It's bearable

Rating: 5/10 (6 January 2005)

This movie's not too great. I had a rough day with my college finals last summer, and so I decided to ease my mind at the theaters. I didn't expect much out of Van Helsing after reading the bad reviews on IMDb, but I was really in the mood for a fantasy/adventure film. So I watched this anyway despite of the negativity surrounding it. Sure enough the acting was way over the top and melodramatic, the plot was thin, and the story loses logical sense at times.
Maybe some people liked Frankenstein, but I thought his role in this movie was absurd. So absurd it was funny that he alone held the key to bringing the born undead to life. I suppose it makes a little sense since he was made up of corpses, but I still felt Frankenstein was forced into this movie to make it a monster fest.
Also Carl reminded me so much of Q in James Bond when he was introducing to Van Helsing the weapons at their disposal. I thought the similarities were hilarious.
Then there was the scene at the end with Van Helsing still in his wolf form holding Anna and wailing. It was suppose to be sad, but it was so weird to see a huge hairy wolf passionately holding a woman wearing a revealing outfit that it was rather funny.
Lastly the shot of Anna smiling from heaven was just too cheesy.
With all this said, I did find this movie bad to the extent of being entertaining. Or maybe I was just really depressed that day. Whatever the case, I took this film as a comedy, and laughed it off. Overall: 5/10.