I tried to go into this with an open mind, having loved del Toro's two films and being disappointed that he and Perlman wouldn't be able to complete their trilogy. I like David Harbour, I'll watch Ian McShane in nearly anything, and I like Daniel Dae Kim. I was also a fan of Dog Soldiers, so I knew Neil Marshall could bring the horror goods.
What we wind up with is a mixed bag, on which I'm only slightly positive. It doesn't destroy what del Toro put together (how could it?), but in its efforts to be faithful to the comics, it gets hamstrung. First, the positives: Dae Kim really embodies Ben Daimio and gives the character a depth beyond what he's given in the script. He's easily the best part of the movie. Milla Jovovich is fine as Nimue. Ian McShane's Professor Broom is truer to the comics than John Hurt's and stands a close second to Daimio. David Harbour creates his own Hellboy, but it can't help but pale in comparison to Perlman's.
The negatives? The CG. Oh, the CG. Hellboy needs the organic shift between CG and practical effects employed in films as diverse as Jurassic Park and, well, pretty much every del Toro film. The next negative is the script. I imagine the shooting script read like a comic book, because that's what we get here. When comic book films work, it's because they build on the book, not slavishly copy it. The comic is a launching point. Del Toro and other filmmakers who successfully adapt comics understand this; the screenwriters here (and there are at least three uncredited writers on this) don't get it.
This I will say: it's not boring, but it's jam-packed with so much exposition, as if to say, "Here's everything del Toro missed," which really adds nothing. In an effort to be "true to the comic," the makers forgot that you need to make a film that is compelling. This ain't it, sadly.
What we wind up with is a mixed bag, on which I'm only slightly positive. It doesn't destroy what del Toro put together (how could it?), but in its efforts to be faithful to the comics, it gets hamstrung. First, the positives: Dae Kim really embodies Ben Daimio and gives the character a depth beyond what he's given in the script. He's easily the best part of the movie. Milla Jovovich is fine as Nimue. Ian McShane's Professor Broom is truer to the comics than John Hurt's and stands a close second to Daimio. David Harbour creates his own Hellboy, but it can't help but pale in comparison to Perlman's.
The negatives? The CG. Oh, the CG. Hellboy needs the organic shift between CG and practical effects employed in films as diverse as Jurassic Park and, well, pretty much every del Toro film. The next negative is the script. I imagine the shooting script read like a comic book, because that's what we get here. When comic book films work, it's because they build on the book, not slavishly copy it. The comic is a launching point. Del Toro and other filmmakers who successfully adapt comics understand this; the screenwriters here (and there are at least three uncredited writers on this) don't get it.
This I will say: it's not boring, but it's jam-packed with so much exposition, as if to say, "Here's everything del Toro missed," which really adds nothing. In an effort to be "true to the comic," the makers forgot that you need to make a film that is compelling. This ain't it, sadly.