Good effects and action, unfortunately a bit at the expense of the believability of the story and characters

Rating: 6/10 (7 October 2004)

I am very fond of fantasy, mystery and thrillers, and this movie was entertaining and worthwhile seeing, but it was also disappointing as I had expected so much more from it.
The movie had all the elements necessary to create a fantastic rather than an ordinary movie. The actors were, in my opinion, quite right for their respective roles, and the setting and background of the story could have made for a really nice thriller following up on the Dracula myth and tradition  it could have been taken to epic levels. It seems such a pity having all this at hand and then turning out only a slightly better than average movie  good on the action and spectacular effects, but little more.
What went wrong was that the action and effects were prioritised over and above the believability of the characters and story. Too much had to happen too fast with one spectacular scene after another. Instead they should have allowed for some more acting, defining and building up the characters and story.
In many scenes there is also an undertone of humour which I find quite annoying. When I watch a thriller I wish to be shocked, scared and thrilled, not having the suspense and atmosphere killed every other minute because the director, producers, finance men or whoever thinks it is oh so trendy for their movie to be like Buffy, Ally, etc. It's like having the dessert mixed into your nice steak dinner - I prefer to have them separately, thank you.
I rated this one a 6.