VanHelsing

Ealasaid/ May 17, 2004/ Movie Reviews and Features

Originally written for The Milpitas Post
Directed by: Steven Sommers
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham, Shuler Hensley, Kevin J. O’Connor
Rated: Rated PG-13 for nonstop creature action violence and frightening images, and for sensuality.
Parental Notes: Although the monster action is indeed nonstop, this is an innocuous movie for teens and preteens. It’s not overly gross and although there’s sensuality, it’s not excessive.

It seems like every year the summer action movie season starts earlier and earlier. It’s barely May and already we’ve seen “Hellboy” and “Kill Bill, Vol. 2” hit the box offices. Now “Van Helsing” is out, and it’s a doozy. This tale of monster mayhem is another homage to the old Universal horror films from Steven Sommers (“The Mummy,” “The Mummy Returns”). Although it’s hampered by an overly huge special effects budget, it’s a lot of fun.

The film opens with a black and white sequence straight out of one of the old Universal movies. Enraged villagers attack the castle Dr. Frankenstein (Samuel West) is borrowing from Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh), but not before Frankenstein brings his monster to life and learns that the undead Count has dastardly plans for the creature. The villagers kill the doctor and the monster, but Dracula and his three wives (Elena Anaya, Silvia Colloca, and Josie Maran) escape.

A year later, one Gabriel Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) dukes it out with Mr. Hyde (Robbie Coltrane) in and on the beautiful Notre Dame de Paris cathedral (shades of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” anyone?). Van Helsing’s superiors, the enigmatic and inter-religious Order, are displeased: not only did he fail to bring Hyde back alive but he smashed a centuries-old stained glass window. However, Van Helsing is soon dispatched to Transylvania to help Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), the last scion of a family sworn to defeat Dracula. Friar Carl (David Wenham), a weapons expert, is sent along to help.

There are plenty of spectacular fights along the way before we finally get to learn Dracula’s dastardly plan. The special effects aren’t bad, but they’re way overused. It’s almost as though Sommers was given a huge effects budget and wanted to use it all even if it wasn’t really necessary. There are a multitude of transformations, full-body makeup, and tons of CGI monsters. Strangely, it’s less creepy than the restrained effects of Sommer’s “Mummy” films. It’s easy to spend some sequences admiring the effects instead of believing in them.

That said, this is a real roller coaster ride of a movie. The fights are virtually non-stop, and what breathers we get from the action are almost always full of either suspense or a rather dry humor (Kevin J. O’Connor’s Ygor gets the best line, when Dracula asks him why he’s torturing the Monster. In a meta-reference to the old Frankenstein movies, Ygor finally says, “it’s what I do.”).

Oddly enough, for a movie paying homage to the cheesy Universal and Hammer horror films, the acting is actually decent. Jackman is an expert when it comes to angst and action, and he gives us a straightforward fighter kind of guy. In fact, Van Helsing’s character owes a big debt to Wolverine, Jackman’s character in the “X-Men” films. Both have amnesia, both have amazing skills, and both can kick the butt of just about anything, no matter how big or ugly.

Between this and “Underworld” Beckinsale is in danger of being typecast as the leather-wearing, monster slaying babe. It’s not a great role, but Beckinsale manages to toe the line between serious and tongue-in-cheek without too much trouble.

Meanwhile, Wenham fusses and blinks as Van Helsing’s sidekick. It’s fun to see Wenham in a role so very different from the one he had in “Lord of the Rings.” Carl is everything Faramir wasn’t – he’s not a fighter, and he’s prone to intellectual delight in puzzle solving. He is Q to Van Helsing’s James Bond, and although the reference is slightly out of place in a 17th century setting, it’s fun to see the odd sorts of weapons he cooks up.

The monsters are pretty well-done, too. Roxburgh’s Dracula is a svelte charmer whose look owes a lot to films like “Vampire Hunter D, ” while the wolfman and Frankenstein’s Monster are tragic creatures doomed by their own nature. There are one or two unintentionally funny sequences, like when Dracula comforts his terrified brides while they all hang upside down from the ceiling, but overall these are effectively villainous figures.

“Van Helsing” is not a great film, but it’s an entertaining one and a good way to beat the occasional heat wave. Better yet, it has spawned a threesome of tie-in boxed set DVDs featuring the old Universal horror films the film was inspired by. While one might wish Sommers had stuck with just one monster at a time, this triple-threat is worth seeing if you like creepy action/horror films.