Van Helsing

Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) travels to Transylvania to battle Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein’s monster.

Van Helsing’s biggest problem is that it tries to hard. It tries to be every kind of movie under the sun—horror, adventure, drama, comedy, even romance—and succeeds at none. Instead what you’re left with is a big mess that will leave you scratching your head over the fact that this is supposedly one man’s vision.

Watching Van Helsing, it’s clear that writer and director Stephen Sommers never decided what genre of film he was making. I’m not trying to argue that all movies need feel into a specific genre, From Dusk Till Dawn was both a gangster movie and a horror movie and it worked very well, but Van Helsing spreads itself so thin its as if it’s not even a movie at all, but rather a loose collection of set pieces.

Certainly the over-reliance on CGI that all the reviews seem to harp on doesn’t help matters any, but really that’s the least of this movie’s problems. Richard Roxburgh, who plays the main villain seems more like a poor man’s Gary Oldman, and Kate Beckinsale manages to be completely charmless which, given how weakly her character was written, I don’t think is entirely her fault.

But Van Helsing isn’t a complete waste. Hugh Jackman really seems to be trying and Shuler Hensley steals most of his scenes as Frankenstein’s monster (who’s design was clearly inspired by Young Frankenstein), and some of the visuals really are impressive. Just not impressive enough to keep you from feeling burned.