Van Helsing (2004)
Director: Stephen Sommers
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale, Richard Roxburgh
Synopsis:
A monster hunter for the Church is sent to Romania to protect the last survivor of a family whose bloodline has sworn to kill Count Dracula.
Impressions:
When this came out, I was intrigued by the idea of a big monster mash sendup to the classic Universal Monsters. However, when I saw it in theaters, I didn't like it all that much, and I'll be honest with you, my gripes haven't changed much in the past 20 years, but I do have a better appreciation of its charm points. Taking the monster mash premise and making it a big action adventure in the spirit of director Stephen Sommers' earlier adaptation of The Mummy, capitalizing on Hugh Jackman's popularity and the eye candy appeal (and somewhat variable action girl chops) of Kate Beckinsale is indeed a decent formula for a crowd-pleaser with general audiences. Turning Van Helsing into a sort of Victorian Era paranormal James Bond with all sorts of gadgets and such makes for some interesting action set pieces (and the action set pieces are liberally sprinkled throughout the runtime) is a fun idea, even if the creation of Gabriel Van Helsing sacrifices pretty much everything that made Abraham Van Helsing interesting as a character. If you like camp, the big hammy performances of actors like Richard Roxburgh as Dracula and Shuler Hensley as Frankenstein's monster will likely entertain (though Dracula's brides are more likely to make you cringe). As a roller coaster ride, it's pretty good (with a nice adventurous score by Alan Silvestri to really sell it), but a lot of the setup with the characters either gets paid off poorly or not at all. If you don't expect more from it than what it is, it's a fairly fun watch. If I was judging it just on my opinion, I'd take it down a notch, but considering how the average viewer is likely to take the film, I'll be generous and recommend giving it a watch.
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