'Hellboy' by Guillermo del Toro Review: It isn't too bad, but perhaps too dark

I'm really not a fan of Guillermo del Toro as a director. While I enjoy his love for the horror genre, and the creative monsters that are often found within it, I feel he's a filmmaker that just isn't that good. He has a few decent creations here and there, but many of them are missing something. As if the filmmaker never really managed to grow beyond the standards of the 90s and early 2000s. He's a filmmaker that managed to luck out in an era that didn't care much for generally cheesy titles, but never escaped that area of film. I tried to watch the anthology series he worked on recently, to which I couldn't finish it and found it drastically lacking. I did enjoy The Shape of Water, which was a unique story even for 2017. But since then the director seems as if he's in limbo, with his most popular and frequent works being now a few decades behind. I'm not sure what leads him to create the more low budget side of things that is riddled with problems. There's certainly a market for the stronger horror side of things, but he doesn't seem to be doing much with it aside from stacking his museum with figurines and statues. I think I could grow eventually to like his films, but that'd require the director to excel beyond the norm of what he typically creates. Pacific Rim was a disappointment, despite its cool moments. What happened to the style he had decades prior?

It seems the director moved too far into the world of animation, sticking to a few franchises he created. Abandoning the film world and alienating a lot of his audience in the pursuit of a more child oriented demographic. I think of the ways in which superhero films were made in the past, the more gritty look they had. Still very close to their worlds within the comic books, but still quite serious and created for an older demographic. Things felt darker, with more action and more serious stories. And Hellboy is one that came about in 2004, sticking rather true to its initial comic book story with a few changes here and there. It was a surprise to see a film that did stick more true to its source material. I think of a similar smaller character like Blade which was also known for being a bit more serious and darker. A film that had its fair share of comedy while also being full of action. I became curious over the Hellboy films given I couldn't remember the last time I saw them, and I was fascinated over the fact that despite the heavy comic book reliance Hollywood has had for the past decade and a half, Hellboy has been a character that has been left in the dark. Utterly abandoned and with very few and terrible attempts to revive the character. Certainly not given much attention.

Now, I'm not fan of comic book titles. But I am willing to give them a chance if I feel they're good and the characters are actually interesting. So hey, I decided to revisit Hellboy from 2004.

This Hellboy sets itself up with the introduction of Hellboy as a character. A strange Nazi experiment during the Second World War leads to the opening of a portal to which the Nazis aim to utilise the power of the underworld against their rivals. Things go south for them as the plot is ruined, though with the brief moments in which that portal remained open, a strange demonic humanoid child is released into the world, discovered by the west and raised in secret with some top secret programs. The film gives a bit of a time skip in which we finally see Hellboy as a adult, shredded and chugging away at a cigar. Though the film states that he ages like the opposite of a dog, so despite his appearance he's only really in his 20s. Our side character to introduce all of this is a human assigned to Hellboy and these programs, almost to serve a sidekick while being some of the plot's tool to connect some of the human world and the underworld's creations. We already see that there are more to this world than Hellboy, which I think is a good introduction that serves to open the door to more of the fantasy elements. The first half an hour of the film does feel like a slog of exposition to set things up, showcasing some of the bad guys, your typical over the top Nazi designs and such.

Guillermo del Toro's directing is pretty much the same as it always is: incredibly dark scenes in which sometimes it's hard to really know what's going on. The scenes which are meant to detail characters with unique features and designs are often a little too dark to really appreciate, though I suspect this comes from the 2004 time period in which the budget for such a film would be quite low, and keeping things relatively dark or under rain doesn't just serve as atmosphere for the more gritty tone of the film and its themes, but contributes to the hiding of the more cheaper side of the set and costume design. Ideally we'd get a film in which the designs are really displayed and given the correct lighting to show them off, but I can understand why such decisions would've been made. Especially to maintain the darker ambience of the film. After all, it is about a demon child (now adult) from Hell. Comic book films of this era tended to suffer from being a bit too dark, but del Toro is pretty much known for going a bit overboard with it, partially this is why I struggle to find enjoyment in much of his directing.

While the action scenes are well-choreographed, the film has that older action film silliness to it that we seem to have escaped. There's some soul in this given how silly certain things can look. This can be the way a character is introduced, made to give them a cooler look, making them seem more threatening. Usually this is done with comically dumb gestures and poses from those characters, as well as directing that gives them more unique perspectives. It has a bit more of a video game sort of look to it in that regard, but I don't really mind it much. It does speak of another era in action films, but I prefer when they're like this rather than going all-out serious with no imperfections. And this film often has those imperfections, those little moments where you notice how something is off, some poor extras that don't perform all that well or just cheap looking sets. But in the special effects side of things the film is pretty good for its age. The monsters and action scenes are done quite well, and Ron Perlman as Hellboy strangely works. A more raspy voice, blocky-shaped head. It fits the character decently. And one thing I think the film does fairly well but could be better is that sense of scale of Hellboy. There's definitely room for improvement in comparing him to humans, but some aspects of the design do make him look like a huge red thing sent from the depths of Hell.