Cartoon characters

Rating: Null/10 (12 May 2004)

I knew there was a good chance this movie would be disappointing, but being a fan of the vampire genre I had to check it out. On the good side: Stylish sets, some good music, a somewhat interesting Frankenstein monster (we've seen this interpretation before, but still OK), pretty good werewolves. On the bad side: idiotic dialogue, uninteresting main characters, music often too loud and intrusive, CGI way overused (it has a long way to go before it replaces a good makeup job), terrible Dracula character (kind of a discount Gary Oldman), and ludicrous situations (even for a monster mash movie like this). The worst thing about the movie is that the main characters (Van Helsing and Anna) are just as cartoonish as the CGI characters. How many times can we watch them be smashed through walls or fall hundreds of feet and just get up and brush themselves off, before we stop taking them seriously? I guess I got my money's worth, but I could easily have lived without it.