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Back Shelf Beauties
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Van Helsing It has werewolves, Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and Hugh Jackman kicking some booty. What else do you need? Hugh Jackman stars as Van Helsing - a secretive monster hunter in the late 1800's. While he works for the Vatican and vanquishes creatures of the night to make the world safer, Van Helsing is considered a murderer because very few know whom he is working for or what he does. He has been ordered to go to Transylvania, where an ancient gypsy family is battling the evil Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh). The Vampire King has been winning, and if the last two members of the Valerius family, Velkan (Will Kemp) and Anna (Kate Beckinsale who always does her best work in tight leather), fail to kill him, no one from the family can make it into heaven, while Dracula will be free to unleash his master plan. What is Dracula's big plan, and why is Frankenstein's Monster (Shuler Hensley) so important? Van Helsing suffers from one major problem, and several smaller ones, but is still worth seeing. This movie could be a very scary horror film, but director Stephen Sommers inserts so many jokes that he almost loses us. Most of the time, it's funny and helps relieve the dramatic tension, but at other times it feels forced, especially with Dracula's first few scenes, which feel more like a comedy or parody. You can see the contrast when these scenes are placed directly next to Van Helsing's earlier scenes, where the hero is introduced as a brooding guy who doesn't know much about his past and seems trapped in the life he leads. Sommers is more consistent with those scenes and takes a while to set a tone with the Dracula stuff that matches the rest of the movie. My other problem is the weak, but not dreadful, script. For a movie that doesn't focus much on plot or characters, Sommers, who also wrote the film, puts in plenty of both. While he provides an interesting backstory that explains his version of the origins of all of the major characters like Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, Van Helsing and others, those stories are very cursory and thrown in because we must have them instead of using them to have an impact on the movie and the audience. The first hour of Van Helsing has enough story to be an entire movie unto itself if Sommers developed it better, but he relies on great special effects and action to grab our attention, which doesn't provide much dialogue for the characters and necessitates all of the characters instead of a rich focus on a few. In the middle of all the fights, vampires flying around, and werewolves chasing people, Jackman and Shuler put in good performances that go a long way towards making these characters sequel-worthy. Although it isn't explored enough, Frankenstein's Monster and Van Helsing form an interesting bond as two outsiders who just want to live. Jackman is equally strong whether delivering the sassy one-liners or doing the "brooding hero" thing, and has enough screen presence to stand up to a character like Dracula, while Shuler understands Frankenstein's Monster's naiveté and the fear he feels after everyone he has ever come into contact with has chased him, wanted to use him, or tried to kill him. It may seem silly that such a huge monster is so frail, but that is the compelling aspect of Frankenstein's Monster throughout literature and in the movies, when it is done correctly. Van Helsing is an action film that will appeal to those fans. It has great special effects of vampires becoming bats, people turning into werewolves and lots of chasing and fighting scenes. If you want the traditional Dracula-type movie, look elsewhere. 2 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2004 - WaffleMovies.com
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