Without question, the new Hellboy film was a disaster, bringing in both brutal reviews and dismal box office numbers. In the wake of all that disappointment, the movie's titular star David Harbour — who you may also know from his Stranger Things gig — is reflecting on what went wrong, leading him to put the blame on "the power of Marvel stuff."
In an interview with DigitalSpy [via IndieWire], Harbour — who replaced cinematic treasure Ron Perlman as Hellboy — admitted director Neil Marshall's Hellboy reboot had "major problems."
"We did our best, but there's so many voices that go into these things and they're not always going to work out," Harbour said. "I did what I could do and I feel proud of what I did, but ultimately I'm not in control of a lot of those things."
He then went on to talk about "Marvel stuff" and how the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe has become so powerful that audiences can't help but compare every other comic book movie to them, forcing those outliers to live — and likely die — in Marvel's mighty shadow.
"The problem that I have with comic book movies nowadays is that I think, and it's a result of the power of Marvel stuff, it's like chocolate, it's a flavour," Harbour explained. "So everybody [says] chocolate is delicious and these guys make the best chocolate. So as you judge the movies, it's like, 'Well, it's not as chocolatey as this, this does not taste like chocolate at all.' And I sort of want a world where there's more flavours than just comparisons to chocolate. So in that way when Hellboy is viewed on the chocolate spectrum, it does very poorly. That being said, it also has major problems."
So yes, he did just put Hellboy on the "chocolate spectrum," only to then follow that up with the classic "airplane movie" defence.
"I think as a rental or as a movie that you see on an airplane, I think you'd be like, 'Oh that was fun' because it's a fun movie, and I think it was unfairly bludgeoned as a result of these comparisons."
Let's hope Harbour has better luck with the return of Stranger Things this summer than he did with Hellboy.
In an interview with DigitalSpy [via IndieWire], Harbour — who replaced cinematic treasure Ron Perlman as Hellboy — admitted director Neil Marshall's Hellboy reboot had "major problems."
"We did our best, but there's so many voices that go into these things and they're not always going to work out," Harbour said. "I did what I could do and I feel proud of what I did, but ultimately I'm not in control of a lot of those things."
He then went on to talk about "Marvel stuff" and how the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe has become so powerful that audiences can't help but compare every other comic book movie to them, forcing those outliers to live — and likely die — in Marvel's mighty shadow.
"The problem that I have with comic book movies nowadays is that I think, and it's a result of the power of Marvel stuff, it's like chocolate, it's a flavour," Harbour explained. "So everybody [says] chocolate is delicious and these guys make the best chocolate. So as you judge the movies, it's like, 'Well, it's not as chocolatey as this, this does not taste like chocolate at all.' And I sort of want a world where there's more flavours than just comparisons to chocolate. So in that way when Hellboy is viewed on the chocolate spectrum, it does very poorly. That being said, it also has major problems."
So yes, he did just put Hellboy on the "chocolate spectrum," only to then follow that up with the classic "airplane movie" defence.
"I think as a rental or as a movie that you see on an airplane, I think you'd be like, 'Oh that was fun' because it's a fun movie, and I think it was unfairly bludgeoned as a result of these comparisons."
Let's hope Harbour has better luck with the return of Stranger Things this summer than he did with Hellboy.
