Good movie but grossly overrated

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Love it or hate it. Take it or leave it. It's one of those movies; it wears it's purpose on it's sleeve. And it doesn't take a genius to figure out what that purpose means to Stephen Sommers. This film comes off the success of his rendition of The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, equally hammy in its vision and scope. It's too bad this film was a flop at the box office. Who knows what else he had in store for us.

Ever since Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., and Boris Karloff graced the silver screen, audiences have loved to be scared of mythical monsters such as Dracula, the Wolfman, and Frankenstein respectively. Van Helsing is a great throwback to the campiness of those film yet it fails to capture the fear those films instilled in their audience. I will admit that I am biased towards this film because of its subject material and due to its sporting of Hugh Jackman as the legendary vampire hunter Van Helsing. When Universal Studios attempted to start their Dark Universe first with Dracula: Untold and then The Mummy, they failed miserably because both films simply took themselves too seriously while still not calling themselves horror. Van Helsing doesn't sport this problem and is a better movie because of it. My two biggest issues with the film is that at times it feels disjointed as though it is trying to fit too much into the story and the CGI is very spotty, sometimes appearing to be decent for the time and others making it obvious where they spent their special effects budget. Hugh Jackman does a decent job of acting however this was apparently before he got his accent under control. Kate Beckinsale does the best job out of everyone in the film, showing off her emotional range as an actress as well as her skills with an accent. Dracula, played by Richard Roxburgh, is a passable interpretation of the infamous Count, however he is never scary through the entirety of the film. Dracula's three brides are all very over the top with their acting and more annoying then anything, as is the over-the-top performance of Shuler Hensley as Frankenstein's Monster. Rounding out the case is Friar Carl, played by David Wenham, who's main purpose is for comedic relief and story exposition. This movie is by no mean's a good movie, hence my two and a half star rating, however despite its faults it is a fun film for any occasion with a nostalgic callback to some of my favorite monster movies.

This isn't a perfect movie by any means. But it is way better that it's reputation, it does it's job way better than most other modern attempts to reboot the old universal monsters! It is cheesy but in a good tongue in cheek way, and a fun adventure with beloved characters. It even begins as a black and white movie as an homage to Universal's classic horror cycle, and this is not where the clever winks and nods end. It is full of action, adventure and occasional comedy. This movie can be summed up by two words: Pretty cool!

Stephen Sommers goes for broke with this big-budget monster mash, filmed in exactly the same vein as his MUMMY remake and just as disappointing. Things begin quite promisingly with a homage to the Universal classics of the 1930s but rapidly descend into inanity, as one hurried action sequence follows another with no logic, reason or plot to be seen at any point. The film is noisy, special effect-filled and totally lacking in characterisation or story, as superhero Van Helsing (renamed Gabriel – did they not have the rights to the character or something?) battles not only Dracula but werewolves and Frankenstein's Monster too (incorrectly called Frankenstein in one scene).The movie lasts for an astonishing two hours without offering anything new at all – you really will have seen everything that's on offer here. There are blatant rip-offs throughout and a lack of common sense on the part of the director that is really annoying – you can just picture him saying "let's have that woman fall off the roof and jump down a tree! cool!" Hugh Jackman is pretty wooden as the hero, but who can blame him given the material, whilst Kate Beckinsale does ridiculous rather well. Richard Roxburgh, an actor who I really liked in MOULIN ROUGE, is similarly awful as camp goth-vamp Dracula, whilst David Wenham, gives the best performance as the comic relief. The special effects are wicked, as you would expect given the budget – those werewolf transformations are particularly good – although the flying female vampires look a little too CGI for my liking. Sadly, the said effects don't save what is essentially a dog of a film.