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It's a shame its not a continuation of the previous two films, they were very solid and Guillermo del Toro setup not just great films but very beautiful ones. He's one director that I'd seriously love to see do a full adventure fantasy style film because I think he'd seriously make something to rival Lord of the Rings.
They were an interesting interpretation of the comics, but I'm hoping to get something closer to the source material with these. Less X-Men vibe, and NO hen-pecked, goofy chatterbox Hellboy. IMO, it's kind of a shame that people have that interpretation of the character burned into their brains.
However, I'm not sure what to think after seeing these trailers. Sure there's more gore, but the comics have never been about gore. And they seem to be trying to convince audiences that they WILL be like the Del Toro films.
It's still feeling like while we are going to get a much more faithful take on the comics Hellboy himself just doesn't feel right (either compared to the comic or del toros version)
OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote: It's still feeling like while we are going to get a much more faithful take on the comics Hellboy himself just doesn't feel right (either compared to the comic or del toros version)
Part of it might just be the demands of the medium. In the comics, it's easier to have Hellboy be the strong silent type, and move through the story with a minimum of dialogue as stuff unfolds around him. That can be done in the movies too (see every Eastwood cowboy movie ever), but there's probably more expectation that the lead character will get the majority of the dialogue and carry the film that way. *shrug*
I agree with you that some elements of the trailers feel more comic-accurate. The BPRD feels more SHIELD-like than X-Men-like, and that might be a good start.
Another aspect is that in quite a few of the comics you don't see a huge amount of social interaction events. They are more "Hellboy turns up - gets into a fight - moods around gets beaten comes back and beats up the bad thing again"
So by the nature of the way they tell the stories there's less room for Hellboy to be talking - note I've not read the BRPD comics so might be there's more social activity in those.
Also I think the artistic style was quite minimalist, so I think the conversation being kept short for all characters was also a visual style choice as much as it was a character development choice. When they shifted into films I the style, presentation, approach and the whole structure changed quite considerably. I think Del Toro did really well and he's got a talent for ensuring a film has a deeper feeling and connection to a larger world even if its a stand alone film.
-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
I am shocked, SHOCKED I SAY. This was a totally unexpected result! Did anyone actually think it would be even remotely good? There is a phrase that comes to mind, begins with a G and ends with an e.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2019/04/11 13:32:52
I'm not overly surprised. While I haven't seen the film, the trailers make it seem very confused about what it wants to be.
"Closer to the comics" is a goal I support 100%, for the reasons I previously explained. But to pull that off, I think you need a director with a really strong vision and producers that are okay with a finished product that's very stylish, dark, brooding, at times minimalistic, and without a lot of yuks.
The trailers make it seem like they took a half-step that way, then went completely conventional to appeal to general audiences. One red flag for me was how 'gore' kept getting mentioned as a way this one would be different. But while Mignola certainly features pouring and pooling blood at times, gore really isn't a defining characteristic of the books.
I mean, when the reviews talk about action set pieces with blaring rock music that take on music video qualities...yikes. Hellboy is about as 'quiet' of a comic as you'll find out there.
It makes me think that the studio should have instead spent their money on a Hellboy limited series for a streaming service. That might have better brought the comics to life. An episodic format would work better for Hellboy since so many of his stories are short, and the creators might have felt more freedom to do something genuinely different.
-"Wait a minute.....who is that Frazz is talking to in the gallery? Hmmm something is going on here.....Oh.... it seems there is some dispute over video taping of some sort......Frazz is really upset now..........wait a minute......whats he go there.......is it? Can it be?....Frazz has just unleashed his hidden weiner dog from his mini bag, while quoting shakespeares "Let slip the dogs the war!!" GG
-"Don't mind Frazzled. He's just Dakka's crazy old dude locked in the attic. He's harmless. Mostly."
-TBone the Magnificent 1999-2014, Long Live the King!
Yeah, while a turd it may be, people claiming it is the worse comic movie ever are quickly forgetting a slew of other turds existing out there. I would actually be very surprised if it ends up being worse than the Fantastic Four movies for example.
Alpharius wrote: It is being called one of worst comic book movies ever.
Now I know we're all often guilty of living in the moment, but it is hard to imagine this being worse than, say, the first Punisher movie?
Right. While I don't think this movie will be good, it's a slam-dunk that it'll be more watchable than, say, Captain America (1990).
Spoiler:
Ha!
Exactly!
I suspect this one will still be...watchable...and getting hammered because, aside from not being all that good, this is one of the 'safe' comic book movies to actually hammer!
Green Lantern wasn't that.... okay, it wasn't good, but there are definitely bars below it.
In the post Batman Begins era of comic movies, I assume the crown probably goes to either Catwoman or Fant4stic. If this nabs it, I'll be at least a little surprised.
I'll say this much...some of these reviews are WAY over the top in praise for Perlman and Del Toro. They both did a nice job bringing a very eclectic character and his world to theaters, but those films and performances weren't so good that it's impossible to conceive of future installments and reimaginings. They aren't rebooting Citizen Kane here, fer crissakes. It's not nearly Del Toro's best work.
Of course, I can see how the creators of this film brought a good bit of this on themselves by promising something different and then not really delivering an alternate vision strong enough for critics to understand.
Edit: The worst thing about this film bombing is that we probably won't get more Hellboy of any kind of any kind of screen for another decade.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2019/04/11 18:02:13
Frankly, it's a 'miracle' we got any Hellboy on the big screen at all. Like Men in Black, it was a comic I had never heard of before the film was announced, and that was (shortly after) when I was into comics.
Instead of rebooting a cult favorite movie without the fan-adored talent, why didn't they just grab some other no-name comic off the shelf and adapt that?
Instead of rebooting a cult favorite movie without the fan-adored talent, why didn't they just grab some other no-name comic off the shelf and adapt that?
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Frankly, it's a 'miracle' we got any Hellboy on the big screen at all. Like Men in Black, it was a comic I had never heard of before the film was announced, and that was (shortly after) when I was into comics.
Instead of rebooting a cult favorite movie without the fan-adored talent, why didn't they just grab some other no-name comic off the shelf and adapt that?
Because in the grimdarkness of the present, there is only reboots!
Instead of rebooting a cult favorite movie without the fan-adored talent, why didn't they just grab some other no-name comic off the shelf and adapt that?
gorgon wrote: I'll say this much...some of these reviews are WAY over the top in praise for Perlman and Del Toro. They both did a nice job bringing a very eclectic character and his world to theaters, but those films and performances weren't so good that it's impossible to conceive of future installments and reimaginings. They aren't rebooting Citizen Kane here, fer crissakes. It's not nearly Del Toro's best work.
I loved the first 2 Hellboy movies. I agree they're not objectively good movies, for sure. I can't say what it is about them that speaks to me so strongly, but there are some parts that I just love to death: when the visit the Troll Market, the nature elemental, Kroenen, the entire concept and execution of the Golden Army... I am just realizing now I like the second one better than the first, apparently.
But anyway, despite greatly enjoying them, I can understand why your average theatrical audience doesn't see the appeal in a prince of Hell and a psychic fish man performing a duet of Barry Manilow. It wasn't very accurate to the comics, but liked it.
I guess I'll re-read Hellboy in Hell.
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
The first two Hellboy movies I think are the ideal "Popcorn flick." No one making them was pretending to go for an Oscar or even to be working on some kind of high art. They were just making a movie and having fun, so the movies ended up being pretty fun even if one were to take a critical ax to them they're littered with plot holes and contrived cliches
LordofHats wrote: The first two Hellboy movies I think are the ideal "Popcorn flick." No one making them was pretending to go for an Oscar or even to be working on some kind of high art. They were just making a movie and having fun, so the movies ended up being pretty fun even if one were to take a critical ax to them they're littered with plot holes and contrived cliches
It helps that Ron Pearlman did a great job even if it wasn't super accurate to the comic book version. Plus as usual the practical effects/costumes were pretty on point as usual for Del Toro's work.
LordofHats wrote: The first two Hellboy movies I think are the ideal "Popcorn flick." No one making them was pretending to go for an Oscar or even to be working on some kind of high art. They were just making a movie and having fun, so the movies ended up being pretty fun even if one were to take a critical ax to them they're littered with plot holes and contrived cliches
First HB was borderline watchable but felt sterile and generic and lacked a good Rasputin. Second was quite good and captured the spirit of the comic better. Villains were multi-dimensional and HB was brought to face his paradoxes - he was a mythical creature whose task was to hunt other mythical creatures to extinction. He was brought in to destroy the human world, but worked to save it. I did not like all the character takes (Abe was meh) but overall it was good.
I think this is the best of the 3 hellboy films so far by a pretty large margin.
Hellboys character is FAR more accurate and it makes watching him go about doing stuff far more enjoyable. I REALLY disliked the petty teenager that was the ron pearlman version.
Everything in this was full of throw backs to the comic stuff. For instance when they show his origin, Rasputins Robes are pulled straight off the page of the comic. It's kind of amazing how accurate so much of that got.
It almost directly translates several short stories or implies that those short stories have already happened from the comics.
Where it kind of falls down is in 2 ways...
1) The main plot is from a late game story called Darkness Calls. It's kind of a big conclusion story for Hellboy. But they play it in this movie like it's closer to the plot of the first Hellboy movie in that it's not so much an origin, but a beginning of some major things being set in motion. It makes it difficult to think where they were planning on going forward with this one.... not that I think they will. I think this movie isn't going to make much money.
2) Some of the action/jokes still went goofy. And it didn't need to. And it didn't really fit. The comics are not goofy except for very brief short stories where it's a cute little one off. Tonally it wasn't great and it didn't need to happen.
Conclusion.
This was a FAR better attempt at Hellboy on screen then we have ever seen before. But they could still do better. I think it would work much better as a Netflix seires or something.
These are my opinions. This is how I feel. Others may feel differently. This needs to be stated for some reason.
Watched this weekend and loved it. But it's far from mainstream. A loveletter to the comics with big chunks of Easter eggs for fans.
Biggest flaw for people without comicbackground will be in my opinion the somewhat episodic nature on how the story evolves. Basicly there are like 4 or 5 shortened(by a large amount) originstories cramed into it pausing the story.
But I personally loved it this way.
There are so many setups for potential sequels ... i just hope it makes enough.
Did anyone actually think it would be even remotely good? There is a phrase that comes to mind, begins with a G and ends with an e.
