Starring David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim

Directed by Neil Marshall

Lionsgate, out now

Big red Cambion (half-human/half-demon) Hellboy is enlisted by the BPRD to save the world from Blood Queen Nimue.

Based on Mike Mignola’s Dark Horse comic book creation, Neil Marshall’s (The Descent) reboot of Guillermo del Toro’s movie series is sadly a generic mess. Inferior to both the 2004 and 2008 films, it’s curious that it took ten years to create something so uninspiring, and actually feels like a hastily-created cable TV version.

The greatest shame is that David Harbour (Stranger Things) is very good as our muscular anti-hero, a brawnier version than Ron Perlman, sporting an impressive jaw and wielding his Right Arm of Doom fist with conviction. Ian McShane is good value as Doctor Broom, stepping in to the role previously played by the late John Hurt, but it’s hardly a stretch, having essayed similar mentor characters in Deadwood, John Wick and American Gods.

Sasha Lane (upcoming US version of Utopia) is good support as Alice, replacing Liz Sherman from the previous movie and Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) is suitably kickass as BPRD operative Ben Daimio, though with a dodgy Brit accent. But what were they thinking with Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil) as Nimue? She’s just another one of those pointless villains that we’ve seen in The Mummy, Superman Vs Batman, Justice League, X-Men: Apocalypse, etc ad infinitum, stomping around, causing CGI mayhem, and yet still leaving no discernible impression.

Perhaps the greatest disappointment, aside from the fact that it wasn’t directed by del Toro and starring Perlman, is that they’ve taken a fantasy series and turned it into full-on bloody horror. There’s gallons of the Kensington gore, but it’s used with so little finesse or craft that it becomes tiresome as yet another limb is torn off, body ripped in two or eye gouged out. I’m rather partial to an inventive, gory screen demise, but this not the version of Hellboy I want to see. The story is all over the place, and so are the characters, who one moment are in the New Forest, then under St Paul’s Cathedral, then some cliffs in Cornwall…(?) I stopped caring. Oh, and let’s not even mention the awful CGI warthog voiced by Stephen Graham – about as convincing as Bebop in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies.

Verdict: A bloody mess that’s all over the place. Some witty asides and interesting character design notwithstanding, this will no doubt sink the franchise for some time, if not forever. At least we still have the del Toro versions. 4/10

Nick Joy