Hellboy

Back in 2004 and 2008, Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro made two floridly entertaining movies based on the graphic novels of Mike Mignola about the titular horned, red-skinned demon who becomes a government agent in the war against paranormal dangers to humanity. Del Toro’s gleeful panache is sorely missing in this dreary reboot, a bargain-basement recycling in which David Harbour assumes the role previously played by Ron Perlman. Hellboy provides an “origin” flashback about how the infant demon was found during World War II and adopted by an agent (Ian McShane) who turned him into a friend of mankind. Now fully grown, the gruff, wisecracking Hellboy is drawn into a mission to repel a threat that could spell the end of the world as we know it—namely, the return of the Blood Queen (Milla Jovovich), who was defeated by King Arthur and dismembered, with her various body parts buried in remote lands. Now a porcine changeling named Gruagach is collecting said parts in order to resurrect her, and Hellboy, aided by a girl (Sasha Lane) and a super-agent (Daniel Dae Kim)—who can morph into a jaguar—must stop Gruagach and thereby prevent the Blood Queen from unleashing monsters and plagues upon the earth. The plot is ludicrous, of course, but the cheesy execution is what proves fatal, with astronomical amounts of bloodletting and gore seen in protracted sequences as Hellboy faces off against a parade of CGI creatures, coupled with intervening expository scenes that are tedious. Not recommended. (F. Swietek)