The new Hellboy film was released on April 12th of this year, and made only $40.8 million at the box office. There has been a lot of hate towards the reboot and I’m going to give my personal thoughts on the pros and cons of the movie.

Hellboy tells a story of a half-demon who works with a organization to stop demons and other creatures around the world. When Niue, the Blood Queen (Milla Jovovich), is resurrected, and out to get revenge on her past betrayal, and has intentions to reek havoc on the world, it is up to Hellboy (David Harbour) and his known associates to put a stop to her before all hell breaks loose.

This movie seems to have a tough time making the pacing right. The film instantly starts off with narration and it seems as if they quickly rushed in the backstory for the antagonist just so they could get right into the Hellboy action.

Which brings me to the character Hellboy. Hellboy as a character is introduced somewhat quickly, they get right into the action when they show him. David Harbour is a great actor and portrayed the character really well in the new adaptation, he kind of is one of the very few things that keeps the movie going with his sarcastic and lazy attitude.

One downside I’d have to say is that he seems very weak as a fighter in scenes, which often in other movies adds more intensity, but he nearly dies by many different enemies in the movie and it kind of makes you disappointed in him.

It seems as if the movie tries adding a lot of side stories as well that never go anywhere. For example, Hellboy at one point joins his father’s old team to stop a group of giants. Out of the blue, they decide to betray Hellboy and attempt to kill him, but they all get killed off pretty much right away. The movie does this often, they’ll add many useless side stories that aren’t asssential to the plot, and they never go anywhere interesting.

The film action wise is honestly pretty enjoyable; it is filled with nonstop action and isn’t afraid to get bloody. The movie alone is very gory and I think they used a bit too much at times, and it doesn’t really get you to take scenes seriously. But once it comes to the action, it will often go on for a good 10 to 15 minutes and it’ll keep you entertained.

The visuals aren’t bad, but there are certain scenes where the CGI will look embarrassingly noticeable and you can tell they just threw it together quickly. But other than that, the visuals can often be pretty decent, they aren’t Planet of the Apes  good, but it’s normal enough most of the time, where it doesn’t really bother you.

As I said earlier, the acting in the film is good, but the characters alone, besides Hellboy, aren’t that interesting. It seems as if they just made these characters and gave them a backstory and some powers and that’s about it. They don’t really give them enough personality, they’re just people who stick by Hellboy’s side most of the movie. Also, Hellboy’s father in the original Guillermo Del Toro series is more of an interesting and developed character, but in this one, he’s just in this movie for the sake of him being in it and isn’t really important to the plot.

Which brings me to comparing this film to Guillermo Del Toro’s adaptation. This film had a director switch which really changed the whole Hellboy feel. The original one had a memorable style and color scheme to it; it felt like it was hardly worked on and it had an unsettling feel to it. This one is very lackluster compared to that and just feels like a gory, action packed comic bookish styled movie made solely for teens.

Now let’s talk about the soundtrack. The soundtrack is pretty fitting with the film’s style, it has heavy metal and early 2000’s remixes. Sometimes though, the music seems somewhat unneeded or it just doesn’t fit with the scene.

Overall, this movie is quite a mess. But it if you enjoy action packed and brutal movies and come just to see some action and don’t care about the plot, then this is your kind of movie. I myself think it is very enjoyable and action packed but story wise, it’s a mess and the writing is pretty awful.

I’d give this movie’s action a solid 7/10 and the story a 2/10.