Hellboy
Lionsgate | Release Date: April 12, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
31
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
23
Negative:
19
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
UproxxVince ManciniApr 10, 2019
Exuberantly gross and proudly ridiculous, this Hellboy feels like the picture Glenn Danzig sees in his head when he doodles in his notebook. Read full review
80
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiApr 23, 2019
Marshall’s Hellboy is a horrifyingly good time. It captures the breathless quality of reading 30 issues of a single comic-book series in one sugar-addled afternoon, shoving as many amazing characters and storylines and images into one film as it can possibly hold. It could have seemed overstuffed and frenetic, but this new “Hellboy” instead comes across as imaginative and freewheeling. Read full review
58
The Film StageJared MobarakApr 12, 2019
There’s a cake and eat it too attitude wherein this new iteration of Hellboy wants to simultaneously be trashy and dramatic. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnApr 10, 2019
Perhaps it’s appropriate that the 2019 version of Hellboy is busy to an exhausting degree, overloaded with apocalyptic fears, and seemingly endless in its pileup of twists. But it’s hard to read much into a movie less invested in shrewd observations than in stuffing as much lore as possible into 120 minutes. Read full review
55
Film ThreatLorry KiktaApr 15, 2019
It’s perfectly entertaining, it’s just not going to win any Oscars, but it doesn’t need to, it’s a summer movie for fans of the comic and adults who still feel like kids. If that’s you, go see it! Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerApr 13, 2019
When Hellboy does succeed, it is glorious. Harbour and Jovovich understand this kind of inflated supernatural action, and when it's just them inhabiting the line between two worlds (such as Hellboy's trip to face the child-eating Russian witch, Baba Yaga), or when the narrative is given time to breathe, there's a sense of the movie this could and should have been. Read full review
50
Original-CinJim SlotekApr 11, 2019
This Hellboy looks like the real Hellboy, but its heart and soul have gone AWOL. Read full review
50
ConsequenceBlake GobleApr 10, 2019
Neil Marshall’s Hellboy is a monster mash, loud and proud. Just bring a mop. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubApr 10, 2019
This Hellboy has story problems, with too much exposition and not enough character development. “Stranger Things” actor David Harbour, seemingly a perfect choice for his ability to project melancholy and a luggish humor, isn’t given enough time to do either of those things. Read full review
50
USA TodayBrian TruittApr 10, 2019
This Hellboy leans more into super-gory horror comedy than its predecessors, trading nuance for ripped-off limbs and boasting as much subtlety as a stone fist to the face. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyDarren FranichApr 10, 2019
The best thing I can say is: This is a mess that makes no sense, so it’s a cure for the common overly architected superhero film. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshApr 10, 2019
With this noisy, fast, chaotic "Hellboy," Marshall is at his most cheeky and most unhinged. It's certainly… a lot. Read full review
46
The VergeTasha RobinsonApr 11, 2019
Over the course of two hours, the mania becomes exhausting and numbing. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeApr 10, 2019
Less a thrilling adventure tale than a trip to a teenager’s messy, sock-strewn bedroom. Read full review
40
Total FilmChris ShillingApr 11, 2019
Hell, yeah? Hellish, more like. Despite its lead’s best efforts, this disastrous deboot is a gore-soaked bore. Read full review
40
Rolling StoneDavid FearApr 11, 2019
Hellboy wants to remind you that this Dark Horse Comics brute with a soul still deserves a place in the superhero-movie ecosphere. It ends up simply being a franchise reboot damned to be restaged as its own bloody hell. Some things are better left dead. Read full review
40
EmpireJohn NugentApr 11, 2019
Plenty of shock and gore, and David Harbour is more than worthy to wear the horns. But this is a reboot in need of a reboot. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 10, 2019
It couldn’t be more boring than this. It seems counterintuitive to say it, but there is something pretty soulless about this new Hellboy franchise. Read full review
40
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoApr 10, 2019
Hellboy feels editorially chopped to bits, tonally disjointed and created from clashing perspectives that make for the type of "dark, gritty" reboot that misunderstands why certain "dark, gritty" reboots end up working. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriApr 10, 2019
It’s inert where it should be fast, and cluttered and choppy where it should be rousing. Which is a shame, because Hellboy, as conceived, is one of the more interesting comic book heroes we have. He deserves better than this. Read full review
40
ScreenCrushMatt SingerApr 10, 2019
Characters repeatedly yell jokes from offscreen or while their backs are turned to the camera. They are, almost without exception, not funny. And they’re indicative of a movie that feels like it was worked and reworked in the editing room almost to its literal death. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangApr 10, 2019
This Hellboy can be something to see. It can also be a giant bore. Read full review
40
VarietyOwen GleibermanApr 10, 2019
It’s lunging to be a badass hard-R epic, but it’s basically a pile of origin-story gobbledygook, frenetic and undercooked, full of limb-hacking, eye-gouging monster battles as well as an atmosphere of apocalyptic grunge that signifies next to nothing. Read full review
40
IGNMeg DowneyApr 10, 2019
Hellboy is a thin, clumsy, and charmless attempt at rebooting a beloved franchise. It's populated by forgettable characters motivated by confusing stakes, cheaply executed visuals, and distracting editing. Somewhere, a finger on a Hellboy fan's monkey's paw is curling up -- sure, HB might finally be back in the spotlight, but he definitely would have been better off left alone. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicScott CravenApr 10, 2019
While the movie is a mess, it can be a fun ride as long as you first put your brain into "do not disturb" mode. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTom RussoApr 12, 2019
In the end, the movie leaves us stuck with unmoving drama and increasingly numbing carnage. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireApr 11, 2019
You will never realize how much you need Guillermo del Toro in your life until you see the reboot of “Hellboy.” Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 11, 2019
The movie is a pointless retread with nothing to recommend it beyond McShane’s commanding presence. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 11, 2019
The new Hellboy lands with a thud that’s loud and dark — but almost instantly forgettable. Read full review
37
Washington PostAlan ZilbermanApr 10, 2019
Marshall and screenwriter Andrew Cosby went overboard with their R-rating, introducing so much gore and profanity that it, quite frankly, gets dull. The flat performances and incoherent story do not help matters. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeApr 10, 2019
It's just lousy. Bloated, vastly less funny than it aims to be and misguided in key design choices even when it scores with less important decisions, the film does make bold choices that might've paid off under other circumstances. But these aren't those circumstances. Read full review
25
CNNBrian LowryMay 21, 2019
A bloody mess. Read full review
25
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 12, 2019
The Hellboy reboot is a a fecal matter weather event film fiasco, a gory ill-conceived debacle that drives a stake through the heart of the franchise, no matter how many post-credits “teases” the producers tack on. Read full review
25
The Associated PressMark KennedyApr 10, 2019
It’s really a series of violent vignettes strung together, getting more and more outlandish and introducing characters at such a blistering pace that you just want it to stop already. Read full review
20
The AtlanticDavid SimsApr 12, 2019
In trying to set itself apart, this film ends up perfectly laying out the case against its own existence. Read full review
20
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisApr 11, 2019
Marshall, a world away from the dank dread and crawling terror of his 2006 spelunking stunner, “The Descent,” directs like a dog at a squirrel convention, charging gleefully from one witlessly violent encounter to the next. Ian McShane, as Hellboy’s adoptive father, does what he can to calm the chaos, but the movie left me alternately baffled and battered. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinApr 11, 2019
While the del Toro Hellboys were postmodern Frankenstein fables, shining with pathos, fun and fairy-tale allure, this unsolicited reboot is ugly, obnoxious and yowlingly witless, with nothing to say for itself that doesn’t start with the letter F. Read full review
20
Time OutPhil de SemlyenApr 10, 2019
There’s the odd nifty camera move but the action sequences are often messy and rote. The self-healing Hellboy is able to withstand endless punishment, which may be faithful to Mignola’s source material but hardly ups the stakes. The audience is not so lucky. Hellboy? Just hell, actually. Read full review
20
Screen DailyTim GriersonApr 10, 2019
Between the overblown poor CG, witless dialogue and pervasive, numbing violence, the new Hellboy deserves its own special circle in Dante’s inferno. Read full review
16
The PlaylistGriffin SchillerApr 11, 2019
In the end, Hellboy is a juvenile delinquent you want to slap and a colossal mess that damages the brand, the character and probably breaks the heart of its more well-intentioned cinematic forbearers. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 11, 2019
How bad can a movie be? Hellboy expands the possibilities. It’s brain-numbing and head-splitting. Read full review
10
VoxAlex Abad-SantosApr 11, 2019
While its nightmare visuals are stellar, the real villain of the movie is its rotten writing, which turns Hellboy into hanging action sequences loosely stitched together by two or three sentences and a vague suggestion of a narrative. Read full review
0
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Chandler LevackApr 12, 2019
Hellboy forces audiences to detach and glaze over because it is hateful and lazy and was made by awful filmmakers who probably don’t like movies very much. For anyone who manages to see this movie in the theatre – I’ll see you in hell. Read full review
0
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiApr 10, 2019
The race for worst movie of the year is heating up. You could even say it’s hotter than hell, now that Hellboy has taken the lead. This awful, disgusting, unfunny, idiotically plotted comic book flick offends the senses as much as the rankest subway car on the hottest summer day. Read full review
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