude's accent sounded British-ish. But I'm a non-native speaker so probably why I thought it did.
the severed leg on the screen as you say "disjointed" at 3:08 had me DECEASED
Part of me wonders if Ed Skrein really backed out because he took one look at he production and said "Fuck this noise! I'm out!"
I hated how almost everyone spoke with the over dramatic & intense line delivery like they're in an epic anime villains monologue.....
How is it in an inappropriate setting they do that but when an actual anime adaptation is made they then tone it down.
Right? It totally felt like a straight to China dubbed B-movie...
Alice's pure British dialogue was over dramatic?
@@ComicBookGuy420 It was weird that Alice - a white, red-haired Irish gal in the comics, was portrayed in the reboot as black and British. I'm all for diversity, but the actress simply wasn't Alice.
@@jerushamaxwell281 I know, as a redhead, I have no idea why Hollywood hates gingers between that, the weird ass way they showed her powers and Babayaga frenching hellboy they made some seriously stupid mistakes
I was already worried when I saw articles saying "Hellboy's reboot will stay close to the comic with uncesored gore and blood" in a comic book series which had like 3 issues where gore and blood were heavily featured
:\mikes art style never made the gore in the comics bad. ofc there was gore. even exploded tentacle monsters. but the ART didnt focus on the bits;\ and meat;\
What’s shitty is it didn’t need a reboot. Golden Army left things open to a third movie
Yeah it annoys me that they didn’t make a third one
I hope there's a universe where del Toro would make a Hellboy stop motion animation movie with Ron Perlman.
I was pissed at this movie so much. Hellboy was done dirty and we won’t see another for a long time
But.....there's another part.....Nooooo
I honestly knew it was going to be garbage because of one word “reshoots”
Those are never a good sign.
Cynical Reviews sometimes welp according to the rise of Skywalker leaks of reshoots, I won’t expect to good either.
Are there any movies that were improved by reshoots that even exist?
IsabellatheCat there’s only one I can think of and that’s Scott Pilgrim VS the World, where Edgar Wright reshot the ending because test audiences hated it and it actually was a reshoot that I agree with. I won’t spoil if you haven’t seen it, but I respect the decision because it was a director taking constructive criticism for the sake of making a better product for his customers
@@catendway4754 Rogue Juan was improved; we got the Vader hallway scene, and a few other good additions, entirely in the re-shoots.
Thank you for such an incredibly good and accurate review. Especially with any reboot, we have to be tough and have to compare the original film(s) to something that if it doesn't blow your mind or create nostalgia, why bother??
A reboot is meant to be an updated, more refined version of the original. If it doesn't hit that checkmark, then people are allowed to give it a tough review. It's kind of the whole point of his CZcams channel.
I wanted to like this movie so badly I actually rented it to give it a shot. The exposition repeats and unlikeable characters were the killers for me. Plus, the world and aesthetic wasn’t FUN, like the original movies and comics. It was captivating and interesting there, unlike the reboot and how boring they managed to make fae creatures feel.
Why the hell does the pig boy creature in the flashback remind me of Scrappy Doo from that live action Scooby Doo movie?
Lmao spot on
Dude, I’m glad it wasn’t me being weird. I half-expected the gang to roll up with a net trap
Probably has something to do with the shit CG
Physics. These animations lacks realistic physics and weight so everything seems unrestrained and weightless.
We don't talk about that movie
Older hellboy was actually hotter lmao
And his tail had actual movement not a rubber worm bs thing
👁👄👁
HUH?
Yes I concur... the first Hellboy def awakened something in me.
@@indominuswrex9465 yup , both mine and your gayness :v
You exposing yourself.
6:53 bro i never knew one frame of an image and one word could fill me with so much nostalgia
To be fair, some members of the British military did sporadically use the M16A2 rifle throughout the 90s, although it was never standard issue. Some SAS scud hunters used it during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. However, no UKSF unit was using the M16 during the time the flashback took place, those guys have MTP uniforms.
Del Toro added the whole "hide monsters from society" aspect. In the comics, magic and demons are commonplace and The BPRD isn't really a secret. But I do agree that the movie doesn't do a good job establishing that.
The fact everything is so secretive in this movie muddies the water even more.
@@jimjam7928 I don't understand why you say this. Everything is literally out in the open. It's clear from the beginning. The only secretive shit is the plots within the plot.
thats something never understood in the hell boy comics. and i read 90% of them. Normal people didnt seem very phased by hell boys looks. its like they think.. oh... hes odd.. then move on. i kinda suspected a ..er... mind effect? that makes people accept him as real.
@@comfortsuites4465 Hellboy was a celebrity in the 50s when he started out as a BPRD agent, appearing on the covers of magazines and having kids on the street come up and ask him for an autograph. Fact of the matter is, most regular people just regarded him as a guy like everybody else.
@@thegillmanedits you say that, but they have the whole hidden in a chip shop thing, so there's *some* level of secrecy?
The scene where Hellboy's boss shows him about the difference in lighting a cigar with zippo and a match was, honestly, my favorite part of all three movies so far.
it's also applicable in real life, no cigar smoker lights them with zippoes
@@user-lq1jc6wf5m I dont understand this. I just use a bic
i found the scene with locker rooms funny
I come for the cogent film commentary but I stay for the groovy "Hep Cats" track.
I’m holding out hope a horror director will correctly reboot this series. HB was always slow burn detective story with Lovecraftian overtones. It fits in with the King universe than either adaptation. Still plenty of material to work with and I hope Mignola signs off next time. “Wolves of Saint August” still gives me chills.
I wish we got a third Guillermo Del Toro one, since there was the threat the Angel of Death gives to Liz about her suffering more than any and the danger of Hellboy destroying the world if he was saved from the magic spear.
Everything Del Toro does is done with so much care and detail. The featurette about the Troll Market in "the Golden Army"was so great, just shows all his ideas! I love it.
PH5121 freaking loved the troll market. Absolutely loved thst
@@sukiitheartist4803 That scene had such a huge impact on me the first time I saw it. Of course, I've seen it so many times now that it's easy to forget how strange and unique it was at my first glimpse.
I'm sensitive to atmosphere, and the way that certain environments--specific spaces, shapes, and structures create certain "feelings". Coming into the Troll Market for the first time was unbelievable!
@@bricaaron3978 I love the featurette where Del Toro shows how the trolls are stealing electricity and how their restaurant menus are missing children photos.
When I was young I had a crush on Hellboy because of how the actor portrayed him, this one is just..not even close to as good as Pearlman's.
Aculeatus i had a huge crush too!! still do lol
@@belladie4110 Same here lol
BROOO ME TOOOO
He's making you all moist. The end is near.
pearlman has the face that noone else can copy he's the only face of Hellboy
I remember listening to Ron Pearlman talk at a comic con how he was excited to start in on hellboy 3 before things went to shit
Out of everything that pissed me off about this movie, the "EXCALIBUR! This is no mortal weapon" made me laugh the hardest. A good example of something similar done right, was castlevania with Trevor vs Dracula, when Trevor struck Dracula using the morning star whip, and Dracula begrudgingly scoffing under his breath "the morning, Star" which showcased the importance of the weapon. It was always shown and never addressed as much, only when it actually harms the main threat, its given recognition. I could rant all day about this movie and the mistakes that could be fixed, but I don't wanna give it anymore attention than it deserves
Ron said no and del toro said no.
Studio: it’s fine we’ll reboot the movies because the fans love reboots o_O
Ron said no because Del Toro said no
Funny, I absolutely despise reboots.
@@Vladshock well reboots can work if they're done right
But mostly they aren't so I see why you hate them
ftr, hellboy was never really considered a "secret" in the comics. he (and the BPRD itself) was generally not well known to the public and he was mostly given out-of-the-way cases to deal with where rumours wouldn't spread far, but he wasn't "classified" or anything (at least not since he was a child and actually joined as an agent). Most of that changed after the plague of frogs though and most of the world was generally aware of the paranatural and the BPRD.
The storyline with the vampires and getting drunk in mexico seems to be an adaptation of a few of his travels in mexico from his early days as an agent when he was basically a rebellious teenager looking for freedom in his life. He'd made a mistake, got depressed, drunk, ended up staring in a few mexican wrestling films as "el diablo" in a drunken stupor on the promise of more booze. An agent who was a fan of mexican wrestling films identified him in a recent tape he got and brought it to bruttenholm's* attention, and he sent hellboy's closest friend in the agency to pick him up iirc.
I haven't seen the movie yet so i don't know the context in which they adapted but from the looks of it i'd say it's a pretty disappointing insult to the powerful character development that arc provided.
*just thought i'd mention my auto-correct thought his name should be "buttonhole" and i lost it.
buttonhole xD
Yeah, but he’s referring to the other movies. He’s stated he hasn’t read the comics at all so he was only pulling info of what he knew from the movies. In the movies, he was a secret so he assumed that he would be a secret in this movie too
@@ghostguru9156 I'm aware, he said as much in the video, I was providing context from the comics for anyone interested.
The sources they drew from were almost accurate to the Comics, far closer than Del Toro. The problem, as per my understanding , was that they took too many threads and tried to stitch them all together. If they could follow just one story it might have been better. Most of the people, again my personal opinion, seem to have no reading of the Comics and thus draw their analogies from the Del Toro versions. I didn't like the movie as it seemed to me that they started with a high ambition and then somehow in the middle came to the realization that they can't carry it through and gave us this incomplete and incoherent mess. People complain about Harbour's looks have clearly not read a page of the Comics. This look was far closer to the books than the Del Toro versions.
@@jitd9716 that's pretty much my opinion on the movie as well, tends to be a problem with a lot of movie adaptations of long franchises (the original lemony snicket movie mashing up the first 3 books for example)
Hey Cynical. You're reviews are great.
Could you one day finally do Cats and explain why it failed.
I love Ian McShane but I also think this Professor Broom was one of the worst things about this movie, he’s too cold, too mean, and doesn’t serve as an inspiration or a great father figure. He just felt like Hellboy’s boss that he kinda was chummy with at their friendliest moments. John Hurt’s Broom was friendly, smart, genuinely loved Hellboy because he didn’t see a demon, just a baby that needed help, and he served as one of Hellboy’s biggest moral compasses.
One of my favourite weird details in the comic is that for some inexplicable reason, no one bats an eye at hellboy's appearance nor what his existence implies. He meets so many random normal people and they just dont' care.
"mornign demon that could bring about the universes death"
morning craig
Think that he lives in a world where Superman makes the news every day. Also, where the Justice League includes even a Martian and where Swamp Thing also has made the news. It's not like Hellboy is not a part of the rest of the DC universe. Besides, in the comics he's famous as a paranormal detective all over the world. He's been the cover of The Times and People Magazine.
@@mariadocarmosobreira8323 ummmm he’s not a part of the dc universe.
@@mariadocarmosobreira8323 what the fuck gave you the idea that Hellboy is made by DC Comics!? It's not, and has never been, made by DC comics (or marvel comics for that matter). It's made by Dark Horse comics
Seriously I don't know where you possibly could have got the idea that it's part of DC.
Like, the films aren't Warner Bros films, even.
@@duffman18 Likely got the idea because he makes a guest appearance in Injustice 2 which was made by Warner Bros' game studio Netherealm.
It was just all over the place. Wise cracking and one liners one second, then one dude getting skinned alive and bisected the next. At least the Perlman Hellboy had a consistent tone
Hey remember Hellboy and Liz getting together in the Movies
Never happened in the comics
She was with Abe
But yeah, consistency is important👍
@@ComicBookGuy420 I don't think you understand what he means by "consistent"
@@emperorgameling5064
I do
The Del Toro movies had Hellboy cracking jokes one moment, and horror themes the next
So did the comics
I was just choosing to believe somone wasn't being so overtly hypocritical
I like gore, and i got turned off because of how out of nowhere it came from
Reboots are propaganda vehicles. They were doing mind programming.
18:00 - The reason why the movie assumes your attention span is so low is due to shoddy writing and cutting corners in pre-production, and then making redundancies to cover for mistakes and possibly save them from having to do re-shoots.
Basically, the script isn't finalised by the time they begin filming, and everything is rushed to high hell. As a result, they'll film multiple different options for the delivery of certain key exposition to give themselves the opportunity to "rescue the movie in the editing room." They're basically passing the buck for building the story to the editors rather than having a cohesive idea of what they're doing ahead of time.
A script in flux, storyboards which are "all up here in my head" and a rushed production leave little tell-tale fingerprints like this. Another movie with the same issue is "Bright," the Will Smith netflix movie which can be summed up as: "Good idea, bad execution."
I really don't understand how all of these people didn't say ANYTHING about the script for this movie.
Even if you don't know anything about Hellboy......AT ALL......you can still tell that this movie has one of the worst plots ever conceived.
Hollyweird has like 1 or 2 real actors who wont put up with this kind of shit....well maybe 1.
we are all appreciating Guillermo del Toro, even more.
Did everybody just forget how terrible hellboy 2 was?
Samcanuck
Hellboy 2 wasn’t a bad movie, it wasn’t even meh. It was a good movie with god damn beutiful character design, way better than even the first one and most of Del Toro’s other work
@@Trampflick idk what movie u watched but hellboy 2 was better than the first one and I loved the first one
@@lenospre As I watched it, with its cheesy forced love story, and lame battle against robots; I told my wife, if this movie breaks out into song, I'm shutting it off. Then Hellboy and Abraham started singing.
Like Rick said, I don't care about your boo's because I know what makes you cheer. Number 2 made you cheer, than who cares if you didn't like this one, you literally like crap.
Exactly. Because they axed Guillermo, and because of that lost Perlman, I don't have any desire to see this new one.
The comics are superb, they actually got me back into comics after taking a five plus year hiatus. Would love to see an animated series done in mignola’s style
The animated films are pretty good, and done in that style.
@@thechroniclesofthesuperhob167 They are pretty good, especially Blood and Iron, but not done in Mignola's style. The only thing I can think off done in his style is the Screw-On Head pilot.
@@Kaenzer screw on head shouldve gone to series
@@Kaenzer I realize this is a bit of an old post to reply to, but yes screw on head is the only one in his style. And Mignola unfortunately publicly came out as not liking it visually XD. Apparently he enjoys it better when other artists do their own rendition of his work instead of mimicking his style, which he thought was what screw was doing. Too bad, I thought it was great.
Seriouslyyyyy why haven't they just animated the comics? Like literally start at the beginning of his origin and go through each issue it would be phenomenal
So Geoff from Utopia UK and Jessica from Utopia US are both in the same movie?
17:53 is that demond pig speaking with a Birmingham accent?! that is hilarious! lolllllll also, 32:34 is that Big Mo?! lolllllll
I legit laughed when the Nazi dude talked and sounded like he's from Chicago and american as possible
Das Bears.
If you mean the Nazi Hunter then I think he is American.
But Da Bulls.
You mean Lobster Johnson?
because,,,,,, lobster johnson is an american nazi hunter? (to be clear this entire movie is shit and fully disrespected the hellboy comics so i don't blame you for not knowing who he was)
@@rubyshepherd4539 *"to be clear this entire movie is shit and fully disrespected the hellboy comics"*
I haven't seen it and probably won't, but don't you think that's odd, considering Mignola wasn't happy with del Toro's Hellboys (which I love), but I assume was totally onboard with this?
The old Hellboys were so rich in details that I find something new every time watching it.
The new one, watching once is too much to handle.
I've been avoiding this movie but your video is the only exposure to it and it hospitalized me into reading the comics and watching the real movies again. Hellboy is my favorite comic and the Perlman films are some of my favorite movies, thank you for subjecting yourself to this torture so that it is minimized for us
@maynardssoblue3839 Aye its really not that bad.
Anyone else reminded of Chris Farley when the "line in the sand" line was made?
You know what’s even better. The character shouldn’t even have the bad English accent cause she’s Irish
Who? The (half)”Black” chick? LOL
It's praiseworthy to recast the Irish woman as a black girl but it's a social outrage to recast the Asian man as a white guy. There's your "diversity."
@@phantomspaceman Yep, black people tend to be the most racist people on the planet. They happily appropriate other people's culture yet cry like hell if someone has dreadlocks. Some twats even claim Beethoven was African. I wish I was joking.
@@----.__ Well that's certainly a take. Also, a bullshit take. No one race is the most racist on the planet because race doesn't define a person. Are there racist black people? Yup, but there are just as many racist caucasians, hispanics, and asians. Look at any grouping by race and there's a racist in there somewhere
@@phantomspaceman Irish people can be black dawg. The problem is her accent, not her skin color
Reboot Hellboy looks like he is lost and sounds drunk on every scene
Might not be acting.
Really enjoyed some of the designs in the newest film and how they were not afraid of gore. I think its biggest issue was the writing. As a fan of the graphic novel, it not only didn't capture the feel/atmosphere of the comic but its almost like it tried to squeeze in things from three to four completely separate story arcs from the books into one story. In doing this major key parts are left out of each leaving the story as a whole feeling shallow and rushed.
Excellent review. I haven't seen the film - and am now unlikely to bother - but I did like seeing Big Mo from Easties firing a machine gun in the chippy.