The first reactions to a test screening of the new Hellboy movie are in and so far they are not promising.
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DanielRPK on Twitter reports that he has heard from some who were in the audience at the first test screening for Hellboy. What he has heard is not good.
“The reactions from test screenings for Hellboy so far are…pretty bad,” DanielRPK tweeted. “Which is a shame, I was really looking forward to it.”
Others echoed DanielRPK’s report, with Skyler Shuler only adding that star David Harbour actually does pretty well as Hellboy.
“Daniel heard right,” Shuler tweeted. “I’ve also heard bad things about this film…Harbour is apparently pretty decent though.”
KC Walsh also says that Harbour gives it his best effort, but also lists several other big problems with the film.
“Harbor tries his best but the dialogue, villain and story seem to be lacking,” Walsh tweeted.
It is worth noting that this was a test screening. The entire purpose of these kinds of early screening is to course correct while there’s still time. Then again, if the problems are really as all-encompassing as these reports seem to suggest there may be very little left to do to salvage the project.
Hellboy creator Mike Mignola helped write the film’s script and has praised the casting of Harbour as the titular hero.
“It was really interesting with David because we met very briefly for 20 minutes when he was in town,” Mignola told io9 in June. “Then he would text me questions periodically with questions, like, ‘Are there any animals you thought of in the way Hellboy moves?’ And we were texting back and forth one night a lot about crazy stuff like that, and I finally said, ‘Dude, I am tired of typing, just call me.’ We must have had this two-hour conversation where we got into the way I grew up, what my brothers were like and all this stuff that fed into what Hellboy is. The attitudes, the characters, and stuff like that… and hopefully, it didn’t f— things up, because it was way more information and backstory to the creative process than anyone would ever need. But it did make for an interesting, long phone call. And I know David has his own ideas about how to interpret the character, but it was really nice that we had this one, really long conversation about where this stuff came from.”
Do you think there’s still hope for the new Hellboy movie? Let us know in the comments!
Hellboy opens in theaters on April 12, 2019.
