HELLBOY (2019)
Release Date: July 23rd 2019
Rating: R
Duration: 121 Minutes
Video: 2160p Ultra High Definition (2.39:1) with Dolby Vision HDR, 1080p High Definition (2.39:1)
Audio: English Dolby Atmos, Spanish and French 5.1, Dolby Audio, English Descriptive Audio, with Optional English, Spanish, French, English SDH Subtitles
Director: Neil Marshall
Cast: David Harbour, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, Milla Jovovich
Coming into this re-imagining of Hellboy I really had to disengage from the Guillermo del Toro films which I friggin' love, I'm still sore that he didn't get to finish off his trilogy. Likewise, I was a huge fan of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, the first two anyway, and I found it difficult to swallow the multiple re-imaginings that have followed. That said, taking in the Spider-man them on their own and out of the shadow of the previous incarnation there's definitely lots of fun to be had. The same can be said about Hellboy 2019, which is directed by Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers), a guy with some serious genre film credibility, which doesn't hurt. On top of that you have Hellboy comic-creator Mike Mignola on board saying that this film is more true to his vision than the Guillermo del Toro films, which is cool. However, you must also remember that Stephen King hated Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining, preferring the Mick Garris directed TV mini-series, so take that approval from the creator with a grain of salt!
Filling some literally big shoes here is David Harbour (Netflix's Stranger Things) as Hellboy, previously portrayed in the del Toro films by Ron Perlman (Cronos), whose red-shadow looms large here, with Harbour seemingly doing a riff on that portrayal, which I'm alright with. The film opens with a black and white prologue setting up an Arthurian legend involving the film's baddie, a powerful medieval witch named Vivienne Numie (Milla Jovovich, Resident Evil) a.k.a. the Blood Witch. Moving ahead to contemporary times we take a trip to Mexico where Hellboy must face off against a vampyric lucha libre wrestler before spiriting off to England to assist British occult society the Osiris Club - not the New jersey strip club - to battle a trio of recently reanimated man-eating giants who are terrorizing the countryside.
This leads to a flashback to the WWII era Project Raganrok, an event which we saw in the first Hellboy film, the origin of Hellboy as summoned from Hell by Rasputin and the Nazis. It plays out very much like the first film, but with a fun twist, the appearance of Hellboy comics character Lobster Johnson (Thomas Hayden Church, Sideways), a pulpy Nazi hunter with a searing claw-brand he uses to burns into the skulls of Nazis before sending them to Hell!
The story such as it is comes fast and furious, barely taking minutes to breath, pushing forward a plot line that brings together the resurrected witch with an apocalyptic Arthurian legend that ties into Hellboy's origins with plenty of trolls, demons and spirits to keep you entertained.
Hellboy this time around is aided by his father, and leader of the B.P.R.D. Trevor Bruttenholm (Ian McShane, American Gods), a spirit medium Alice Monaghan (Sasha Lane, American Honey), and were-cat M11 agent Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim). Working against him is the resurrected blood witch, who is aided by the piggish fairy Gruagach and a rather disgusting Russian witch Baba Yaga,
The monster creations here are pretty cool-looking, the piggish Gruagach is created with old school practical effects and looks great. The new incarnation of Hellboy also looks fantastic, looking less like the Perlman Hellboy than initial promo image would have has me believe, looking a bit more red-ape like, and with yellow eyes, wearing his hair long like a teen metal head instead of a top-knot.
A big difference here is that the film is R-rated, so you get some obligatory cussing throughout, and some pretty decent looking gore. When Hellboy slays the marrow-sucking giants the grue is awesome, but the most sickening thing in the film is the Baba Yaga, a child eating witch seen feasting on kid-finger soup, slobbing all over the place, a deformed and hideous creature who lives in a house perched atop a pair of chicken legs, it's a strange world indeed, and this witch is a stomach churner.
While the r-rating secures a bit more gore and some bad words it shortchanges us on story and character development, the pivotal relationship between Bruttenholm and his adopted demon-son is never fleshed out the way that way that del Toro was able to do, and this film seems to be leaning on the previous films to establish the father-son dynamic.
The film feels more b-movie than the del Toro films ever felt, that's not an altogether bad thing though, it makes for a fun and very metal movie, with some great apocalyptic imagery of Hellboy carrying a flaming sword while flying on the back of a dragon, it looks like the cover of a bad-ass 80's metal album for sure, that's the sort of feel of the whole film, 80's metal to the bone, it's not perfect, but it is hell-bent on delivery the fun, and it succeeds. .
Audio/Video: Hellboy (2019) arrives on 4K UltraHD+Blu-ray+Digital from Lionsgate with the 4K offering a 2160p UltraHD image framed in 2.39:1 widescreen. This is a 4K disc sourced from a 4K digital-intermediate so the image is crisp and very sharp with the colors emboldened by the HDR enhancements. The digital effects look bit off at times, the lower resolution imaging definitely sticks out against the 4K backgrounds, but even still I think the film looks fantastic overall. The Dolby Atmos offers up a powerful surround mix, action scenes get plenty of panning effects, dialogue is crisp and clean, and the score from Benjamin Wallfisch sounds excellent, plus we get some tasty songs from Muse, Alice Cooper, Motley Crue and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club that spice up the film, keeping it metal.
Extras on both the 4K UltraHD and Bluy-ray discs include a 71-min making of doc, 8-min of deleted scenes and 7-min of previsualizations. I've heard this is a film with a few too many cooks in the kitchen, and with producers and star Harbour not always on the same page as director Neil Marshall, who didn't seem to have complete creative control on the film, but the making of doc doesn't really shine any light on this, with most of it centering on Harbour and the producers, but the finished film while uneven is still a blast.
The 2-disc release comes housed in a spiffy-looking black 4K keepcase with a cool-looking sleeve of artwork that is also featured on the glossy slipcover. Inside you will find the 4K and Blu-ray discs with dueling artworks, plus a digital redemption code for the film.
Special Features:
- Tales of the Wild Hunt: Hellboy Reborn (3-Part Documentary) (71 min) HD
- Deleted Scenes (8 min) HD
- Previsualizations (7 min) HD
Hellboy (2019) delivers bad-ass metal album cover imagery with a good blend of humor and horror along with some splashy gore and coll-looking monster creations. It might not live up to the depth and dimensions of Perlman/del Toro films but it's still a wicked fun time, and the 4K looks and sounds terrific.
