This year’s Hellboy reboot was both a critical and commercial failure. The film scored a 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has ended its box office run with a worldwide total of $40 million against a $50 million budget. Owen Gleiberman of Variety described the film as “a pile of origin-story gobbledygook”, while Eric Kohn of Indiewire said it was “an overzealous attempt to revisit the content of del Toro films without matching their sophistication”.
Wow, tell us how you guys really feel!
But they’re not the only ones who have been brutally honest about Hellboy. It has also found a reluctant critic in its lead actor, David Harbour.
In an interview with Digital Spy, the 44-year-old actor referenced conflict regarding the film’s direction:
“We did our best, but there’s so many voices that go into these things and they’re not always going to work out. I did what I could do and I feel proud of what I did, but ultimately I’m not in control of a lot of those things.”
However, Harbour did somewhat defend Hellboy, saying that its lackluster reception was due to the constant comparison to Marvel movies. “So everybody goes chocolate is delicious and [Marvel] make the best chocolate,” he said, “So as you judge the movies, it’s like, ‘Well it’s not as chocolatey as this, this does not taste like chocolate at all’.”
But although Harbour felt that it was unfair when Hellboy was compared to other Marvel movies, he did admit “it has major problems”. He further opined that as a rental or airplane film, people would come away thinking “Oh, that was fun” while re-emphasizing that it was “unfairly bludgeoned” due to comparisons to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
And funnily enough, that’s just where Harbour is headed. In 2017, it was announced that the Stranger Things actor is set to join Scarlett Johansson for the Black Widow movie in 2020.
Here’s hoping that film is better received.
Do you think the Hellboy reboot was problematic? Or do you think the critics were too harsh? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
