Hellboy (2019) (4 Stars)

This film is a reboot of the Hellboy franchise. I'm thankful for that. It would have been bad to make a sequel after an eleven year gap. I can't compare the film with the previous films, because it's been too long since I last watched them. I also can't compare the film with the comics on which it's based, because I've never read them. For me the film has a clean slate.

Hellboy is a demon who works as a demon hunter. He works for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence (BPRD) in America, but his job sends him all over the world. In his first job that we see in the film he travels to Mexico to bring back a missing agent, and he finds that he's become a wrestler and a vampire. That's a good combination.

The film's story begins in 513 AD. King Arthur and Merlin defeat Nimue, an eternal Blood Queen. They can't kill her, but they cut her body into six parts, put them into boxes and send them to different parts of the British Isles where it's claimed that not even Satan can find them. Maybe Satan can't, but in the present day the Russian witch Baba Yaga knows where they are, and she sends a pig monster to retrieve them and stitch the parts back together.

Meanwhile, Hellboy goes to England to help the Osiris Club, a British equivalent of the BRPD, fight against three giants. It's true that there are giants, but it's a setup, because the Osiris Club wants to kill him. They've received a prophecy that Hellboy will bring on the end of days. This is in connection with Nimue. When her body is reassembled and she regains her full power she wants to be united with Hellboy as her king.

I greatly enjoyed the film. It makes no attempts to get a lower rating by suppressing the gore, and yet the violence is never gratuitous. It's always relevant to the plot. The action is exaggerated and sometimes humorous, but it's never ridiculous. It's all logical within the parameters of demons battling for supremacy on Earth.

The post credits scene sets the stage for a sequel. I hope the sequel will come soon. Judging by what I saw today, the Hellboy franchise has a lot of promise.