This film is horrible!!!

Rating: 1/10 (9 May 2004)

I didn't want to see Van Helsing in the first place, but my friends talked me into it. I was not disappointed because I went into the film with low expectations. My expectations proved valid. What the makers of this film have done to the character of Van Helsing is a disgrace. In the original Dracula novel, Professor Van Helsing is the scientist and scholar who uses his wisdom and knowledge to defeat the evil of Dracula. Its sort of a metaphor of science's victory over superstition.
The makers of the Van Helsing films have taken this character and turned him into a long haired, pretty boy vampire hunter more akin to Buffy the Vampire Slayer than the character for which he is named. Doing this to Van Helsing would be like taking Sherlock Holmes and turning him into a Rambo like character that blasts Professor Moriarty with machine guns. I am sick of modern movie makers taking gothic horror stories, situations, and characters, and turning them into amped-up action films. Now, the one exception would be the Mummy, because they did do a good update to that character, a big improvement over the old bandage swathed skulking villain of yesteryear.
That being said, they could have made an acceptable action based film of this sort, with the Van Helsing character. You make Van Helsing true to what his character should be (the old, wise scientist), and team him up with a young Hugh Jackman character that is a vampire hunter. Brains and brawn brought together to defeat the monsters. But what they did with this film is absolutely disgraceful.
The only good thing that has come out of Van Helsing's release is that Universal has re-released many of the classic horror films from the 30's and 40's to DVD as a marketing tool. I will buy the old films on DVD. When Van Helsing comes out on DVD, it will not be on my shopping list.