YMMV / Hellboy (2019)

• Americans Hate Tingle: If the reception of the film is already divisive in its native U.S., the reception outside America is even worse. The most notable case is Mexico, partially for being the home of the previous Hellboy films' director Guillermo del Toro, and also because the film was overshadowed in the box office by a local Mexican film, (No Manches, Frida 2), something that's rather unusual there. ^Explanation With some very venerable exceptions, most Mexican films since the end of the golden era of Mexican cinema (1920s to 1960s) rarely were able to compete, much less lead, the local box office against either Hollywood or other foreign films, partly because of either lack of advertising or because most of these films past the 1960s were terrible shlockfests unable to even make an earning, and while the Mexican movie industry has managed to make some good movies in later part of the 1990s, most Mexican films were and are still unable to compete against foreign productions. The fact Cultural Cringe is prevalent in Mexican culture doesn't help.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: The movie is a Darker and Edgier reboot adapting a character that had already appeared in two movies. The fact those were modest hits at best showed the demonic anti-hero fighting supernatural threats was not exactly the most mainstream superhero, and the producers ensured more things against the movie with a Darker and Edgier \ Bloodier and Gorier approach giving high content ratings that limited the audience, while also driving away existing fans who were still upset at the cancellation of Hellboy 3. The movie arrived in theaters only to burn out very quickly, making it pretty clear audiences were not excited for this reboot. Not helping matters was the fact that the film seemingly couldn't decide if it was trying to be Darker and Edgier or Denser and Wackier.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The Stinger of the film centers around Hellboy getting drunk at Bruttenholm's grave, where is he consoled by the ghost of Lobster Johnson, a vigilante from WWII who only had a minor cameo in a flashback. This was clearly meant to be a Sequel Hook, but the film's disastrous box office performance means that it will never pay off.
• Complete Monster: Nimue, the Blood Queen, is a tyrant seeking the death of all humanity to build a new Eden out of the bloody ashes. Betrayed by her own coven and her body hacked apart, Nimue has a changeling named Gruagach reunite her pieces, proceeding to horrifically kill the majority of her old coven and unleash a plague upon London when she's whole again. Nimue eventually kills Gruagach after his use wears out, and after her attempt to seduce Hellboy fails, Nimue spitefully cuts the throat of his father Professor Bruttenholm to drive him into insane rage and allow him to become the beast of the apocalypse, unleashing horrific monsters on the world through his power to horribly butcher all humanity.
• Continuity Lock-Out: This film attempts to be a more faithful adaptation of the source material than the del Toro films were, with several scenes lifted straight from the comics. The problem with this, however, is that the film adapts the Changeling story, the Werejaguar story, the Wild Hunt story and the "Queen of Blood" story, which was the penultimate arc in the comics. The film simply doesn't have enough runtime to flesh out all the Call Backs and Continuity Nods, which makes several scenes feel like Big Lipped Alligator Moments to casual viewers, and hopelessly rushed to those that are familiar with the comics.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Even some of the more negative reviews highlight Gruagach as a fairly interesting character in his own right despite not even being the Big Bad, mainly due to the fact that he has better backstory, more personality and more fleshed out motivations than Nimue's, with her backstory, personality and motivation being "bring about the Apocalypse" and that's it, as well as Milla Jovovich not exactly giving a stellar performance.
• Memetic Mutation: Heckboy.^Explanation A marquee for a Roxy, TN movie theatre drive-in censored the film's title into "Heckboy" due to being near an elementary school and church, and the image quickly went viral on the internet.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Crossed with Visual Effects of Awesome, during the climax the demons of Hell appear in London and begin tearing it and its' population apart. In the limited screentime they appear, its obvious each one is uniquely designed and looks visually horrifying.
  • Baba Yaga. Who despite one scene is often noted as one of the best parts of the movie, thanks to being equal parts repulsive and nightmare inducing.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • When Hellboy comes to on the floor of the elevator that takes him down to Baba Yaga's realm, his horn stumps can be seen moving on his forehead when they briefly scrape along the floor, revealing them as the glued-on prosthetics they are.
  • The Giant fight scene is filled with this. In no particular order, Hellboy’s stone fist switches hands, his coat flop off of his back and you can see the zipper to his bodysuit, it’s painfully obvious the stone fist is rubber, the tall tree that Hellboy uses to impale the second giant is very clearly not rooted to the ground, the switches between practical effects and CGI are jarring and easy to spot, etc.
• Squick: There are a few noteworthy moments:
  • The opening shot of a crow plucking an eye out of a dead man’s skull, followed by pus oozing out.
  • Baba Yaga sealing her deal with Hellboy with a kiss. It is more nauseating than the first example.
    Hellboy: How do you have hair on your tongue?
  • A good part of the climax that features Nimue's giant demons skinning people alive.
• Tainted by the Preview: In that many fans were turned off by the first trailer's emphasis on comedy, which many saw as detrimental as it seemed to paint the movie as a Self-Parody rather than a Darker and Edgier reboot. And while the ratio is not too terrible, the amount of dislikes the trailer got on Youtube is noticeable.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: While most critics have bashed the movie as a whole, said critics have also gone out of their way to praise David Harbour, who does his damnedest to save the movie from itself despite the immense pressure of having to follow up Ron Perlman's beloved performance.

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