Hellboy  ★★½

A DEMON hybrid created by Nazis, a Mexican vampire wrestler, giants roaming the English countryside and a witch’s house that walks on chicken legs…welcome to the world of Hellboy.

This 2019 film, the third based on the graphic novels by Mike Mignola, has had a chequered journey to cinema release.

It’s being slammed by fans of the original two films directed by Guillermo del Toro, for being a woeful adaptation and, basically, for not being directed by del Toro.

While del Toro was originally keen to make a third film, the studio unbelievably didn’t share his vision.

So del Toro walked and this also prompted Ron Pearlman, the actor who had made Hellboy his character in the fans’ eyes, to follow.

The studio did hire a decent director in Brit Neil Marshall, known for Doomsday, Dog Soldiers, The Descent and two battle-heavy episodes of Game of Thrones, and lead actor in David Harbour, currently in another television hit Stranger Things.

But, despite the script being co-written by Mongolia himself, something was lost in the translation to screen.

The film is disjointed and erratic in its story-telling to the point where little makes sense and just becomes a series of vignettes held together by the barest of through-lines.

In contrast to del Toro’s revered films, the remake is filled with gore and swearing that was meant to give the proceedings a Deadpool-like edge.

Having said all that, while the film fails in comparison to del Toro’s films it should also be judged on its own merits.

It’s nowhere near as bad as being portrayed and despite all its shortcomings I was entertained by the batshit craziness of it all.

Hellboy is a red-skinned and horned part-demon originally summoned from hell by Nazi occultists but who ends up a smart-alec good guy working with a government paranormal investigation agency run by his surrogate father, played by Ian Mcshane.

In this film he faces off against Nimue the Blood Queen whose body is being pieced together by a huge boar-like creature centuries after she was torn by order of King Arthur and Merlin. MIlla Jovovich plays her.

Along the way Hellboy confronts a trio of bumbling giants and the witch Baba Yaga who apparently once tried to bring Stalin back from the dead.

He is  aided by Sasha Lane as Alice, whom he rescued from pig fairies when she was a baby, and Daniel dae Kim as shape-shifting SWAT commander Major Daimio before ending in a smackdown  in London’s S Paul’s Cathedral.

Yep, it’s that crazy. Throw in a heap of gore and four-letter words and you get the picture.

Despite getting completely lost on several occasions, I still kind of enjoyed the madness. It’s certainly never dull.