Why Hellboy Failed

1. Even The Action And CGI Don't Hold Up

These post-production woes could also explain Hellboy's poor action and shoddy CGI. There are flashes of some inspired superhero bouts in here, with a fight against a group of giants being a particular highlight. In this scene, it actually feels like a set-piece that had been planned out, storyboarded and prepared for maximum impact. Unfortunately, this is an anomaly, and the vast majority of the action comes across like it was handed off to the second unit, choppily edited together with poor effects work that muddies the flow of the battles and, at times, even makes them difficult to follow.

The CGI in general is kind of terrible as well. One emotional moment right at the end is hampered by this Scorpion King-esque render of one of the characters. It’s frustrating because there’s some really great physical prosthetics work in there; Hellboy looks awesome, and some of the monster designs are so well realised. It’s just when these real animatronics and the make up gives way to the CGI, which sometimes even looks a little unfinished.

And that’s the most annoying thing about Hellboy. There are brief flashes where you see the film it could have been. That said, while executive meddling no doubt didn’t help the end result, I don’t know if it would have been a great film even if Marshall had full creative control - there's just too many issues at the core of it.