Trepidations Mainly Allayed

Rating: 7/10 (12 May 2004)

The local film critic panned this movie. The audience attending laughed derisively. One of the things he complained about was the saturation of special effects. I was concerned about this. I love special effects. I love monster movies. But when I saw "Hellboy" a couple of weeks before, I had my fill. It simply failed to engage me. I was fearing the same with "Van Helsing".
In promotions for the movie, director Stephen Sommers appeared really enthusiastic about making it. It shows in the final product. "Van Helsing" is good, campy fun. I didn't mind all the special effects. The storyline managed to work out all the "relationships" between the classic movie monsters totally tongue in cheek.
Lay back and enjoy.