Hellboy: David Harbour reveals how the critical reception made him feel

David Harbour, the star of this year’s Hellboy remake, talked about his experience with the film’s backlash and how it reflects on the state of film criticism as a form today.

Hellboy star David Harbour, who played the title character in Neil Marshall’s reboot of Mike Mignola’s demon-slaying hellspawn, is moving forward in his career. He returns in the hit Netflix series this month and landed a role in the much-talked-about Black Widow solo film.

Time since the release of Hellboy has also allowed him to reflect on and process the critical and audience reaction to Lionsgate’s flop. In an interview with Uproxx, Harbour revealed he took a bit of an emotional hit from its reception during the short theatrical run and admitted there is a sour taste in the aftermath:

"“I’m a human being. So, I don’t get away scot-free. It hurts. I, of course, am invested wholeheartedly in terms of what I do to the best of my ability.”"

Harbour talked with Digital Spy last month about the film’s lackluster performance and the clashing creative input during its making. He cited comparisons to the dominant Marvel Studios brand as one thing that dragged the movie down, saying when viewed on one spectrum something like Hellboy doesn’t do as well as a franchise from one of the bigger publishing houses.

Also, the actor admitted he thinks he did his best despite the circumstances he could not control, reiterating that sentiment talking with Uproxx. He added it was a learning experience:

"“The other thing, though, about things that don’t exactly go the spectacular stupendous blockbuster way, is that you learn a lot and when things do go a blockbuster way, you tend to not learn very much. So, I think that I learned a tremendous amount.”"

He further states he misses the nuance that used to exist in the culture and believes the polarization over Hellboy, and other releases, is a result of modern film criticism gone wild:

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"“But I think that criticism has become wildly irresponsible. I think that’s the influence of Rotten Tomatoes and stuff. Like, you can write a nuanced review and then you have to submit it to Rotten Tomatoes as either “thumbs up or thumbs down so we can calculate it.” What’s important about criticism is what’s someone’s attempting to do and whether or not they achieve their intention. Your personal opinion about whether it’s good or bad is, like, I think that everyone’s entitled to that but the critic, in their essence, I think has a responsibility to the art form itself. I feel like that’s where we’re lacking. That’s with the Yelp reviews and everything, it’s just everybody can say it’s good or it’s bad. The problem is the mob mentality of these social media things is, in my mind, making the flavors very binary.”"

Fortunately, not all moviegoers detested the film and some, who are comic readers, liked Harbour’s take and wanted more:

"“there are tons of people that come up to me that love the movie and love the dark Hellboy that we brought and wanted more of that. Really, fans of the comic and stuff like that. I don’t want to take anything away from that.”"

He shared praise as well for Marvel — whom he compared to Cadillac — and their efforts to give Black Widow a standalone adventure. Australian indie filmmaker Cate Shortland is directing and Harbour continued in expressing his admiration for her work:

"“Marvel, they’re like a Cadillac. They know what they’re doing. The other interesting thing is they hired this director, Cate Shortland, who’s a real indie director. She is such a good director. And so brilliant, that whatever movie she’s directing, I’d want to be a part of. So something like that comes along and you’re just like, ‘I have to do this.’ And it takes up like five months.”"

Black Widow is currently in production though not much is known about its intricate details except that it’s a prequel filming in Norway. Most everything is kept under tight wraps by Marvel. Not even Harbour’s role has been publicized, but it is considered someone major. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pough (Fighting With My Family), Rachel Weisz, and Harbour, Black Widow is directed by Cate Shortland. It does not yet have a firm release date.

Hellboy makes its way to Amazon Prime this month, and Harbour reprises his role as Chief Jim Hopper on season 3 of Stranger Things, now available to stream on Netflix.